Report

Ozzfest 2006 Indianapolis: Draiman Rages Against the Rock Scene

Band Photo: Atreyu (?)

On Sunday, July 23, the annual metal-gods tour known as Ozzfest, minus Ozzy, of course, rolled through Indianapolis, and the event passed without much out of the ordinary. The day saw a couple of fights, a lot of marijuana, a whole lot of ignorant people who harassed event staff at every turn, and a lot of people waiting to see the last three bands of the night without any knowledge of who played the second and early main stages—a typical Ozzfest.

One of the more surprising moments of the 2006 Ozzfest tour came when Disturbed frontman David Draiman stopped a crowd-pleasing set to engage in a rant about the state of rock music. Rock, he proclaimed, has been pronounced dead many times, but not because of the bands that graced the stages of Ozzfest. Draiman then followed with a blast against bands whose names start with “The,” and then railed against the “emo” and “screamo” genres, as a whole. Apparently, all of these bands are a bunch of “pussies” compared to the likes of Disturbed, at least in Draiman’s eyes. Interestingly enough, Disturbed played directly after Avenged Sevenfold, and Atreyu had played late on the second stage.

Draiman, playing to an overwhelmingly supportive crowd, was met with the second most energetic crowd response of the day—the first being the reaction to a killer rendition of “Stupify.” No word yet on whether or not Disturbed will be asked to headline the Warped Tour next year…

One other notable moment came when Avenged Sevenfold paused to invite Bleeding Through vocalist Brandan Schieppati on stage for a live version of Pantera’s “Walk.” M. Shadows, Avenged Sevenfold’s frontman, handled the first verse, with Schieppati then taking over the vocals. Though some metalheads might label this cover of Pantera as downright blasphemy, the crowd chanted along in unmistakable support of the rendition.

The main stage, otherwise, ran according to plan, with System of a Down playing last, and playing for quite a long time (hour and a half, maybe). Dragonforce, Lacuna Coil, and Hatebreed all played sets beforehand, with Dragonforce only getting maybe a half-hour as the stage-opener (and guitarist Herman Li was wondering the crowd after System of a Down, with basically no one knowing who he was). The second stage, which had zero overlap with the main stage, was fairly energetic and fan-friendly. Unearth seemed to stand out, giving a top-notch performance on the small stage.

Overall, the Indianapolis stop proved to be a fairly tame affair, and most seemed to be quite happy with the popular lineup, despite Ozzy’s no-show.