The Summer didn’t actually quite start off right or like it normally does. One of my favorite traditions is to be in NYC on the 4th of July. Even before I moved to NYC I would often come to NY for the 4th. Not just for its patriotic value but there really is no better place to be on the 4th of July in America than in NYC. And last year it really peaked by being on a boat in the Hudson River right above the fireworks. You think Macy’s does parades well, they also do fireworks all right too.
Well through a series of events and personal reasons I ended up breaking my 8-year streak of being in NYC for the 4th and spent it in Fort Worth instead and Andy Griffith died that same day.. All was not lost however as I did get to spend it with my best friend Chris and his family so that was really great. The Summer really started to heat up and I joined a really crazy tour and other shenanigans. Let’s get started:
Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival w/ Motorhead, Slayer, Anthrax & more –
Through a series of changes that you will see starting in 2013 Trickykid is currently in transition to a different phase of our operation and you will see what I mean soon. For now, and through the work I did with the Big 4 concerts last year on both coasts I was invited to take part in doing some press work and conduct some backstage documentation for the tour’s website as well as this one. It was setup through my friend Steveo with Motorhead and off to the races I went. I went to a handful of shows on this tour for this footage but for the sake of this entry so it doesn’t get too redundant we are going to focus on two stops. Oklahoma City and in my hometown of Dallas, TX.
July 10th – Gexa Energy Pavillion – Dallas, TX
I had made plans to take my buddy Ryan to this. We hadn’t seen much of each other since his engagement this past January and this tour is tailor-made for his taste and I was looking forward to us seeing Motorhead together and having a fun day in the sun looking at all the girls, fans and general social craziness that can be found at a Metal festival. However I wouldn’t wish an all-day outdoor anything in Texas in July on anyone and normally I wouldn’t flaunt my credentials but there was no way I was doing this without uninterrupted shade, free booze/water and our own bathroom.
This type of treatment makes Ryan incredibly uncomfortable to which I equally tease him but yet totally appreciate him not wanting to be a prima donna nor get in anyone’s way or participate in social mobility nonsense. Having said that it was really hot and he was smart not to resist and we had some fun moments.
As I Lay Dying
At his insistence we got there early enough to catch the band As I Lay Dying who were pretty good and not someone I would normally have paid any attention to.
Its great having him here for this because he knows so much more about this stuff than I that I learn and see things I might normally would have missed.
Anthrax
Up next was Anthrax and one of three acts of the day we were most anticipating and whom opted to headline the second stage on this stop which we appreciated. I was working with Anthrax last year and since their unbelievable return to form with the return of Joey Belladonna and the jaw dropping Worship Music I have seen them a bunch lately but was still no less excited today and to see them with Ryan.
I was certain that being in Dallas (Dimebag’s hometown) and today being Ronnie James Dio’s birthday that they had no choice but to play the song In the End from the new LP that memorializes them both. However, longtime drummer Charlie Benante, who despite the band’s recent successes seems to be suffering from one personal strife after the other was replaced for this tour by Shadows Fall drummer Jason Bittner, and I guess they just hadn’t had the time to rehearse it.
Though the show was great and I was glad to see them I felt in spite of Benante’s absence it was a squandered opportunity to not play In the End.
Setlist –
Caught in a Mosh
Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover)
Fight ‘Em Till You Can’t
Antisocial (Trust cover)
Indians
Madhouse
I Am the Law
Motorhead
We now had over an hour to kill before it was time for Motorhead on the mainstage which was great for us. At festivals like this with a hundred bands and half a dozen stages, you find yourself running all over the place and it can feel more like shopping on Black Friday than attending a rock show and this would also be our first opportunity to take advantage of the credentials the Motorhead camp had so graciously provided us with.
I take Ryan backstage and it occurs to me that he’s been coming to this venue for 25 years and this is first time backstage here. Bout time right?
However as I mentioned earlier, Ryan could give two shits about any of that crap for which I am really grateful for as I have made the mistake of taking people I thought I could trust to be cool backstage only to watch them turn into total fools once access was reached. The ironic thing is that it only inspires me to want to take him backstage just that much more. I also have to admit I enjoy putting him in harmless situations that he finds uncomfortable.
One of the first of the day was as we walked into the catering tent to see what should be a normal site of seeing the entire Anthrax crew and some of the other bands he recognized having lunch he kinda freaked and I loved it as we were sitting at the end of that same table Anthrax singer Joey Belladonna had to put his hands on Ryan’s shoulders to get by him on his way to the soda fountain and the look of surrealism on his face. Good times.
But hey we weren’t here to pander, we were hear to rawk and it was almost time for Motorhead. We attempted to watch sidestage but their were politics in place they were preventing such access so we decided to see what our seats were like and headed out to see the most anticipated act for us of the day. They had canceled back in March due to Lemmy being ill and we were ready.
Obviously as you can our seats were freaking awesome (thanks again Steve-O) and the began to kick serious ass as always with Bomber. In my opinion the most consistent and just fucking awesome band in the history of Rock and Roll. I’m sure their are other examples but just as an ambassador of zero bullshit kick ass rock and roll by the people, for the people, I’m not sure their is a better example of that ever than of Lemmy and Motorhead.
Setlist –
Bomber
Damage Case
I Know How to Die
Stay Clean
Over the Top
The Chase Is Better Than the Catch
Going to Brazil
The One to Sing the Blues
Killed by Death
Ace of Spades
Overkill
Slayer
Again an easy breezy day of fun as after the serious ass-kicking we received from Motorhead, all we had to do was just rehydrate and get ready to see Slayer.
It was a little funny a few minutes before the we ran into Tom Araya (singer/bassist) backstage walking around with this super hot blond girl that Ryan recognized as his wife Sandra. Here he is about to pummel 10k metalheads with some of the most brutal music ever written from amplifiers that have been arranged in an inverted cross that actually spew FIRE, but just a few mins before we saw him looking totally in love haha.
Jeff Hanneman is still recovering from necrotizing fasciitis that has kept him out of action for now over a year and a half so Gary Holt from Exodus was still in his place. Show was still totally brutal and they played some old songs we hadn’t heard in awhile.
Setlist –
Disciple
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
Die by the Sword
Mandatory Suicide
Altar of Sacrifice
Jesus Saves
Seasons in the Abyss
Hell Awaits
Dead Skin Mask
Angel of Death
Encore:
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Slipknot
Ryan and I like fun but we are not Slipknot people – In the annals of our storytelling one that gets tossed around quite a bit was about another tour a few years ago that also featured Slayer and Slipknot. The ill-fated Tattoo the Earth tour that was so grossly under attended that by the time Slipknot came on Ryan and I were the ONLY ones sitting in the spacious lawn area for general admission. Apparently your band name had to start with the letter “S” to be on that tour as every band was like System of a Down, Sevendust, etc, and the aforementioned Slayer & Slipknot. We stuck around that night to see one “song” or as I would later dub it one “beating” just so that we could say that we saw it. Another “s” word we are not into is snobs so we stuck around again on this night to see if they had improved –
Update: They had not, in fact they were somehow even more terrible and we used this distraction to take off early. We contemplated seeing Prong who were playing just down the street but we had been here all day and had our fill.
A week later into the tour I had decided that the press was getting to become too much to do on my own. I had recently connected with old buddy Joey (see this entry here) who I learned has a great podcast that you can listen to here – I had really missed my friendship with Joey and wanted to give him and his show a break plus I needed the help so he was my natural choice to cover the city nearest him which was Oklahoma City. Joey is also a monstrous fan of all these bands his excitement was also an added bonus.
We had discussed details for a few weeks and it was clear that he was as nervous as he was excited but that’s kinda his method of operation so we went with it and I was glad that he was excited. Originally his co-host was also going to join us but then that was relegated to his live-in girlfriend Nola, who in a small-town tradition come to find out is the younger sister of the Brothers Mitchell, some old friends of mine who’s faces have graced this blog quite a few times.
I am a nerd without apology, but I had def met my match in Joey & Nola as these two veer more closely into The Big Bang Theory level of nerdiness with their suggestions for time-passing travel games and sights to see on the way, though I was grateful for and enjoyed it all. One of the stops was:
July 18th – Zoo Amphitheater – Oklahoma City, OK
It was great that we were not in any hurry and the day was very relaxing. We even had time to visit a couple of local record stores and have a nice lunch before heading over to the venue. That was probably pretty wise too, as when we got there, the thermometer onstage read *119 – Everyone was saying that of all places they couldn’t believe that OKC was the hottest stop of the tour, hotter than Arizona even.
I was able to secure us a parking spot in the confined Artists Area that was super convenient but had to walk all the way back around to claim our credentials for which I did solo as to not have to put them through that unnecessarily.
When I left Will Call I discovered that I had 3 tickets but only 2 All Access passes. I go to the back to find Natasha, my press contact and when I do, she tells me that all press activities for the day have been canceled besides shooting and reviewing the shows. Meaning that all of the press conference and one-on-one stuff that we had been preparing for was now off. Further meaning that this tour and these bands were not taking OKC seriously at all (and if you saw this venue you wouldn’t either) and were just taking the day off to stay out of this ungodly heat as much as possible.
Anthrax
One change today because of this venue was that Anthrax was opening the main stage instead of headlining the second stage, though still going on around roughly the same time. The reason for this was that the second stage seemed to be half-way to Colorado and their would have been nowhere to park their bus. This venue only has one dressing room so most of the bands were staying on their bus and just parking it right behind the stage.
Besides the unrelenting heat, a major annoyance was the staff at this place. Not to sound like an elitist snob in fact that’s exactly what would be more accurate of their behavior, but they had no idea what they were doing. The staff made up mainly of old-timers that do this during the Summer and its the only time of the year/their lives that they have any sort of authority over anyone and boy do they ware that out.
I came out to catch a few songs from Anthrax and I was standing – not moving – and was asked about my credentials every five seconds until I was forced to just go backstage to get away from it, where I saw Corey Taylor from Slipknot rawking out to it at the mixing board sidestage like a huge fan which I thought was really cool.
Anthrax played the same seven songs, but still kicked ass just the same.
We did our best to escape the heat in the only place we could which was the catering tent right behind the stage, which had a giant industrial fan inside.
As country bumpkin as it gets, the catering tent was something right out of Green Acres with his front porch and screen door and wooded shed vibe.
We step in to see the only person in there whom I recognize as Pearl Aday (adopted daughter of Meat Loaf & wife of Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian) – She had their infant son with her and seeing Scott, the epitome of the proud father when I was working with them last year, I knew that this was going to be a great day for him to have his family joining him.
Their was a funny sign on the fridge in the catering tent that at first I thought was a joke but realized it was an actual warning that said
“No swearing on stage – offenders will be fined and potentially prosecuted” – I began to wonder if Lemmy had seen this and he and Motorhead were about to go on.
Motorhead
Again, what can be said – zero bullshit – totally devastating.
They only thing that was different about this set was that Lemmy wore a doo rag that made him look like a wrestler a little bit. The sound was so terrible that even if he did curse you wouldn’t have known has his between song banter was even more unintelligible than usual. That and they left out the last song Overkill due to heat exhaustion and who could blame them? – I was standing side stage and I could feel myself going down to one knee a few times and feeling woozy, just brutal. How was Slayer gonna hack it with all of that fire onstage? They were due next and the sun was nowhere near going down.
Slayer
We know had the chance to watch Slayer side-stage this time, but I couldn’t be anywhere near that fire and I hadn’t even seen the grounds yet so I decided to take a walk and watch the show from the crowd. It might have made more sense actually if I was watching behind the gulfs of flames so that I didn’t have to feel them, but this was the first time I didn’t feel like I was in “work mode” all day and was ready to enjoy them from the crowd as a fan.
We were only able to shoot like the first song & a half. and that with the combined punishing heat, I was tapping out fast. Still got some good shots though –
While they were eating a seeking shelter, this was my only time to really “rock” and I went for it and was having fun talking up and rawking with some local girls in the crowd. I had to run to the bathroom and since I knew the setlist I chose to do so during Dead Skin Mask, my least favorite song of theirs. It was easier to just use the public restroom instead of going all the way backstage but when I walked in I saw a guy literally filling the sink with vomit.
In true Slayer fan form, he raises his head out of the muck long enough to ask his only concern which was “They haven’t played Angel of Death yet have they?!?!”
I told him not yet, but it was next – so in true dedication he runs out while still puking on himself so that he doesn’t miss it.
Fucking Slayer man –
Slipknot
Just like at the other shows, I always watch at least one Slipknot, hoping that maybe this time it will be something I can get into, but nope, it fails everytime. Its like when you keep opening the refrigerator door opening something good will appear.
I guess due to some curfew it wasn’t even 9pm yet. So though I didn’t want anymore of Slipknot, I also wasn’t ready to be back at the hotel doing nothing before 10pm. So I watched like three songs but then Natasha was texting me to come sign out so she could get her paperwork done for the day. And since I was already backstage I just walked to the car from there and we took off before Slipknot was even on their fourth song.
In spite of the obnoxious product placement this was a great tour for fans and you got to see alot of music for a decent price and their were tons of activities.
Here are a few highlights:
Signings & Sports –
…and of course – The Fans
Photos –
Roy Turner
Nola Mitchell
Jeff Barringer
Meg Roussos
Rodrigo Terco-Fredes
