ROCKSTAR MAYHEM FEST 2009 (Slayer, Marilyn Manson, Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, & More)

White River Amphitheatre - Seattle, WA
July 14th, 2009
Show Review by: Ziggy Sawdust

To fully understand what I am about to say, it needs to be known that after almost my entire life of listening to metal, it has only been within the last three to four years that I have succeeded in venturing beyond an 8- year span of absolute routine. Now, as a grey haired 32- year old, I have lived a dream and the catalyst for that dream was the Rockstar Mayhem Festival (coming soon to a town near you!).

July 13th at 8:30 am (Monday morning), I got up to make my kids breakfast and move through my day. At 8:30 that evening, I napped for an hour then went to work, reititerating all night that I just HAD to leave by 6am. Rest assured that I left AT 6 (Tuesday morning now) to join up with my girlfriend C.S. and my very good friends Monster & Violet for the roughly 300- mile drive to the White River Ampitheater in Auburn, Wa. And what road trip is complete without car problems, road rage and sleep deprivation, right? After almost 5 hours of driving that included reaching an altitude of over 3000 feet through the Cascade mountains (snow in july, folks) we pull up to the hotel to find out the room's not ready yet, but it's ok because after Violet walked into someone's car, who turned out to be a pissed off mom who was promised there was a shuttle so she wouldn't have to drive her son there and back only to find out there wasn't so we offered a ride, much to her gratification. Thus, we acquired this kid Doug, who was actually a pretty cool dude.

After having to go back for forgotten money, we hit the VIP parking and were promptly sent in the wrong direction to the gate. A short trip around the property, through the delivery area, a drainage ditch and a trek along the highway later, we walk up to the gate only to be told we were in the wrong line and Early Entrance was "over there". Fortunately, instead of waiting behind the other thousands of people in THAT line, we immediately ran into some hometown folks at the head of the line that Monster & Violet knew who saw us and were like "I've been looking for you guys all morning; I saved you a place, get in here", and so we were that much closer.



Finally inside after the gate opened well after the promised time, and an hour to kill before the music started it was time to hit the booths before the General Admission crowd got let in to buy all the merch and grab free goodies. The kind folks from Metal Blade Records offered the thrill of getting linejumper bracelets to meet Behemoth, Job For A Cowboy and fucking Cannibal Corpse! Naturally, I caved. Prosthetic Records represented themselves as well, with CD's and stuff for sale, a chance to meet All That Remains, and a nice goodie bag. At the Roadrunner tent, if you wanted to stand in line for an hour, it was possible to meet Killswitch Engage and Trivium among grabbing your swag. Plus all the Vendor & T- shirt booths, beer gardens ($9 beers!!), food, Metal Mulisha pulling stunts and all the people- watching you could endure (which was sometimes hard to endure, let me tell you).



About 2 pm (almost 30 hours awake), Whitechapel opened up the first half hour with a vengeance on the Hot Topic stage and it didn't matter that I've only heard a few of their songs before because they were still awesome. We chose to miss the local band, Northwest Royale, playing on the Jagermiester stage and later, Black Dahlia Murder back on the other stage after that to instead wander around and meet Behemoth for fuck's sake. I mean, come on...



One meet & greet and four autographs down, it was time to eat $9 nachos (cozy up to as many rich aunts & uncles you can before you go if you want fluid and nourishment) and get back to one of the most important moments in my life: meeting Cannibal Corpse. Partial dream fulfilled, it was time to catch the tail end of God Forbid's set from the fringes of the Jager stage crowd and wait for Job For A Cowboy to get with it and tear some heads off back at Hot Topic with some earlier songs and new material from the upcoming "Ruination" album. Once they started laying in, it was such a press of bodies at about center crowd that it was all I could do to protect C.S. from getting mauled and crushed as best I could, since she's just a petite little thing. But, we endured and again, it was freakin' awesome.



After Job setteled everyone's score and unfamiliar with All That Remains, I chose to get C.S. to safety and decompress after her ordeal with some fresh water (buy your $4 bottled then fill it at the fountains...). A bit more venue- cruising and choosing a safer location separated us from Monster & Violet but brought us to the blackness and bloodspray of Behemoth dominating the crowd with hits "Slaves Shall Serve" & "Demigod", new material from "Evangelion" and more. In full agreement that it was an excellent set, we met back at the booth for our last meet & greet with Job For A Cowboy which was, naturally, awesome.





34 hours awake, through mountain passes, steamy crowds and enduring a burning sun, my journey officially ended when I left C.S. in a safe location and firmly planted myself in the center of that part of the lot that would hold the main Cannibal crowd but behind the "pit" area and caught the last few songs from Trivium while the throng engulfed me as the hour approached and the chants grew louder. The legends themselves took the stage and promptly burst into "Evisceration Plague" while everyone went nuts. Headbanging, singing along and throwing mad horns, I said to myself "Fuck it, I'm going to the front", and earned the privilege of being at the barrier by fighting my way through zero space and the pit to get into the full crush at the front which was like being in a human washing machine, helping along the surfers when I had to until I was close enough to try reaching my arm between people (almost impossible) to at least touch the fence and finally, I was leaning over my goal and finally living the dream with Cannibal fucking Corpse live right in my face. After their brutal best, there wasn't a happier person in that crowd that day than me.



Hot, sweaty, sore, dishevelled and feeling gross but spiritually renewed, the night wasn't close to being over, however. By that time, the powers that be had opened up the ampitheater itself for the main stage shows, so off we went to refuel on more overpriced edibles while listening to Bullet For My Valentine since it was unclear whether we could bring food into the ampitheater but we got in on time to catch the full set from Killswitch Engage from our seats this time (row 7, behind the pit), which was: Awesome! If we were unsure before, they proved absolutely worthy of being a headliner with their stage presence and crowd interaction while working their way through hits like "My Curse" and "Holy Diver" and demanding "The Wall Of Death" from the brave ones and inspiring crowdsurfing like waves on breakers after cautioning everyone to take care of each other-- not just one or two people but endless bodies side to side, up and over the fence to loop through and do it again; they owned it all.



After the intermission and set changes, the mood shifted as the sun went down and Slayer took the stage with all the power the crowd could handle. The beats were so heavy, the air pressure was enough to close my throat and my ears rang from Kerry and Jeff's sonic assault while Tom Araya sipping a cup of hot tea between songs allowed his voice to melt my brain as they powered almost non- stop through "War Ensemble", "Chemical Warfare", "Angel Of Death" and more of everyone's favorite songs for almost an hour with people even slamdancing in the aisles and knowing every word of every song-- but not the kid behind us. We chatted before Killswitch and he's like "I don't even know who Slayer is..". What the fuck was HE doing there?

Another intermission and set change, cue the music and it's the shocker himself: Marilyn Manson, reunited with the legendary Twiggy Ramirez, annihilating the final set of the night with props for everything and the badass attitude that got him where he is today. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to appreciate it more, I was so tired from being up almost 40 hours and getting brutalized sonically and physically for almost 10 full hours, I had to call it quits and end the night out of direct range of the sound system before the show finally ended; I was just too pooped to pop any more. Then we all met back up, saddled up and got detoured well out of town, thanks to the local cops, and yours truly finally nodded off in the car trying to get back to the hotel, a day well spent, a time to remember, and definitely the heaviest American tour I can think of.

-Ziggy Sawdust

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