Playlist

Sevendust. Again: same ol' same ol'. Singer Lajon Witherspoon looked a tad more spent and beaten down than usual (and that's saying something: he's stout as singers go). And the music? Do I HAVE to repeat myself?

Hellyeah's throwing out its usual too-much-talk-and-not-enough-rock set. Chad Gray's voice is in top shape' though, and the band is thick (It's version of "Nausea" right now is phenomenal). As trite as tributes to Dimebag Darrell are these days, the one about to happen should be a hellacious treat ... especially since folks are much, much more tipsy in general than they were just a couple of hours ago ...

...OK Mr. Gray is screaming too much now. Restraint, man, restraint!

Well, considering what Korn's Jonathan Davis has dealt with the past few years - near death, two despondent bandmates, a flat-out poor last Korn CD that flopped - it's no wonder he wants to do a bit of his own thing.

But you know, dressing in dapper all-black, sitting on a red crushed-velvet-upholstered throne and hiring some eclectic musicians (including an upright bassist, a guy that plays a double-necked electric violin, and Booker T. Washington grad Zac Baird on keyboards) is not enhancing Mr. Davis' stature. Especially when almost all of the songs are dialed-down Korn rehashes.

Mr. Davis' voice does sound OK, and he's quite active on stage in spurts (i.e. when his backside's off that throne). But this is ... uh ... eclectic. That's the best I can come up with now. And Mr. Davis would probably consider that light praise. Maybe it is ... I've gotta sleep on this ...

"Kick the P.A." indeed.

Yes, the moving of the side stages from the concrete east parking lot to the adjacent undeveloped ground was good. The condition of it, though, is not.

Giant cracks up to a foot deep, caused by the unrelenting sun combined with relatively little summer rain, zigzag across the area. They're worst where the midway of Ozzfest is set up, between the stadium and the side stages and slightly to the south

I've seen nothing serious there yet, but I can just imagine some inebriated yahoo messing up an ankle or a knee BAD after stepping in one of those. Eeek. I shiver just thinking about that.

Speaking of slightly south: the breeze is coming from that direction, making the best spots to hear the side stage bands slightly north of front. Why? The sound's moving downwind!

I lied: I had to post one more item.

So Ozzy went 35 minutes late. But he made up for it with a neat little fireworks show afterward. Really! They set off a bunch of 'em behind the north side of the stadium.

So festive. Yay. Now bring out the freakin' Mighty Met already!

That's always been said of the ex-Sepultura front man. You know: the kind who always marches to his own drum beat (and that's an apt metaphor, considering how Sepultura revolutionized the rhythms of metal almost 20 years ago).

But here, he's proving himself truly nutty. He's playing on the Main Stage with Cavalera Conspiracy in full freakin' fatigues; only during the last vitriolic, loud-as-heck song did he mercifully shun his combat-weight coat.

At least the set's insane, and he's representing his country better here than most Brazilians are likely to at the Beijing Olympics: he's playing a guitar with the Brazilian flag emblazoned on the body, and an amp stack's shrouded in another flag. Nice!

Ozzy's blown the template. Things stayed rigidly on schedule until his set, which is now on its encore - "Mama, I'm Coming Home," complete with a Gibson double-neck guitar over Zakk Wylde's beefy shoulders - but the set's run almost 30 minutes long at this point.

That means the Mighty Met won't go on until at least 10:10 ... and its allotted 90 minutes will run close to midnight. So ... this'll be my last post of the evening, since I've got to write the formal review for the print product tomorrow.

Rock on ... Ozzfest 2008 will, if today is an indication. It's been quite a high-quality ride ...

... Oh boy. A second encore song: "Paranoid." Please tell me that Metallica hasn't gone prissy on this crowd ...

... (actually, no: Ozzy's P.R. rep told me that Ozzy, well, felt a need to play longer than Metallica would. Read into that what you will!)

Call it being afraid of the deep end, call it knowing how well you can swim - but for what Drowning Pool is, it's not bad. Good power, good conviction, good energy and great charisma are all evident, even with the Texas Stage's sound cutting out at times and the now-respectable breeze causing the sound to waft like a column of smoke.

5,000 attendees are attentively taking the band's set in: that's far beyond the 500 or so that showed up at the Palladium in December to see the act. Looks like its niche - cathartic pro-military cheerleading - is paying off.

Well, the MC on the side stages made a fool of himself, didn't he?

The KDGE-FM DJ - I forget his name, and frankly I don't really give a hoo-ha, especially since he's got an East Coast accent - spent two minutes introducing who Sharon Osbourne calls "The official mayor of Ozzfest" - Dez Fafara of DevilDriver - and he was supposed to be setting up Dallas' own Drowning Pool. Or: the official metal band of the U.S Armed Forces (not really, but it may as well be).

I caught a bit of Massachusetts metalcore act Shadows Fall on the Main Stage earlier. Brian Fair's dreads are a long as ever. But the band's set was the same ol' same ol'. Ditto for metal cello trio Apocalyptica, which doesn't translate nearly as well on a huge fest stage as it did at House of Blues a few weeks ago. Maybe that's why the Mighty Met didn't join 'em onstage? Or maybe not ... Metallica's still above making cameos in tribute acts, after all, hehe ...

Oh, stop! Not that grass ...

Lawn grass. On a summer day, it's your friend. And Ozzfest realizes that.

Unlike Edgefest and most other concert events held at Pizza Hut Park, the stadium's playing field isn't covered by that springy, seam-riddled white plastic covering here. The field is blissfully nude, thus making it fairly cool to sit on as well as infinitely more comfortable.

In addition, both side stages are set up on dirt instead of on pavement. Smart move, Ozzfest ... as are the 50-foot-long mister tents, which makes Warped Tour's single square mist shelter look like a toddler's wading pool.

I just finished a short conversation with Austin fantasy metal band the Sword, which is headlining the Texas Stage in about two hours.

But that's not the coolest thing. The band opened for Metallica for a month in Europe until a few days ago. You can predict the band's opinion of the experience.

"It was awesome," said singer-guitarist J.D. Cronise. "People have wondered to us if there was any negative backlash or stuff like that in terms of liking us. Thing is, people over there have been waiting to hear Metallica play for, like, 10 years, so pretty much whatever Metallica offered up was going to be fine with them."

The band's latest, "Gods of the Earth," hasn't been as well received as its monolithic 2005 debut, "Age of Winters." But the steady climb up continues for the Sword's superb brand of so-called "heritage metal," which basically sounds like equal doses of Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Iron Maiden and any number of Southern rock stalwarts.

Intriguing observation: drummer Trevitt Wingo typically does most of the band's press, but he's plainly the most skeptical and grumpiest member compared to the other three. Even so, he's cool - just wary of being pigeonholed by writer schlubs like me. No worries, mate!

Ozzy is energized. For him, WAY energized. His voice is as well-preserved as it's been in years of Ozzfests, he looks trim and healthy, he's pushing his vocals far enough to be poignant, and he's clearly happy to be at his only Ozzfest appearance this year.

"Bark at the Moon" cut ears to shreds, and not just because his now-trusted guitarist sidekick, Zakk Wylde (who, it must be noted, decided not to invoke a live declaration of his own via Black Label Society at this year's version) wailed during it. The whole band is dialed in, except the bass drum's, which is too boomy as is typical at rock-festival mixes.

During "Suicide Solution," Ozzy sprayed the crowd nearest to him with what looked like firefighting foam. It wasn't water - the stuff was as white as soap suds - and he plainly loved doing the dousing. He saved the agua for the end of the next number, "Mr. Crowley:" he slung bucketfuls onto his front-stage minions then, asif rinsing off the product of his mischief.

Ozzy's always been precocious and kid-like; he just hasn't had the energy to continually act that way consistently in recent years. He's evidently saved some of the fuel in his tank for tonight.

In This Moment opened the Main Stage with one of Ozzfest 2008's many gimmicks: the only female lead singer among the 22 bands here.

Maria Brink looked like she was more closely related to Katy Perry than, say, Lita Ford. She was dressed all in white, and her outfit was capped off with a knee-high socks and a poofy skirt that Amy Lee would be jealous of if it were black or made of lace.

Thing is, the band didn't sound bad at all. The music has hooks, and Ms. Brink and the rest of the act appeared to have genuine rapport.

Look for its new CD, The Dream, in stores in late September. Interesting fact: In This Moment is one of the few acts at Ozzfest with new CDs on the horizon. The only other act with one upcoming for sure? Metallica.

... and actually, I've been here for almost an hour. I've spent that time solving some logistical issues with covering the event (seems security here is much tighter than at the typical Texas music festival). As a result, I missed a couple of bands ... but it's likely that you've never heard of them, anyway.

So: I bet you're wondering how hot it is. It is hot ... but it's not like last weekend's 107-degree temps. It's a tad more humid, but not as brutal as New Orleans post-sludge band Soilent Green's buzzy stop-start set on the Jagermeister-sponsored 2nd Stage.

If anyone should have a right to complain about the heat, it's Soilent singer Ben Falgoust. He sang for the stage's opening act, Goat*hore, just two hours ago. Kudos to the barbed wire-throated Mr. Falgoust for keeping his shirt on for this set ... even though as a NOLA native, he's used to this kind of weather-related brutality. More than most know.

Sweet! Serj Tankian's backing band (like Jonathan Davis', I can't state its name on a blog accessible to tender eyes) are all wearing top hats. The System of a Down front man's been fond of them since he launched his solo foray last year: looks like the team's bought into the concept ...

Though by the second song, "Empty Walls," all but Serj had tossed them aside. The drummer's kept on his strap-on neon green butterfly wings, though, hehe.

The set's tight, dark and throaty: easily the most measured of the performances I've seen today. Unfortunately, Serj's material doesn't have the pop touch of SoaD's stuff. It thinks more than rocks, and not many are digging it in the crowd. Serj and 10 Years singer Jesse Hacek need to take the same class in that regard ...

... though he had one genius idea: whoever handed out the small promotional mini-posters that touted Serj's new CD before his set. A bunch of people in the west-facing rows are using those as sunshades during his performance, thus giving Serj some free advertising. Brilliant!

High clouds have rolled onto the scene in earnest now, and they've helped with the sun exposure. Dimebag's still getting his, though.

Not live: that's over and only lasted four songs. Turns out the acoustic ditty was a cover: "Wish You Were Here." I missed the last number, but supposedly the figures in my last post were all involved ...

... but pictures and video clips of Dimebag still populate the big screens. OK: time to put those away, just like it's time to put the tributes away and let the great fuzzy shredder rest, you know?

As Hellyeah rolls through a hitch-filled version of "You Wouldn't Know," about 40 dignitaries have gathered stage left. The gaggle is buzzing about as much as the band performing is, actually. Some pretty huge names in metaldom are in that group, you know ...

And so, about 10 minutes later, the tribute begins. Actually, it started early this morning at Strokers Dallas on Harry Hines, where a processiion of motorcycles rode to Frisco in Dimebag's honor to kick off Ozzfest. A party at the Palladium Ballroom dubbed the Black Tooth Bash will wrap up the honorative proceedings tomorrow, with some of the same stars in attendance as here.

Various clips of him performing and cutting up fill the big screens (cheesy as heck ones, too, including one of him singing the country song "Family Tradition" looking like a reject from Autograph). Then, the all-stars launch into a nasty-good version of "Mouth for War" with Jamey Jasta on vocals and someone else on guitar (a lefty: not Kerry King, not Metallica's Kirk Hammett. Hmmm.)

Now it's Drowning Pool's C.J. Pierce, who fails to intro Max Cavalera about to sing "A New Level." Looks like Igor Cavalera on drums ... and Jaysus, this version is way heavy. Bravo (bang bang bang ... )! Then King Diamond - that's Frisco resident King Diamond, folks, and in full makeup, overcoat and top hat - adds some high-wail color. Niiice!

Pregnant pause ... sheesh, like with twins or something ... it's been five minutes now ... heck with this. I'm going to hydrate. Though the next number is an acoustic piece with way-too-thunder-like drums. Where's my water?