4 Hours in a Mosh Pit [aka Music as a Weapon IV]

I have not been on-line very much this month, due to this being our last month in Wisconsin. 

Yes, it's almost time to move on, once again. After getting used to only being in places for 3 months at a time, we've spoiled ourselves by remaining in Wisconsin for a full year! 

We still have not decided where we are going to go next - If you had asked me last week, I would have told you Bangor, Maine - however, that job did not sound as appeasing as we had hoped for, so we are just waiting for the ideal place to come up.

Enough of that though - I will inform everyone, once we have made a decision on where we are going to go next. In the meantime, I am focusing on finishing the kid's schooling up, before we head back out on the road. [hence my not having been on-line very much this month]

The reason for this post:

The family and I started our morning by traveling north, for about an hour, to attend our neighbor's wedding. [My horror loving/tattoo artist friend that I've mentioned several times before - he and his girlfriend have been together for 11 years and just now decided to get married!] They had a small ceremony, for family and friends, at a beautiful waterfall park, and it was a perfect day for it!

I am happy for the both of them and honored that we were invited to attend in their special day.

After the wedding, I took my 15-year-old son to the Music as a Weapon tour, headlined by Disturbed. This was the last day of the tour, which also included Lacuna Coil, Chimaira, and Killswitch Engage. My son is a self-taught guitarist [a pretty good one, I must say - he can play Beatles, Metallica, etc] Anyhow, Dan Donegan [the guitarist for Disturbed] is one of his inspirations, so I thought I would take him to his first major concert, and to make the event more memorable, we arrived super early, so that we could get front & center stage!

I, of course, am familiar with Disturbed and I was looking forward to seeing Lacuna Coil live, however I was not really familiar with Killswitch Engage, and had never even heard of Chimaira.

My son and I were about 10th in line, waiting to get into the concert, and as the doors opened, they had a pat down area, where I was told that my wallet chain was considered a weapon [?!?] and I would have to take it back to my vehicle. [did I mention that the line was at least a thousand people long, behind us?] I wasn't about to let our time spent in line go to waste, so I sent my son on in and told him that I would find him [the doors opened an hour before the concert started, so I knew I had time] After taking my wallet back to my truck, I skipped everyone in line and went directly back to the same security guard, to let me through, so that I could find my son, which I did, no problem. 

We were right at the stage, with only one row of people between us and the rail, which was a good thing, as this allowed for some sort of cushion when the crowd started pressing forward. Fortunately for us, my son was right beside the Asgardian god of Thunder - this dude looked just like Thor! [I even told him that he should audition for the upcoming movie, which is pretty funny, as he is actually starring in an upcoming independent horror film! He's going to be the killer, due to his size - He's at least 6 1/2 feet tall and built!] So, I told my son, when people started moshing, etc to stick by that dude! This worked out perfectly for Lacuna Coil & Chimaira, but after that, Thor decided that he had had enough of the moshing, behind us, and the crowd surfers over us - not to mention the idiots that kept throwing their cups of beer - disgusting! [You don't get that kind of disrespect at a Metallica concert, that's for sure!]

So, Thor left and Killswitch Engage came on. Killswitch Engage likes to do a little something they call the Wall of Pain, where they split the floor down the middle, and then have the opposing wall of people collide with one another - this was fun and all, except for the fact that my son & I became separated at this point [no biggee as we had a contingency plan] I stayed where I was, so that I could take some pictures for his MySpace page - here are some of the pics:

[I took pictures of all four bands, however since I am a fan of Lacuna Coil & Disturbed, these are what I am posting]

Andrea Ferro [co-lead singer] and Criz Mossati of Lacuna Coil

Christina Scabbia [the other co-lead singer] of Lacuna Coil

Disturbed's Set

David Draiman [lead singer for Disturbed] coming out ala Hannibal Lecter

Another shot of Draiman

John Moyer [Bassist for Disturbed]

Dan Donegan [Guitarist for Disturbed]

Another shot of Donegan with the 'Indestructible' backdrop

 

One more of Draiman

Mike Wengren [Drummer for Disturbed] during his outstanding drum solo!

So, there you have it. :-)

Just an FYI that I also bought my Terminator: Salvation ticket [for the midnight showing on Wednesday night] so stay tuned for that review, on Thursday. I will also, more than likely, post a list of the movies that I have been watching, throughout the month, that I have just not yet had the time to blog about, before we leave Wisconsin. . .

Jason