After the 2001 Street Scene, I vowed never to go again. Why? Easy… there were so damn many people that I could not really see any band after 8pm on the Friday night that I went. But I could not pass up on seeing Sprung Monkey, STP and Sevendust this year!

So I was hoping this year would be better, even though they projected a larger attendance. The promoters were smart (finally) and put two giant video screens at each of the larger stages. So basically, no matter where you stood, you could see the band! This prevented people from pushing and shoving as bad has they have in years past. Everyone had a much better time! I hope the screens will be there every year!

Friday

My friends and I always get there when they open up on Friday. But as in past years, they always open late. Every year they give us the same excuse… "the Fire Marshall is not done doing the final inspection". Either this is bull-shit or the Fire Marshall can't get his shit together and get to the event a little earlier? I don't get it.

Anyway, the first band I went to see was Sprung Monkey (the greatest band to ever come out of San Diego). They were great but for some reason played too many new songs no one knew. Come on guys, at an event like this, you need to play all the popular songs! They also did not play their full allotted amount of time? What's up with that?

Next we caught a few songs from Flogging Molly (a band my friends and I know well) before we headed over to stake out a good spot for Stone Temple Pilots! After the band Live, STP came on and really tore it up! It was great to see a band of the caliber at an event like this. Scott Weiland was not as wild as he was when they played the Del Mar Fair but still put on an excellent show! Made it well worth the high price to get into Street Scene.

I noticed at the Best Buy stage the sound mix really sucked. It was distorted for some reason. Luckily this was not the case over at the Ford stage. There also were not any speakers for the fans at the front of the stage. We could hardly hear the singers and only heard some of the music coming from the musicians monitors. That really sucked!

Sunday

The only reason I came on Sunday was to see one of my favorite bands, Sevendust. Okay, I might be slight biased, but someone really screwed up the line up on the Ford Stage where Sevendust played! For some reason they scheduled Sevendust to play first @ 2:40pm when there was hardly anyone there. They were followed by Default, Unwritten Law then Nickelback. If it were me making the lineup, it would have been Default, Unwritten Law, Nickelback then Sevendust! I'm not sure if Sevendust has ever played a headlining show in San Diego and it would have been nice to see an entire set from them. Who cares that Nickelback has a few lame videos on MTV?

Even though Sevendust was first, they kicked ass (as seen in the photos I took of them). They put on a great show and got the San Diego crowd going. When Lajon (the singer) saw us singing their songs and raising our fists in the air, I think he realized that they have more fans in San Diego then they thought! I hope they come back soon, often and headline!!!

Next came the Canadian group Default. These guys started over 20 minutes late because of not being able to get their equipment to work. Then during the first song, the bass players rig went out and the singers microphone kept going out for most of the first two songs! Guess they choose their sound techs poorly. I was not impressed with Default at all. The guitarist seemed like a complete ass-hole and thought he was a guitar god (he was not). So what would a professional band do if they started late to keep the rest of the show on schedule? Well Default didn't do it! Sure they could have cut out a lame song or two. They could have really cut out the lame guitar solo for sure! But no, they did their entire set and ended up 20 minutes late. This not only caused all the bands on the Ford stage to start late for the rest of the evening, but also the Fox Rox stage also! This made Street Scene end late… could have been a problem for people using public transit. I wish I had a "default" button to send these guys back from where they came from! The person in charge of the bands at Street Scene should have cut them off at their ending time!

Next came Unwritten Law. This band really got the crowd going. Don't know why. The best moment was when the drunk singer sang a song with his daughter? Go figure.

Nickelback ended the night and finished up the 2002 Street Scene music festival. They put on the best stage show I have ever seen at Street Scene. Complete with awesome lighting and fire! I heard the singer does not drink to do drugs… sure talked about pot a lot! Also, most of their songs sound the same. Listen to a few and you could have gone home!

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The Ozzman cometh and he left and I doubt that this festival will ever come to San Diego again. This was the first time ever that Ozzfest has come to San Diego but as Rob Zombie noted (out loud) that this was the smallest crowd for this years Ozzfest. I have always wanted to see Ozzfest but was never willing to make the drive to the L.A. smog ridden area, so I was very excited that it was finally coming to San Diego! Now that I have gone, I will never go again and I seriously doubt that most of the "newer" bands that played will ever come to San Diego again due to the way that San Diego fans acted!

Why? Easy... it was by far the lamest "metal" concert I have ever gone to. Oh there are many reasons. Maybe it was the unseasonably hot weather that most of us whippy San Diegans are not use to. Maybe it was the $8 crappy beer that Coors Amphitheatre continues to pour (along with the crappiest food known to man kind). Maybe it was the $32 Ozzfest t-shirts that you could buy on the web site for $17)! It could have been the endless line up of new completely un-original bands on the second stage (either Incubus wanna bees or metal bands that the singer had a growling voice so bad that you could not understand a word he was singing). All of the bands on the second stage lacked the talent to get the crowd going. Instead they relied on insults. I doubt that most of these bands will ever make it big! (at least I hope not)

Also, there was no beer even allowed into the second stage area! What was that all about? Anyway, most of the metal heads were still waking up and just stood there. Of course there were a few drunk and stoned ones burning in the hot sun (bet the regretted it the next day). Then came the main stage...

The Main Stage Bands

The main stage finally got underway (so we could sit down) at about 4:20 with some band I never heard of (or ever want to hear from again) called Otep. Lead by a woman with some definite anger management issues! This was followed by the Black Label Society which is lead by Ozzy's guitarist Zakk Wild. They were pretty good, but Zakk is still better when he plays for Ozzy.

The energetic Adema was next, which still failed to get the crowd going. Man, I never knew that singer from Adema was so short from those MTV videos! Anyway, Tommy Lee proved that he should stick to drumming and knocking up Playboy centerfolds. Then finally our home town boys, P.O.D. came on stage! Finally the crowd woke up! I kinda wished the video cameras were working for them. They were great! I wish they would come back and headline a show.

Next was the famous demon Rob Zombie! I was looking forward to seeing Rob, since I have not seen him before. He was totally unimpressive. He sang horribly, missed words all the time and seemed very bored with the entire show after he announced that this was the smallest Ozzfest audience. It seemed to me that he walked back behind his set and cut his show short (but that is just my opinion). The best part about Rob Zombie was his band. They kicked ass and picked up his slack!

Next came System of a Down. They were pretty good but I kept wondering what drug they were on! Also, there was no video of them, just a lot of very irritating pre-canned video images behind them. I guess you would have to be taking what they were to understand it.

Ozzy Osborne

I was of course looking forward to seeing the godfather of metal! I have not seen him in awhile and now that he is getting up there in age, I don't know how long he will be touring. I reflected back to when he first started out on his own and I saw him like four time in one year! That was a long time ago! His band is great but the old man is... well just old. His singing has gone down hill, he relies heavily on a teleprompter and now is even using the microphone stand to keep upright. His hands and arms are shaking pretty bad now (even worse then in the Osborne TV show).  When Zakk went into his guitar solo, he had to be helped off the stage. My son told me the he though that Zakk had to extend his solo because Ozzy did not make it back on time.

On another note, Zakk Wild kicked ass! He was just awesome! In the new world of metal where guitarist just play heavy riffs, it's nice to see that someone can still shred like a wild man! I was completely impressed and so was my son! I am still completely in awe of Zakk's sound.

So in the end, it was great to see Ozzy. I got the sense that he really does love it and didn't want to leave the stage. But please SHARON, please don't let him tour any more. Please let him enjoy his life with his family before his condition worsens. It will be a loss to the music world, but I think he and Sharon need to think of Ozzy for a change.

Impressive Band Changes

One thing was really impressed with was how fast the they changed the stage from one band to another. On the second stage it took about five minutes tops! I have never seen that in my life! On the main stage it was five to ten minutes! Wow! How did they do that. And I mean a complete stage change too including the next band playing! The band that actually took the longest to change was P.O.D. for some reason. They had these big silly looking animal statue things that the video screen had to be lifted for so they could fit under it.

San Diego Fans Were Lame

One thing I noted earlier that the crowd at Ozzfest was pretty tame (for a metal concert). I stated many reasons but I must put some blame on the fans. This was the first hard rock/metal concert that has rolled in to San Diego all year and most of the people just stood there?!?!?! 

It came to an all time low for me when the fans were more interested in drunk stupid idiots fighting with security guards or drunk stupid idiots starting fires in the lawn area! At one point during the Ozzy show I had to yell at some people to get off of their chairs so I could see Ozzy! That's right, they would rather watch a fight then watch Ozzy and Zakk!!!! After that I just hung my head in shame that I live in San Diego.

While the fans were a little better at Street Scene the next weekend, this was a pitiful performance and I know we can do better then that. But don't expect many hard rock/metal bands to come to here after this word gets out San Diego! You did it to yourself!