The Carnival of Madness 2010

Note 1/19/2011: As promised, I tracked down the following post.  It was written in early August 2010 and I never hit 'publish' until now.  Here it is...unedited.  Enjoy!

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40 bands.  One day.  Did we make it?  Read on, my friends, read on.    Before I get into Saturday's shenanigans, we need to take a quick trip back in time...

Summer 2002
10 rock bands in one day!  The tickets were cheap enough and I wanted to see the headliner, Sevendust.  Jake and I locked up our teeny studio apartment in the West End and stepped into an shimmering sunny day.  We walked a block or two over to the Cumberland County Civic Center for the start of the 1st annual WCYY Summer Camp day.  I remember Mushroomhead and Sevendust but everyone else has blended together in my mind over time.  We almost survived all 10 bands' sets.  It was hot, LOUD, and smoky in the CCCC and three songs into the Sevendust set I admitted defeat.  As a general rule, we do not leave live performances early and thanks to Jake's sister we usually wait for movie credits to roll too.  Sorry, Sevendust but I'm pretty sure Jake was relieved to leave and I had a raging headache.  Let's blame Mushroomhead!  ;)


July 31, 2010
40 rock bands in one day!  That's just crazy, right?  Nope.  Add 10,000-15,000 of our closest music loving friends and you've got Oxxfest 2010 (aka the 8th annual WCYY Summer Camp day).  The tickets were cheap enough and we both wanted to see the main stage headliner, Shinedown, again. 

The five main stage performers are on the Carnival of Madness tour: 10 Years, Sevendust, Puddle of Mudd, Chevelle, and Shinedown.   We'd seen everyone besides 10 Years before so we knew at least the evening performances on the main stage would be good. 

Jake and I were smack in the middle of this madness.

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10 Years - We didn't know their music before and I guess they weren't memorable.  I feel kind of bad.  Sorry guys.

Sevendust - Hello, we meet again. :)  Thanks for finally coming back to Maine.  We didn't know that leaving your 2002 show early would result in your staying out of Maine for eight years.  Jeesh.  The lead singer was thrilled by the Maine's cooler summer temps and kept repeating variations on "It's a beautiful day" over and over.

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Puddle of Mudd - We saw these guys in January and I liked them better that time.  Sevendust's vocalist came onstage for Psycho and let me tell you that this dude managed to rock denim bib overalls...in 2010!

A little lesson for all the scrawny lead singers out there:  No matter how scrawny you are do not, I repeat do not, jump into any crowd when it's all women in the first few rows.  They will not catch you.  They will maul you after you fall.  Also, do not leave your band stalling on stage playing the same chords over and over then never return.

For the Puddle of Mudd lead singer: Everyone saw you run back to your bus.  Everyone knew your set was supposed to end with She Hates Me.  Sorry but it's true.

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Chevelle - We saw them at Meadowbrook last summer.  I summed up that experience by saying "They make a lot of noise for three guys."  I liked them better this time around because I knew what to expect.  And, I was a bit further from the speakers.  :)

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Shinedown - We saw them last summer at Meadowbrook on tour with Staind and again in January on their Sound of Madness tour. They're engaging live performers so we wanted to see them again.

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We saw a bunch of local and regional bands too.  Here are the ones I remember at the moment...
Dead Season
Diecast
Till We Die  "and that happened."
In The Kingdom of Nightmares
Living Syndication
Leaving Eden

35 bands played continually all day starting at 10am by alternating between these two side stages.  I think the main stage shows started around 6 or 7pm.

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This time my only regret is my last minute decision to leave my camera in the truck.  What would your ultimate concert lineup look like?  What was the last concert or live performance you saw?

Right Now

Hi! Jake and I have been enjoying some beautiful weather this weekend.  Kudos to Robyn for noting my Korn themed blog titles this week. If this is your first time visiting, you can read about my experience at their concert last week here.  Check back shortly for posts about this weekend's field trip.

Alison

Life is Peachy

I'll include more Bru pics for Jupiter and Elmo tomorrow.  I've got to keep my readers happy!  :)


Yesterday we took a blue hydrangeas plant to my mother-in-law's and visited with family for awhile. Bru forgot her potty training and peed on Mimi's carpet (Happy Mother's Day!) and lots of fun was had by all. On our way home we stopped by Whole Foods to grab picnic fixings for dinner and couldn't pass by all the gorgeous flowers they had stocked for the occasion. Jake moved containers to get to the bunch of white roses I spotted in the back of the display. My hero. A helpful florist took the roses to add fillers and make them into a bouquet while we did our shopping. I sampled some fancy French cheese on some lemony crackers, loved it, and decided that was dinner. Jake was less interested in the fancy cheese idea (knowing our picnic location) so he kept things simple and got a French baguette and brownie. Brewster stopped to smell the roses and stuck to me like glue while I arranged them.

Our picnic was in a parking lot.  We were waiting for the doors to open for the Jagermeister Music Tour 2010 headlined by Korn. Yup. I was in the car eating imported brie surrounded by grungy kids standing in line.  They were getting soaked by the rain. Jake was a bit embarrassed but it was really good cheese so I didn't care. Plus, we were dry. He's the one that said “picnic in the car” in the first place.  I think we should make it a new tradition.  Rock music and pretentious food = super fun time!   


We got inside, scoped out some great seats, and settled in for the show. The venue is small so there isn't a bad seat in the house. I hope the colisee keeps booking shows. I'm also a big fan of general admission seating because it always works out in our favor. We ended up seeing four bands and a funny guy from Comedy Central between sets. It was a really fun night!


As Summer Dies from NY was up first. Their lead singer was tall and awkward looking. It was pretty hard to take him seriously as a rocker. I also unknowingly made fun of their female guitarist (shame on me) as she went through the crowd ten minutes before the show.  Whoops.  Jake and I were amusing ourselves by observing hundreds of tacky attempts to pull off the rocker look and pointing out the worst ones (bonus points for mullets!).  I said "Hey Jake.  Check out that chick!  At least she looks like she could work at a Hot Topic or something." She had a VIP pass but I assumed she was with one of the local radio shows.  I just did a "As Summer Dies" google image search.  Guess what?!  The first item is a poster announcing that their cd is now available at Hot Topic.  Go figure.  After the show, we were sitting ten seats away from As Summer Dies so we considered walking over to say hi. Then, we realized that our ears were ringing and we didn't want to deal with trying to yell to talk to them. Maybe next time we'll remember to take earplugs.

2 Cents was representing for LA. Their lead singer was also the drummer. I was fascinated by that but then he ruined it by being a diva on stage. I think awesome is best served with a nice slice of humble pie.  We did meet 2 Cents though and bought their cd on our way out.  One of guitarists reminded me of the creepy, wax Johnny Depp (as Jack Sparrow) at Madame Tussaunds in Vegas. I didn't have a real camera so I didn't bother getting a pic with them.  I'm way too classy/mature/smart to have my chest signed with permanent marker so I skipped that line also.  Just saying.


We watched the first two bands from the stands but decided to watch Dead Season from the pit to mix things up.  Jake in the pit.  hehehe  I worked my way up close enough to the stage that we could see the guys sweat. I'm not sure that was such a good idea after all.  These weren't the kind of fellas that look Hot all sweaty.  They just looked hot.  Dead Season's lead singer is from Maine and they seem pretty well established. The first two bands seemed kind of young. They had to break down their own equipment and were just hanging out in the crowd while Korn played.


Korn's performance was what I expected. They didn't let me down like Staind last summer. I couldn't get a photo with my crappy cell camera that did our seats justice but it didn't stop me from trying. They played a good mix of new songs and old skool songs.  They shouldn't sell their 'old skool korn fan' t-shirts to kids that weren't born yet when I was listening to them in high school.  The number of kids under 10 years old at rock concerts continues to surprise me.  I wish my parents were that cool but then again at least I have some hearing now.