HVYMTLMOM.COM - R-Mayhem081208

MAYHEM ATLANTA 8/12/08
Lakewood Amphitheater

This was my first time ever even considering such an extensive trip to see a band that I love. Yes, it was a festival with a bunch of bands, but if Machine Head wasn't on it, I would have just gone to the one closest to me (West Palm Beach) and that would have been the end of it. I was planning to go alone, but since my friend Ginelly was as big of a Slipknot fan (or should I say Corey Taylor fan? LOL) as I am a Machine Head fan...things just fell into place and we both ended up having an awesome summer roadtrip!

Since she's from Melbourne & I'm from South Florida, we started out in Orlando the day before the show...

It took us around 7 hours to get there but we were having fun, so it didn't seem that long....

Once we got settled at the hotel, we headed out to see where the venue was so we could find it easily the next day. We also went to the city, but ended up being there much longer than expected! Apparently Atlanta doesn't really believe in street signs, and it took us a while to get out of there...after being side-tracked into some not-so-nice areas & must have passed this place about 5 times (no, it wasn't ours!):

Five Finger Death Punch was doing an acoustic set at a Best Buy a few towns away early on the day of Mayhem. We had planned on going, but ended up missing the turn off of the highway and by that time, thought it best to just head to the venue. On our way there, very close to the venue, we spotted this natural wonder....even did a u-turn so we could get a better shot!

So once we actually got to the venue, we didn't have to wait long before getting in...especially since they had special lines for the ladies and we were greatly outnumbered by guys. Once inside, we had to get our bearings on where everything was and then headed to the second stage area. Somebody was passing out Roadrunner stickers and it turned out to be my long-time friend Derek that I hadn't seen since he came to Orlando to go to a Mudvayne concert with me & Ginelly 2 years ago! After a giant hug, we got our pic taken...or so I thought. Apparently the person taking the photo didn't push the right button or something, because it wasn't on the camera when I looked later that night.

it was supposed to be my first rockstar pic of the day! There's always next time....

The two second stages were side by side at this venue. I saw Black Tide, got a few pics

listened to a few songs and then headed over to the Jager stage. Met some cool people from Tennessee who were there staking out their spot for 5FDP, but the local band was up next and I figured it'd be a good time to check the merch booths and signing times. I got a bag full of stickers and other stuff from Roadrunner. Actually the bag itself was what I needed! This venue didn't allow backpacks, so trying to carry cameras, all the shit I wanted signed, etc was a pain in the ass. The guy at the Revolver tent gave me a t-shirt because I had traveled so far and told me to come back later for Walls of Jericho's signing.

The Red Chord was up next and I didn't want to miss them! They were great, but the audience was totally lacking. The majority of them were just standing there....even the wall of death was a little lame compared to the other two dates.

I got a some more photos of them (finally one that showed Guy's awesome eyes!):

I went to meet Walls Of Jericho at the Revolver tent. They were nice, but the only pics I got were crappy "myspace" self portrait ones, which I promptly deleted, but I bought their cd for $5 (including a Revolver shirt) and had it autographed.

Ginelly had been doing her own thing while I was doing mine, but we met up at the Rockstar tent for the Machine Head signing. This time I had brought some of my dead cds...ones that I had to replace because they were so scratched up from overuse, along with a couple of things that were signed by the rest of the band in WPB, but Robb still needed to do. I got to give Alan a hug....thanking him for the microphone he gave me in WPB. And he gave me another Robb pick! This one was different from the others I got. I had printed out the photo I took of Robb in Tampa when he was playing his Dimebag guitar. He really liked it, and signed it. I had one for Dave to sign too. It was kind of sad to think this was the last time I'd see them until sometime next year...

I found The Red Chord at their merch booth, well most of them anyway. Guy, their singer was really sick and had to leave right after their performance. The rest of the guys were very cool. I brought the photos I took of them in West Palm to be signed. Greg remembered me and when I asked for a photo, they said I could come around behind the table for a group shot. Greg held up my photo of Guy so "he" could be in the pic!

It started sprinkling right before meeting Machine Head, and it was really coming down now. That's how it would end up being for pretty much the rest of the day. I stopped by the Jager tent and saw that you needed a ticket to meet 5FDP since they were only signing for a limited amount of people. I got one, just in case...it turned out to be a smart move!

Walls Of Jericho was partway through by that time, so I hurried over to the Jager stage. I was able to get almost to the front. The crowd was finally starting to look alive. They were good, but of course my main purpose in being there was to get a good spot for Machine Head!

When WOJ was over, I inched my way to the front rail, but I was still a little to the side. I ended up right next to the TN guys I had met earlier. They hadn't moved at all the whole day, just waiting for 5FDP. I was able to see some of Suicide Silence's performance from where I was standing. There seemed to be a lot of crowd surfers, just like when I saw them at Culture Room a few months prior.

Next up was 5FDP, the crowd surfers were constant, as evidenced by this video I got of Salvation:

I got a few photos as well, but with the rain I was afraid to take too many and fuck up my camera again!

When their awesome, high energy set was over, they were doing their signing. I gave the guy next to me my ticket for it and promptly took his spot which put me a little closer to center for Machine Head.

Next up on the other stage was Underoath. More rain, more crowdsurfer on both stages LOL. There were a couple crowd surfers at the Jager stage even before Machine Head came on! Some were chanting Machine Fucking Head while Underoath was playing. I met some awesome people while I we were waiting. We were all really excited, even knowing that it would only be a very short set. We were still getting rain on and off (mostly on), but it didn't bother us. FINALLY they hit the stage! The setlist: Clenching, Imperium, Hallowed Be Thy Name, Halo & Davidian. At one point, Robb had something to say about emos:

a crowd surfer hit my camera & it shut off during the intro to Hallowed Be Thy Name....by the time I noticed, the awesome intro was over, but I recorded the rest of the song anyway:

I also got all of Davidian:

and some photos:

Their set was over way too soon. Five songs are just a tease when it comes to a band like Machine Head! We were left wanting more...more time, more songs, more of the whole experience. I guess that's what headlining tours are for...

As the saying goes "all good things must come to an end"....we headed over to mainstage and tried to get into the pit during Dragonforce so Ginelly could get a good spot for Slipknot. The pit must have been oversold or maybe everyone was just hanging out at the entrance, because it was packed-you couldn't even move in there! To be honest, I was really surprised that so many people were there for Dragonforce. Maybe they were just trying to get out of the rain? After the Dragonforce people cleared out,we were able to work our way in.

Disturbed was up next, and I figured I'd try to get some photos and a few videos for friends who were fans of the band. As with the other two Mayhems, Dave was wheeled out onto the stage "Hannibal Lecter" style.

I got a couple of vids- Inside The Fire & Perfect Insanity:

Before Slipknot, I was able to move a little more towards center (but still on the side) Again, the lighting sucked for my camera, but I tried:

Got some vids, including Psychosocial and Duality (there's more on my youtube):

As with the other Mayhems, the mainstage crowd didn't seem to have the energy of the 2nd stage fans. Still, it was fun and we definitely felt like we got our money's worth!

We hung around for a long time afterward, actually until they kicked everyone out LOL. I guess we just didn't want our summer of Mayhem to end. We had been planning it for months and now it was over. But it'll never be completely over-there are so many great memories of awesome people we've met, bands we've seen and weird shit we've done all in the name of metal! And in my case, I had even more to look forward to....I was seeing Kingdom of Sorrow & Soilent Green in Tampa and Orlando that same week before heading back home to S. Florida (and back to my job)! But that's a whole other story

Much thanks to my husband for being so awesome and understanding how much this music means to me, even when I should have been working this summer! Thanks to Ginelly too for keeping me company on our road trips-there couldn't have been a more perfect tour with both of our favorite bands being a part of it! We'll definitely have to do it again next year

so....there you have it...over a month later and I'm finally getting this posted. If you're still interested, there's a lot more photos on my website: http://hvymtlmom.com or here on my myspace in my "view more pics". There's more vids on http://www.youtube.com/hvymtlmom as well, and the videos I've posted in this blog seem to play weirdly on here...check them out on youtube for a better viewing!

And....if you want even more Mayhem-you can read my blogs from the Tampa & West Palm Beach dates!