Category: Blog

A couple of weeks ago, I had the honor of seeing the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. My parents and I took a road trip to Bristow, Virginia for the show. It was perfect timing because Hurricane Florence just hit and I was not trying to be at home without power. So instead of hating life during a hurricane, we went to Virginia to listen to the creator of metal and love life!

Stone Sour opened up for Ozzy and they were really good! This was my second time seeing Stone Sour (I saw them at the Carolina Rebellion 2018). Their lead singer, Corey Taylor, is also the lead singer for Slipknot. And man is he a great front man. He is a singing fool too! He sounded so good live and the band put on a great stage show. Corey Taylor and Stone Sour never disappoint.

This was my first time ever seeing Ozzy! I was super excited because as a big metalhead, seeing Ozzy, live, is on your bucket list. He had Zakk Wylde from Black Label Society playing guitar for him and let me tell you, that man can play the hell out of a guitar. He was running around the entire time and at one point he was walking through the crowd and went up the stairs of the stadium during War Pigs and was playing a guitar solo behind his damn back. He is the best guitarist out there go ahead and try to fight me on this. I dare you.  

Even at age 69, Ozzy still has the energy! He came out running and clapping his hands. He is the blueprint of what a great front man is. Although, when he was talking to us, I had no idea what the hell he was saying, you can hear him sing clearly! He still has the vocals I can tell you that! He still sounds the same and his stage show was insane! He had a huge cross behind him with two large screens that would have different designs and effects depending on the song. With Ozzy making us clap our hands, running around, and spraying water on the crowd (which kinda scared me because he would spray himself and I lowkey thought he was going to drown because he kept tumbling back after he did it), you had Zakk over there running around doing solos, and the rest of the band: Blasko (Bass), Tommy Clufetos (Drums) and Adam Wakeman (Keyboards; guitar) were all jamming out! It was a great show to see!

Ozzy played all of his hits such as War Pigs, Mama I’m Coming Home, Crazy Train, Paranoid, and No More Tears. I was surprised that I literally knew every Ozzy/Black Sabbath song that he played! During the show, one of the security guards gave me the setlist. I repeat, YA GIRL GOT THE SETLIST TO OZZY OSBOURNE’S SHOW!!!!! Jamming out at shows gets you things, I’m telling you.

I am so happy that I got to see Ozzy, he created heavy metal and none of the bands that we have today would be here if it wasn’t for him. So, thank you, Ozzy for being a cool ass dude and being the Godfather of heavy metal.

Stay Metal,

THE SAW

Hi guys, DJ Carnage here (instrumental post-rock and post-metal show!). The other day I got the opportunity (courtesy of WKNC, of course) to see This Will Destroy You at Motorco this past Tuesday night, and I wanted to share my experience:

This Will Destroy You was one of the first post-rock bands I ever started listening to, so when WKNC provided me with the opportunity to attend this show, I sprung on it. Upon arrival, I was easily able to get to the front of the stage (I’m super short, so people let me go in front of them) which made for a great experience of the show. 

They started with “Melted Jubilee”, the first song off of Part One of their new album, New Others (which, by the way, is absolutely fantastic, give it a listen if you have the time). The song set the ambient atmosphere that was maintained throughout the rest of the show, which consisted of a perfect new-to-old song ratio. Not to mention, their stage presentation is intriguing… projectors displayed swaying trees and other nature-esque images onto the stage. It was great to close my eyes and drift away to their atmospheric guitar tones and heavy use of dynamics. Before I knew it, the show was over, but not without an encore in which they played “The Mighty Rio Grande” and “The World Is Our _____”, two of their most famous songs. 

After the show, I got to speak with Andrew, the bassist of the band. We only spoke briefly, but he kindly agreed to record a liner for WKNC, which I hope you all will be hearing soon. 

All in all, This Will Destroy You was far from disappointing, and I highly recommend that anyone who listens to post-rock make the effort to see them live.