SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND – 2006 – AS I LAY DYING, IN FLAMES, TRIVIUM, CANNIBAL CORPSE

Looking back to 2005, I can surely say that Sounds Of The Underground was the best show of the year. 2006 has already been a kick ass year and I was looking for SOTU II to be near or at the top of the list for best shows again. The lineup was a bit weaker but…………….freakin' GWAR was playing so big fun was in store for Tgod and co.

The day started with a bit of a lull, with six hardcore bands playing all in a row. I looked at the schedule and didn't see any bands that I liked till after 3:00, so I set out on a quest to meet The Corpsegrinder and get all the Corpse guys to sign my “Kill” shirt. I accomplished my mission quickly as they all came out to their booth. I met all the guys and they signed my shirt and me and Donna took some cool pics with George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher. It was awesome! Nice guys! Then finally it was time for some real Metal. It was good to get all the Hardcore stuff out of the way early. I had a photo pass so I made my way up to the stage for the first time of the day to get pics of Behemoth. Behemoth brought some Polish thunder and really got this day kicking. Corpse paint, Spiked black boots. Real freakin' Metal!!!!!! They kicked ass!!! The crowd was a surfin', stompin' safari. Finally, the party had started. Next came The Black Dahlia Murder and they turned up the adrenalin meter even more. If there was a roof it would've been blown off by now. BDM was their usual whirlwind of viscious hard driving, screaming Metal and the crowd was going beserk. A couple more Hardcore bands were up next so I took a break and through a weird twist of fate landed, with my son, on the GWAR tour bus, partying with Dave Brockie (Oderus). It was amazing!! A dream come true for both of us. I made my way back up and waited for GWAR!!! I told Dave I would be right under his mic and he said they would get me. I was geared up for a major bloodsoaking. GWAR was amazing once again. I was drenched in blood after the first kill and then I went surfing some waves. It was big,big fun as always. GWAR is the best time you could ever have at a show. They did some new shit that was awesome and Alice Cooper's “Schools Out” was the highlight of one of their best performances I've ever seen. Gor-Gor the Tyrant Lizard also came and chomped off some heads. Amazing!! Cannibal Corpse thundered on after that and if there were walls here they would've have been blown out! Corpse was freakin' pounding!! New shit from “Kill” and all the old classics, “Fucked with a Knife”, “Hammersmashed Face”, “Stripped, Raped and Strangled”. F**K yeah!! The crowd was a bloodsoaked frenzy after those two. Freakin' nuts!! I took a break while some more Hardcore was on, but after that I made my way back up front for Trivium. I'm not a big fan, but they”re awesome live and they did an awesome set. The same goes for In Flames. I only like about 50 percent of their stuff, but I've seen them live before and they were awesome and they were awesome here today. I hung up front for their set. An amazing performance. As I Lay Dying was the headliner and I snapped off some pics of them and left before their set was even over. They were good but I wanted to beat the crowd back to my car for some late nite tailgaiting. It was an awesome, awesome day!!

Make sure to go to the Gallery and check out all the awesome pics from the show!!!