Concert Review
Ozzfest: All-day, all-ages headbanging

By Mary Guiden
Special to The Seattle Times

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Other links Search event listings Search movie listings Sign up for Movies e-mail

It's not exactly de rigueur to wear black on a day when it's sunny and in the 80s, unless of course it was Tuesday and the occasion was the heavy-metal rock tour known as Ozzfest. Launched by Ozzy Osbourne some nine years ago, Ozzfest packed the White River Amphitheatre with a near sell-out crowd edging toward 20,000 by early evening.

Twenty bands were scheduled to play throughout the day, and things kicked off at a bright and early 9 a.m. Groups ranged from new — the female-fronted Otep — to the very old, meaning 40- to 50-year-old musicians in bands such as Slayer, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath.

Otep lead singer Otep Shamaya provided metal's version of feminine, guttural screams and all. Seemingly the Gwen Stefani of the genre, Shamaya sang about her imperfections in tunes like "My Confession," and spent time shaking her blond locks in true metal fashion.

Otep and groups including Lamb of God and Slipknot played on a second, smaller stage sponsored by Hot Topic, a retail clothing chain that caters to punk and metal wannabes. The corporate moniker demonstrated how Ozzy — with the MTV reality show "The Osbournes" — has moved the metal genre more into the mainstream. Seattle resident Amir Nadim, 31, says the scene has changed since he first saw Osbourne drink a container of spit during a concert 20 years ago in Los Angeles. "Tattoos and black clothes are cool now," he said.

Main stage opening act Superjoint Ritual provided concertgoers with a "new way of hard ... core music," or so said Phil Anselmo, militant former lead singer of Pantera. That new way included cranking up the bass so loud it raised the hair on people's arms and inspired audience members in the mosh pit to raise a young man on a wheelchair up on to the stage. Anselmo — who likes to use a certain four-letter expletive in every other sentence — let the American flag-draped guy stay on stage for the remainder of the show and even ordered up a beer for him while he sang the song "The Alcoholic."

The crowd was packed with white 20- and 30-year-old males, but some parents brought their kids to listen to the music they had enjoyed in their youth. Doug Cumming, 40, and son Travis, 14, made the trek from British Columbia and were looking forward to seeing Osbourne. Cumming said his son's interest in the heavy-metal rocker was sparked after hearing "Crazy Train" played between intermissions at National Hockey League games in Canada.

Review Tuesday, White River Amphitheatre, Auburn

Crowd favorites at the main stage included the no-frills Slayer, a glam-rock styled Judas Priest — whose lead singer had costume changes between nearly every song — and the Osbourne-led Black Sabbath. Osbourne, who was injured in an ATV accident last year, looked a bit bloated, sporting a maniacal grin and walking with an awkward, stumbling gait. With a childlike glee, he jumped up and down while holding on to the mike and singing tunes including "War Pigs," "N.I.B." and "Fairies Wear Boots."

Seattle's Nadim says it's difficult to watch the man sing because he's no longer youthful, but he still considers his music pretty great. "It's hard because he's so old. He has six TelePrompters, and he still forgets the words."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More Entertainment & the Arts headlines...