Summer Sanitarium

@ THE GEORGIA DOME

As Witnessed by Adam Bowman

It's not everyday you witness music history. In the case of myself and four lucky passengers, however, that rule was waived, as we settled into our seats for the Georgia Dome edition of the Summer Sanitarium tour. For a venue that seats tens of thousands, we were lucky to have 1,000 in at the time System of a Down hit the stage. Heh, just goes to show the values of getting there early. As System blasted through their set (which included "Suite-pee" and even a new track), the first hints of a mosh pit began to show. Finally, the reverent Serj (who was decked out in military fatigue-colored shirt and shorts, a beret and a pair of sunglasses) looked to the crowd and acknowledged us with "You guys a f*ckin' awesome.... you're so good you could even be our...Sug-ahhh!" And with that, they finished their set to the delight of the small crowd there. My driver for the night, Leslie, had the perfect quote for the night. "They're just so angry...if I had five minutes with them, I'd give them all what they need...a hug."

After a thirty minute set change (and the first loud cheer of the night as they raised the Powerman 5000 banner), PM5k took the stage. Nothing new from the band, although they covered all of their hits, such as "When Worlds Collide" and "Supernova Goes Pop." Right before their finisher, "Nobody's Real," Spider One gave a revolutionary tint to the night by proclaiming the Summer Sanitarium as the most important tour of the year. "Every night we come out here and play. Same songs, different city, and every night we play to fifty thousand, sixty thousand, seventy thousand f*ckers and every week when I look on the damn Billboard, all I see are Backstreet Boys.... Britney Spears...N'Sync. That's why I call it the most important tour of the year, 'cause we've got to take the music back."

Forty-five minutes and a huge surge of people later, Kid Rock stormed the stage: dancers, Joe C, inflatable middle finger and all. He was quick to show off his talents, as he took over the turntables, bass, and drums throughout the track. Rock even took over the guitar, playing the classic riffs of "Walk This Way" and "Back In Black", both getting huge pops from the crowd. He too covered all the bases, performing a re-worked, softer and screamless "Only God Knows Why" which in turn went straight into "Cowboy". Ending his set with his latest release, "American Badass", he wished us farewell. However, that wouldn't be the last time we would see him. Refer back to the 'history' thing.

Right on cue after another 45-minute change (much to the hatred of just-now-getting-a-buzz crowd), KoRn hit the stage and proceeded to blow the roof off the Georgia Dome. The mosh pit, now covering half of the Dome's floor area, kicked it up a notch to a set including the opening "Falling Away From Me", "Freak On A Leash", "Somebody Someone", and "Faggot". The fear myself and a couple of my compadres had would be that the sit-in replacement for David may not have been used to the songs just yet. Nothing could have been farther from the truth, as he killed any thoughts of failure when they blasted into the chorus of "Freak On A Leash". Technology was the ultimate detriment to the set, as you could barely hear Jonathan Davis up until their closer, the classic "Blind" (which would hold the title of biggest response of the night). Finally, when KoRn left the stage, the entire Dome crowd (now pushing sold out capacity) literally did not move. They were waiting for the big boys. Metallica they wanted.... history they got.

Roughly half an hour after KoRn had left the stage, Kirk, Jason and Lars all came out on stage. Lars took the mic, and after telling us to get our cheering out of the way, laid down some shocking news. James Hetfield was in a local Atlanta hospital, and would not be able to attend the show. Later, the group would learn he had herniated a disk in his back, but at the time of Lars' message, we feared for our lives. With the now full-fledged drunks roaming the dome as they pleased, myself and my huggy friend Leslie feared a sequel to the Montreal episode of some moons ago. Fortunately, when Lars promised guest singers and a free concert on August 4th, the crowd calmed down to a simmer. That's when it hit us. For the first time, Metallica would play host to guest singers, and we were there to see it.

After nearly an hour's passing since their message, the guys finally hit the stage. Good ol' Jason opened up the deal by crooning out a classic, "Creeping Death". He would follow up with the two songs which by themselves gave the crowd their money's worth, "For Whom The Bell Tolls" and "Seek And Destroy". Finally, guest singer #1 was revealed to be none other than Serj Tankian himself, and while he drew a hell of a response himself, what was later to come wasn't anything like the eccentric frontman. The one and only Kid Rock assumed the duties of "Turn The Page", "Nothing Else Matters", and a medley between "Sad But True" and his own "American Badass", which gathered a huge response from the crowd. Meanwhile, the guys of KoRn stole back the stage in the middle of the set to play their rendition of Cheech & Chong's "Earache My Eye". Get it, Fieldy!

When all was said, done, and sung, a shocking 90 minutes had passed, and our night in the Sanitarium had shaken our sanity, and shown us history.