I told you I'd be back with more thoughts about my trip to day 2 of Heavy TO, and you know I wouldn't lie to you, so here I am! In no particular order, here are my ramblings about everything I didn't cover last time around:
- I did talk about Deftones' set last time, but I forgot to profess my love for Abe Cunningham's drumming style. Every note* of every beat gets the fuck slapped out of it, to the point where his whole kit shakes when he plays. Aggro FTW!
- It was pretty muddy for day 2, what with all the rain on day 1. I know, I know, at my age and being a fan of metal, I probably should have expected a muddy fucking mess. But I was still not quite prepared for the level of mud (easily 3 or 4 inches deep in many spots), and almost lost my shoes a couple of times. I consider it a victory to have come home with both (albeit without my sunglasses, but that one had nothing to do with the mud)
- Again, being a metal fan and having been to a lot of shows, including day-long outdoor endurathons (Ozzfest 2001, bitches), I know I should be used to things like paying an arm and a leg for water, but four dollars a bottle is highway robbery!** If that wasn't enough, any drink that you did pay such an exorbitant price for got poured out of its bottle and into a plastic cup with a lid (which is apparently what happens at shows now, I hear) so that you couldn't even close it up for later. And to top it all off, the show's policy was changed pretty last minute to disallow the one unopened bottle of water many people thought (from reading Heavy TO website) they were allowed in with them. Argh!
- There was a wrestling ring set up, with a few matches spread out over the course of the day. Now, I don't know if any of your are or have ever been fans of professional wrestling, but I admit here and in print that I was one when I was younger. Quite a big one, in fact, so when two of the wrestlers who "fought" on Day 2 were Rhino and Tommy Dreamer, both WWF and ECW alums, it made me smile. My Apologies if none of that sentence made any sense to you.
- Five Finger Death Punch might not be my cup of tea, but they do get points for being one of the only bands I heard on Day 2 actively encouraging fans to look out for each other, to respect that security isn't the enemy, that kind of thing. I know metal's a rough genre to watch live, but it's always nice to hear bands spreading a little love around, even if they do call for circle pits or something similarly ridiculous with their next breath.
- I've been a metal fan for a long time now, and Cannibal Corpse has always been one of those bands that I've never been able to see the appeal of. Now, having seen them play an hour long set, I still don't get it. Sorry if you're a Cannibal Corpse fan. I guess I just like a little more variation in my metal.
Well, I think that's all I've got for today. If I think of anything else, I'll edit this post, or maybe just comment on it. And despite the fact that most of the above seems like bitching and moaning on my part, all things considered, it was a pretty bitchin' day, and my hat does go off to the organizers for putting together an awesome line-up (even if they then proceeded to charge me outrageously for water).
* Do drummers call them notes? I feel like I should know this.
** Using the phrases "paying an arm and a leg" and "highway robbery" in the same sentence makes me feel old. Sigh.
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