Mayhem Festival 09!!!

Another great day to update this dusty blog. This is gonna be a looong one. So many things to write, and share. So bear with me.

As you may(or may not care to) know, Mayhem Festival is here again. It's one of the things I look forward to during this boring summer break. I went to last year's mayhem with Slipknot and Disturbed headlining them. It was a blast, but child's play compared to this years'.

First and foremost, there's a lot more of my favorite bands. That includes Trivium, Bullet for My Valentine, Killswitch Engage, God Forbid and All That Remains. One time or another, their songs were featured in my blog post. If you're interested, (who am I kidding) you can use the little search bar up there to find their respective post.

Anyway, the concert/festival was held on sunny Sunday at Tinley Park near Chicago. Since the others are fainthearted with these kind of concert, I traveled alone to the concert to join my metalheads brethren. I drove in a fast and fun Mazda 3, only stopping once to fuel the car an my stomach. I had a Double Whopper w/ cheese and that was the only meal for my whole trip.

I arrived quite early at 1.00pm. After standing in line for half and hour just to get pass the gate item check, I was free to roam around. The first thing in my list was to buy a tshirt. However, I bought two: a Trivium and a Killswitch Engage shirt. There were 3 stages; two small ones and the main stage like every other year. Last year I wasn't interested in the small stage acts since they mainly new and upcoming metal bands. But this year was different, all 3 stages are filled with respectable experienced bands.

While wandering around collecting free items, I saw that there is gonna be a signing session with Trivium. My heart jumped. I was so excited more than the time when I saw my first porn. I can't be more obvious; circling the tent waiting for a sign of queue line to form even though there was 1 more hour before the session starts. Fast forward 1 hour, I was about to get their autographs. I was thinking of what to say to them. I ask Paolo why he'd shave his awesome hair. He said he was sick of long hair. When it was time to meet Matt Heafy, the vocalist and guitarist of the band, I was lost for words.

Here was the scene:
Matt: How you doin'? (shake hands)
Me: Err, good, good. I love your songs. Can I maybe take a picture with you?
Matt: Sure. Let that guy hold the camera. (take this awesome pic).
Matt: So, what ethnicity are you from?
Me: I'm Malay.
Matt: Great to see another Asian Metalheads! I'm Japanese.
Me: I know dude. Thanks.
It was one of those memorable moments that I won't soon forget. Right after taking Trivium's autographs, God Forbid performance was almost over. While the stages is set up for the next performance, which was All That Remains, I managed to snake my way into the middle of the crowd.
As soon as the band started to play, the crowd went wild. I was thrown around in the sea of people. I was so tightly squeezed that I was sure that if I jump, I'm gonna pop on top of the crowd. While watching the band I was also busy protecting my stuff. I had a bag filled with tshirts, free stuff and autographed posters. Too busy was I that I wasn't aware that a mosh pit has formed around me. A mosh pit is a circle where people slam each other just for the adrenaline rush. Google it if that doesn't make sense. I did managed to get out with my limbs still intact.
Once All That Remains performance was over, there was a 30 minute break for the roadie to set up for the next act. It was gonna be none other than TRIVIUM! This time I got even closer to the stage. I was literally within 3meters of the stage. This time I was not gonna budge. Two guys beside were holding tall beer cans in their hand. I had a feeling they were not gonna finish them in time for the performance and I was right. When Trivium entered the stage, everyone was jumping and pumping their fist in the air. Before anything else, I was wet with beer.
But I was not gonna let that stop me from enjoying my self. Matt Heafy was awesome. His singing is even better live. They're guitar works were not lacking from the recorded version. That's a good thing since I hate bands that cannot perform as well as their recorded act.
Trivium played 5-6 songs. I remember them playing Down From the Sky, When All Light Dies, Pull Harder on the String of the Martyr, and finally Throes of Perdition. Once they're finished, I was soaking wet with my own sweat, other people sweat and beer. I went to the bathroom to clean myself. It's now 6:30pm and the performance on the Main Stage is about to start.

This is just the half way point of the trip. There was alot more happening. I'm just gonna continue at a later time.