Ozzfest 2006: San Bernardino, CA
by Rawker Rachel

Ozzfest interview: The Red Chord with bassist Greg Weeks & guitarist John Fay
Set Time: 9:10 am
Number of people dancing: Too many for 9 am
Temperature: 100 degrees
Wind Level: 1%
Dust Level: 20%
Heatstroked Attendees: 2
Trend: Bad tattoos > Mullets
Weeks: My name is Greg,
YMM: And you play..
Weeks: I play bass.
YMM: For..
Weeks: Fall Out Boy. I mean The Red Chord.
Fay: My name is John and I play guitar for The Red Chord.
Weeks: And also Fall Out Boy!
Fay: And also Fall Out Boy. I DJ for them.
YMM: Is this your first Ozzfest?
Weeks: To play it is.
Fay: I've been to several Ozzfests since I was 15. It's kind of cool to now be part of it and see what goes on behind the scenes. I'd rather be playing because we know all the bands on the second stage too; most of them we've been playing with for years. It's kind of cool to see all of the bands we grew up with and see them everyday on a big stage in front of a lot of kids, so it's a trip.
Weeks: Attending no. I used to go as a young man myself. And I definitely prefer playing them because we get deli trays in the morning! And as far as my knowledge, unless they changed the rules, if you attend you do not get deli trays. It's our first bus tour too, so that's weird for us. We're used to being in a van and a trailer and not eating and not sleeping. Now it's going to take a little bit longer to get on each other's nerves I think.
YMM: Who are you excited to see play?
Weeks: All of the second stage. Between The Buried And Me, A Life Once Lost, Full Blown Chaos..they're all friends of ours, we've been touring with them for years.
Fay: ... and Dragonforce!

Ozzfest interview: Bleeding Through with keyboardist Marta Peterson
Set Time: 1:05 pm
Number of people dancing: More if water wasn't $3.50 for half a damn bottle
Temperature: 111 degrees
Wind Level: 5%
Dust Level: 58%
Heatstroked Attendees: 312
Trend: White trash > Actual trash
YMM: What is "heavy"?
Peterson: "Heavy" just means..wow that's so hard..um, opposite of light? Opposite of easy listening? Something that might put you in the mood to move, and "heavy" music might put you in the mood to move; it might make you want to possibly get violent. Maybe aggressive is a better word because you can be aggressive and still be happy and have fun.
YMM: Does "heavy" have to be a particular style?
Peterson: No, I don't think so at all. There's probably heavy parts in a rap song. "Heavy" is meant to be intense and slower, in my opinion; and thicker. "Heavy" is definitely an Ozzfest genre, but I don't think it's limited to just rock, or metal, or punk. I definitely think that other music can have 'heavy' parts, but there's definitely more of a tendency for metal to be 'heavy' consistently where every song aspires to be "heavy."

Ozzfest interview: Norma Jean with drummer Daniel Davison
Set Time: 12:30 pm
Number of people dancing: Almost everyone, if you can see through the dust cloud
Temperature: 108 degrees
Wind Level: 3.8%
Dust Level: 63%
Heatstroked Attendees: 309
Trend: White belts > Bandanas
YMM: What are the advantages and disadvantages of playing a morning, afternoon and an evening set?
Davison: We never really played in the morning. I mean, we played around 11 in the morning one day because some of the bands were really late and we just got pushed forward over an hour. But I don't think there's any advantage of playing in the morning. After you play though, you have the rest of the day to do whatever, and even then that's kinda sucks because there's nothing to do. We don't play at night on this tour because we play at the same time everyday in the afternoon, and the benefit of that is getting finished with everything..playing, loading, whatever else..by like 3 or 4 at the latest, and you have time to hang out. It's really cool, especially if you have friends in town, then you can leave and stuff too.
YMM: How did you get a non-rotating slot on the Second Stage?
Davison: They had asked us to do it last year, but we turned it down because we already had booked Sounds of the Underground. And the rotating bands pay to get on, and last year they wanted us to be a rotator, so we said "Thank you very much, but we can't.." because we didn't want to have to pay to play, and then on top of that pay for a bus, and have to play at 9 in the morning..No thanks. So we did Sounds of the Underground last year, which was really good. Then Ozzfest asked us again this year and offered us a permanent spot. Getting paid is always a lot better than paying!

Ozzfest interview: Unearth with guitarist Ken Suzi
Set Time: 1:40 pm
Number of people dancing: As if a herd of cattle at the slaughterhouse backlashed against Farmer Ted
Temperature: 115 degrees
Wind Level: 4%
Dust Level: 42%
Heatstroked Attendees: 441
Trend: Fat naked chicks > Hot naked chicks
YMM: Why did you choose to play Ozzfest again?
Suzi: It's a great honor to be asked back. You can't get a phone call saying, "Hey, you want to be on tour with Ozzy Osbourne?" and say "No." So we definitely wanted to do this. We were on Sounds of the Underground last year; it was either this [Ozzfest] or Warped Tour.
YMM: Do you think you would fit in with the Warped Tour crowd?
Suzi: No, not necessarily; but we would definitely bash in some heads. Kids are definitely crossing over now. Those types of kids want to see a heavy band every year, and I don't think it's a bad thing to have an Unearth or a Killswitch Engage or Dillinger Escape Plan or an Every Time I Die on that tour.
YMM: What's the benefit of doing a summer fest as opposed to doing your own tour?
Suzi: Summer fests are cool because it's a nice little package with a bow on top. You show up, everything's all laid out, and you just go there and play. On your own tour, you set up how you want to see the tour, and what bands you want to tour with, this that and the other thing. But festivals are an excuse to go out with 10-14 bands and just rock. And to see how you do compared to other bands, or just be happy to be around other bands that you want to hear everyday. So this is one of those circumstances that we saw the line-up for, and we thought, "Wow, that would be really cool to go out with all of these bands; they're good dudes, it's going to be a fun summer."