Scroll Down for our "OzzFest Family Album"
AT THE LAKEWOOD AMPHITHEATRE: ATLANTA, GEORGIA
By Adam Bowman
July 4th.....normally, you would be either roasting food on the grill, roasting yourself by the pool, or just hanging out and watching a movie marathon. Those of us filling up the outdoor venue named Lakewood Amphitheater were treated to some of the hottest hard rock acts around. All thanks to a man named Ozzy. Can anyone say....Ozzfest 2000?
The second stage kicked off the day, as well as the theatrics. The guys of Disturbed took the stage, minus David. Well, he finally showed up....after someone wheeled him on stage. His attire? A straight jacket and Hannibal Lecter mask. Cute...fitting, but cute. The band went on to open Ozzfest in style...teeth-loosening, ass-kicking style.
As the day pressed onward (and I mean pressed, the heat was unbearable by noon), bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Primer 55, and even Methods of Mayhem kicked off the main stage area, while Crazy Town and Shuvel added a hip-hop flair to the second stage. The trend continued until the first real conflict of the night came. On the main stage was Incubus...but at the same time, stomping the second stage was none other than Kittie. To the shock of many, the first stage beckoned me. My idea was clear of what to expect from Kittie....Incubus, had not been figured out just yet. Forty-five minutes later, the band had a new fan. Also, Brandon from Incubus had the first good quote of the concert. "How's your Independence Day, folks? Yeah, the day we celebrate our independence from......space aliens, yeah..." Meanwhile, the theatrics continued, as Tony Campos and Ken Jay of Static-X hopped aboard bicycles and sped through the second stage crowd right before they were to lash out at the main stage folk.
While the crowd had been fairly dormant the entire day, the next main stage act would change that. When Static-X (cyclers and all) opened up with their latest single, "I'm With Stupid", the crowd literally gave them an ovation seconded only by Pantera and Ozzy's. Their set was nothing short of blistering, as they wound up doing nearly all of their debut album, as well as dedicating their cover of "Burning Inside" to it's originator, Ministry. Two funny quotes from this set, as a friend of mine standing beside me proclaimed that "you can see Wayne's hair from back here!" The other came from Mr. Hair himself, as he hyped up the crowd for the upcoming acts. "Who's ready for some Godsmack? *loud cheers* How bout some Pantera?? *louder cheers* F*ckin' Ozzy?!? *huge cheers* Britney Speeeeeeeears?" (You've never heard so many hateful comments in your life, trust me on that!)
Ending their performance with "Push It", the band soon gave way to the guys who would steal the show, Godsmack. While debuting plenty of bitchin' new tracks (including one entitled "Tired Of Life"), Sully took the time to relay news of a new album due out on Halloween day. With run-throughs of opener "Whatever" and closer "Keep Away", the crowd got a chance to sing along, and in the name of irony, it wasn't near the volume of singing that came with "Bad Religion". However, after Sully's goodbyes, the crap hit the fan, especially when the Pantera banner was raised.
Vinny Paul and Co. came out to a thunderous ovation, which only doubled when they hit the opening chords to "Walk". All of the crowd nearly exploded while singing along with the chorus, and from there on, they never let up. After a tease of "Cemetery Gates", Phil got on his soapbox. "That's f*cking beautiful, isn't it? Well, f*ck that, you motherf*ckers." Then, they added onto the f'ing totals with "F*cking Hostile", and then proceeded to end it with a hilarious 5-second tease of Ozzy's "Over The Mountain". In the end, my ears were near death, and the crowd was anticipating Ozzy. Before he came on stage, we were treated to a video where Ozzy poked fun at nearly everyone. He danced along with N'Sync, proclaimed himself "Iron Man" in Gladiator, gave Britney Spears a nice little sex toy, gave the American Pie treatment to an apple pie, and even wore an afro wig for a spoof of the "Whassup?" commercials.
Eventually entering the stage with a pyro display, Mr. Osbourne kicked off his 85 minute set with classics such as "No More Tears". While tearing into "Mr. Crowley", even Ozzy himself had to stop for a minute, as nearly the entire crowd found some sort of light to shine in the air. Before the end of the song, you could see the stage perfectly without any assistance from the stage lights. Also, in typical Ozzy tradition, water was everywhere. The top of the stage was armed with five water cannons, while the maniacal king of metal himself had an arsenal consisting of fire hose and buckets of water. The man was even equipped with a seat which rose to the top of the stage, where Ozzy rose the total of water cannons to six. His antics alone made the show worth the time, but some in the crowd thought it better to build bonfires and dance around. While police and local security put out most of the blazes, Ozzy himself put an end to the shenanigans with a fair warning to the crowd not to "f*ck themselves up".
The entire Ozzfest cast put on an amazing show, with the five headliners doing more than their part to give the fans their money's worth. Despite some of the crowd's actions during the Ozzman's set, his performance as well as those from Static-X and Godsmack made up for it. Just goes to show you, rock is far from dead. God bless America.
TSLA'S EXCLUSIVE OZZFEST 2000 FAMILY ALBUM
KITTIE
PRIMER 55	STATIC-X	DISTURBED
INCUBUS
SHUVEL	QUEENS / STONE AGE	GODSMACK
DEADLIGHTS		SLAVES ON DOPE