| Ozzfest 2002 |
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26th of May 2002 was the date. Punchestown racecourse was the place.
The first ever Irish Ozzfest was to take place and having been to the first British
Ozzfest at Milton Keyens way back in 1998 I was looking forward to a day full of metal, sunburnt skin and over
priced food. Taking the Belfast bus down to Dublin with Chris "Alcohol" Davidson and Barry "Rogerer" Rogers we planned to meet a dozen or so other people we knew which by sheer luck we managed to do right at the start of the day. However there was a major announcement which shook things up a little. "Ozzy Osbourne is unwell and is unable to perform tonight however the show will go on as planned". No Ozzy!? Proably one of the very very few times there would be an Ozzfest that wasn't headlined by either Ozzy or Sabbath. A disappointment indeed but lucky enough there was bands such as Therapy?, Slayer and Tool to hold it together. |
| As we entered the grounds Cyclefly were about half way through their set. Although they were fair enough they weren't quite brillant enough to grap my full attention. I was sort of half watching Cyclefly, half watching the half-pipe or half watching Cyclefly, half looking at the merchantise stands or half watching Cyclefly, half trying to see how much a box of chicken and chips would cost. |
| After the Cyclefly set we had enough time to set up a 'camp spot' on a nice piece ot tarmac, gather round any other friends and take a look inside a nearby building which turned out to be the second stage. I did catch about a song and a half's worth of a band called Superskin but either the acoustics of the building were crap or the band themselves were shite (proably a combination of both). Needless to say I left the Second stage area never to return and went out to the blistering heat back to our spot were I would watch the main stage. |
| For the first time the next band to come on was a band on that I really wanted to see; Drowning Pool. The Pool opened up on 'Sinner' and played a really good set which included Triple H's theme tune ("You guys like that wrestling shit too?"). Near the latter half of the set there was a chant for 'Bodies' which is their best song and defintly a song I was anxious to hear live. The singer just told us it was coming and when they finally did play it right at the end it was mental with bodies flying about in the mosh pit at the front. Personally I didn't enter the Pool pit as i was saving it for a certain Northern Ireland band that was due to play today. |
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| As it was getting close to feeding time (or maybe we're just a bunch of fat bastards) we decided to try out the food located in the stands beside us. To our utter amazment the food was reasonably priced and what surprised us even more was that it wasn't bad at all. |
| The Lost Prophets were on next and I decided to stand up and watch the band for a couple of songs before I sat back down again continuing to much away at my chicken burger and chips. All I remeber about the Prophets is relaxing in the sun with my buddies and shouting "fuck off, your shit" everytime they finished a song. |
| Therapy? were up and I raced along to the front to get the best view I could. This made it the third time i'd seen Therapy? and although it probaly wasn't as good as the other 2 times it still was damn good. They open up with 'Gimme back my brain' from their 'Shameless' album and then burst into 'Hellbelly'. They also did 'Knives', 'Die laughing', 'Screamager', 'Nowhere', 'Isolation', 'Joey', 'Church of Noise' and 'Potato Junkie'. Unfortunatly they didn't have time to do 'Teethgrinder' but that is pretty much expected to happen when a band with a large back catalogue are playing in a restricted time period. Therapy? defintely looked like they were enjoying themselves as did many of the crowd. |
| With the space left with Ozzy doing a no-show Ill Nino were moved from the second stage onto the main stage. Personally I would have preferred it if Therapy? were given the extra time but it was not to be. Ill Nino weren't bad to be honest, they did open up on 'If you still hate me', a song I had listened to on a free sample CD and had quite liked. Near the end, Drowning Pool's singer came out to sing with the band which included a cover of Soulfly's 'Eye for an Eye'. Not the worst band on that day (*cough*prophets*cough*) but still not on a par with Tool or Slayer. |
| Alot of people were glad when the Ill Nino set finished because that meant we were closer to the arrival of Slayer. Just as Slayer hit the stage playing 'Raining Blood' the rain came on and lashed out of the heavens. Still it added to the effect along with the damn cool backdrop they had. Slayer were brutal as ever although the drums could have been a bit too loud sometimes. As the rain continued to pour several weaker souls ran inside to the second stage where apparently the 'Mushroom heads' were playing. These fools missed 'Dead Skin Mask', 'South of Heaven', 'Angle of Death' and other classics. Even though I spent the last part of the set under a deflated inflateable chair with Rog it was excellent to see the kings of thrash metal again. And when Slayer left the sun came out... |
| System of a Down were up next and rewarded us with playing an absoultly mental set as the band gave it 2000%. I was also kinda surprised none of them took a heart attack the way they got on. They also played a cover of Dire Strait's 'Sultans of Swing' which was pretty cool. At the end they got the crowd to do a 'Slayer' chant as well as a 'Fuck the System'. Mad, mad band. But very enjoyable none the less. |
| Now it was time for the headlining act, Tool to close the show. Before the set the roadies set up a giant screen behind the drum kit as well as a platform for the singer to perform from. The extra screen (there was a screen on either side of the stage) was there as Tool play videos to their music. And although are feet were killing us (due to the event being staged on concrete) we still got to the front and stood in awe as Tool played slong to some of the maddest videos ever seen. We were tempted to sit down but we realised we wouldn't be able to see the screens. Tool played perfectly and the fact that nightfall happened during their set helped to make the show even more amazing as they played loads of songs from their 'Lateralus' album as well as the fantastic 'Stinkfist'. Tool were without a doubt the stars of the show and defintly proved heros of the day by becoming (very worthy) replacement headliners. |
| Unfortunatly all good things must come to an end but despite a potentialy ropey start the Irish Ozzfest turned out to be a fantastic day out. Roll on Ozzfest 2003! |
