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Rockstar Mayhem: Please Come Back Next Year By Brian Campbell  |
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That was pretty much what I was saying all day as I wandering Six Flags Darien Lake drinking in everything the newly former festival had to offer, and believe you me, it was a lot. Three stages, a ton of bands, Jagermeister, Rockstar drinks; all things you’d want involved in a solid rock festival.
By the time I entered the festival I immediately saw Rock Band, the video game. After a sizeable wait in line, I got to play some of the fantastic game on stage. I did Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi. After we rocked it, we headed over to catch 36 Crazyfists, and then Five Finger Death Punch. For the first time I had ever seen 36 Crazyfists live, they did not disappoint. They played more of their new stuff than I would’ve liked but still they were worth getting there early. They were loud, fast and uncompromising; the perfect translation from stereo to stage. More Bitterness the Star and less A Snow Capped Romance, but still the set owned.
FFDP is always good. I saw them for the first time last year at Family Values and they were just as good this time around. There were literally a gaggle of fans waiting for them to play, as much as there was to see Machinehead. They played a predictable set and included new single Never Enough, which was excellent to say the least. Good times, good times.
We wandered around for a bit, caught some of Underoath, who didn’t have a good set, at least for me, and then took in some of Machinehead. They were brutal and riff-tastic right out of the gate, and didn’t let up for the entire time they were on stage.
After cutting out a bit early during their set, we sort of found outs to experience Dragonforce live. I say expereicne because you don’t just go and see them live, you experience their music. I watched in awe as Herman Li destroyed his guitars frets as he literally ignited the stage all set long. They were unreal. The guitars, the drums, the over the top vocals, it was all unreal. They played songs off their new record Ultra Beatdown and ended their set with ‘the song that Guitar Hero 3’ famous, Through the Fire and the Flames.
Disturbed took the stage next, and we found some other seats. Now, I have seen Disturbed six times before this and this ranked right up there for sure. They actually spanned all of their albums during their set, but for some reason I was bummed they didn’t play Droppin’ Plates. They were excellent. You would think that a rock band of this caliber would lose steam along the way, but apparently disturbed doesn’t think so. They were the class of the festival.
Slipknot were our headliners. I didn’t think their set was all that impressive, but their drummer (broken ankle) and their DJ (two broken feet) were playing with injuries. They played what you would think, Psychosocial, People=S**t, Heretic Song, Duality and so on. They didn’t play Wait and Bleed, but I really wanted them to play Eyeless, Liberate or Spit It Out. They did throw me a bone when they played Prosthetics, which was nothing short of brilliant.
For the last day of the Mayhemfest this year, it was well worth the trip. And I for one, I’m sure I’m not alone, want this festival back next year. If Ozzfest is going to continue to fizzle out, Rockstar Mayhem is sure to reign in its stead.
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