This year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival has some amazing bands joining the tour. The killer lineup includes Winds Of Plague, Chimaira, Shadows Fall, Hatebreed, Three Inches Of Blood, In This Moment, Almighty Norma Jean, Atreyu, Five Finger Death Punch, Lamb Of God, Rob Zombie and Korn, with Big Jay Oakerson doing some raunchy, shocking and blatantly honest stand-up comedy sets throughout the course of the day.

I had to be backstage for the majority of the bands’ sets due to a long list of incredible interviews with some super talented and very down to earth musicians. I can’t say that I regretted a moment of it, except, perhaps, that it seemed to end all too quickly. We started out with Wednesday 13 from the Murderdolls, who I harassed mercilessly about his “Mad Manager” series up on youtube. Next up was our interview with James “Munky” Shaffer from KoRn. He gave us a great interview and was lots of fun to talk with as well. Following that we had an interview with John 5, former Marilyn Manson band member who is now Rob Zombie’s guitarist. You may think that being in in such successful, widely known bands the fame would go to a person’s head but John 5 was kind, gentle, sweet and had a great sense of humor too. The final interview of the day

was with Big Jay Oakerson. It was definitely not what I was expecting. He truly is ‘what you see is what you get’ and he does not apologize for who he is or what he does and why should he? He tells it like it is and I was not expecting such depth of character from someone who can generate so much controversy.

After hauling our cameras and equipment back to the car, we made our way to the front of the main stage. We were just in time to see Big Jay’s final, scalding performance of the day, one that was met with a strange mix of laughter and utter disbelief from the audience. We were admitted into the photo pit area after Big Jay exited the stage. A giant curtain engulfed the stage but we could still peek under it and see the roadies setting up for Rob Zombie’s unearthly, evil production.

The lights went down and everything was black, like the calm before the storm, except the air felt so charged it was electric. The curtain came down and a thunderous cheer arose from the crowd as Rob rose out of a gigantic, metal, medieval style robot to the tune of “What Lurks On Channel X”. Zombie’s microphone had a life-size skeleton in prayer pose attached to it while Rob, himself, had some sort of monstrous claw that he utilized in crazy, bizarre and visually mesmerizing ways. The back of the stage had a giant movie screen where various horrific images paraded across. I barely paid any attention to these since there was so much else going on at the same time. It was one hell of a show and I mean that literally since there were several impressive pyros going off at various, crucial intervals throughout the set. Where there is smoke, there is fire, or at least where there is fire, there is smoke and there was lots of smoke, too, rolling around onstage adding to the ambiance of the atmosphere. It reminded me of a haunted pirate zombie ship from hell, with Rob Zombie as the doomed captain at the devil’s helm.

I loved Rob’s zombie dances he performed onstage. After finishing up another song, Rob pointed to the moon and said, “We put that there just for you; a full fucking moon!” The crowd responded eagerly to his speech, as they seemd to be in a near frenzy when he began the next song “Living Dead Girl”. Speaking of frenzy, during John 5’s shredtastic solo of the night, Zombie went out into the crowd, giving the screaming, spastastic fans something to talk about for years to come. One inspired fan took off running in a valiant attempt to catch Rob’s coattails. I couldn’t tell if she succeeded or not. I loved how, during John 5’s solo, he played part of the national anthem with his teeth! Words escape me. How would you even practice something at that technical level? I don’t suppose he needs to floss after the night’s performance.

During the song “House Of A Thousand Corpses”, three creepy, skeletal, horror monster puppets came onto the stage, adding to the insanity that we all enjoyed so much. This spectacle was followed by an intense, bombastic drum solo by Joey Jordinson, who is also the drummer for Slipknot and the Murderdolls. After “Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy)” they played “Mars Needs Women”. A huge, smoke-blowing droid came onto the stage,while John 5 had some sort of ray gun he pointed at various ecstatic fans. Finishing up the night, amidst the chaos of confetti filled balloons and pounds of white feathers that were shot out into the crowd and which Rob commented with “Who killed the chicken?” they played Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” and closed the set with my personal favorite, “Dragula”. I felt the slightest twinge of regret that the insanity was over, but KoRn was up next.

This time it was a red curtain that went up to hide the roadies who worked like ants, as they scrambled to dismember one set while putting another together. I was peeking around the curtain with the greatest of interest at all the proceedings. As the lights went down the crowd was chanting “KoRn KoRn KoRn!” The curtain fell, revealing an elaborate set that reminded me of a Texas oil drill site from the 1800’s. KoRn stormed the stage and blew away the crowd with “Right Now.” Singer, Jonathan Davis had his unmistakable, custom mic stand. Ray Luzier’s drum set was sick! It looked like some sort of cymbal jungle gym or midget gymnast hell, as he pounded away inside a metal cage. I was half expecting Cirque Du Soleil to come out at any second and start hopping around his drums.

KoRn ripped up the night, blasting the audience with hit after hit. They played some new material mixed in with the old and everything flowed together seamlessly in a bombardment of intensity. You could literally feel the raw emotion coming out of the band as it threaded its way through their set. It looks like KoRn’s sessions with producer Ross Robinson has really paid off for the group.

I especially enjoyed their song “Oildale(Leave Me Alone)” off their new album “Remember Who You Are”. Pyros were going off at crucial moments during the song and the heat was next to unbearable but somehow, KoRn pushed through it, even reveling in the additional pain. It was inspiring to see KoRn throwing themselves full force into the show with nothing held back for a performance as unbridled and charismatic as when they first came onto the music scene. They closed the night with “Got The Life” and again I felt a little twinge of regret that the madness was over all too soon. We left the venue feeling wistful because if they could play all night, we would stay all night. With visions of dancing zombies and robot monsters combined with KoRn’s unrelenting and uncompromising performance dancing before our eyes, I can’t wait for next years’ Mayhem!

Remaining dates:
July 25 — Montreal, QC — Parc Jean Drapeau
July 27 — Mansfield, MA — Comcast Center
July 28 — Holmdel, NJ — P.N.C. Bank Arts Center
July 30 — Clarkston, MI — DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 31 — Noblesville, IN — Verizon Wireless Music Center
Aug. 1 — Atlanta, GA — Lakewood Amphitheatre
Aug. 4 — Virginia Beach, VA — Virginia Beach Amphitheater
Aug. 6 — Tinley Park, IL — First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre
Aug. 7 — Pittsburgh, PA — Post Gazette Pavilion At Star Lake
Aug. 8 — Bristow, VA — Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge
Aug. 10 — Tampa, FL — Ford Amphitheatre
Aug. 11 — West Palm Beach, FL — Cruzan Amphitheater
Aug. 13 — Dallas, TX — Superpages.com Center
Aug. 14 — Oklahoma City, OK — Zoo Amphitheatre

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PHOTO GALLERIES:

PHOTO GALLERY :: KORN

PHOTO GALLERY :: ROB ZOMBIE

PHOTO GALLERY :: LAMB OF GOD

PHOTO GALLERY :: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

PHOTO GALLERY :: ATRYEU
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For more information, visit: www.rockstarmayhemfest.com/mayhem