| Avenged Win Over Crowd, System Snore, Ozzy Returns To Form At Ozzfest Launch
AUBURN, Washington - Some of the sun-crisped metalheads packed into the White River Amphitheatre for the first stop on this year's 11th annual Ozzfest were skeptical of "TRL" favorites Avenged Sevenfold being on the festival's main stage. But there they were on Thursday, and the naysayers weren't about to distract the band from the mission at hand: Trying to win the crowd over. So, Avenged, led by the diamond-grilled, Axl-Rose-imitating M. Shadows, pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the hat by covering -- and handily at that -- a tried-and-true metal classic: Pantera's "Walk." Shadows dedicated the tune to the memory of slain Pantera guitarist "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott, and about three riffs in, the audience -- even the cynics -- were sold, pumping their fists and barking the song's stilted refrain: "Re! Spect! Walk!" And for the rest of the band's set, which ended with "Bat Country," Avenged owned them all.
Frampton comes alive with Pops at Riverbend
When Cincinnati Pops trumpeter Doug Lindsay started to play the "talkbox" melody in Peter Frampton's "Show Me the Way" Saturday night, the Riverbend crowd objected. "You're playing it very well, but not here," Frampton said, grinning, as he took over with his twangy talkbox. It was a gentle gag, but it pointed out that the Pops was mostly superfluous in the rock 'n' roll icon's orchestral debut. This was a Frampton lovefest. The thousands who watched clapped, danced and sang along with '70s hits from the best-selling live album of all time, "Frampton Comes Alive!" .
Motion City Soundtrack: 'We Are Evolving'
Since guitarist Josh Cain and his bandmates in Motion City Soundtrack made their way into the national music scene with 2003's I Am The Movie, life has been moving along at a lightening speed. In the past couple of years, MCS has found a cozy spot in Vans Warped Tour and worked with a producer whose name carries plenty of weight in today's music world - Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. Even with Hoppus at the helm of the band's latest CD Commit This To Memory (a deluxe edition with bonus DVD was released on June 20, 2006), the band is open to the possibility of working with new producers for future releases. But for now, the band is currently on a whirlwind trip, playing at all the dates on Warped Tour rather than just a portion as in year's past. While the band is not quite ready to start recording another full album just yet, Cain has gotten the ball rolling by setting up shop in the back of his tour bus.
|
