Due to the fact that Slipknot and K0rn were playing an outdoor event Tuesday in town, the crowd at the Monday show wasn't huge. At least, that's what everybody there seemed to attribute it to, with many saying friends could only go to one and chose the other.

We drove by at around 4:00 PM to see Lacuna Coil having a nice grilling session out in the parking lot, hanging on lawn chairs and just general looking like they were enjoying the nice weather. We came back around 5:00 and decided to "get in line." The line, at that time, was five people. Sad.

When the doors finally opened a little after six, we got up to the barricade. Around seven, Zillion took the stage. They were SHOCKINGLY good for a small-time band. Plus, they had a female guitarist that was GORGEOUS and rawked shit like a god damn pro. Seriously, most metal dudes could take lessons from this chick. And, she was REALLY hot. Looked a lot like Lindsey on Freaks and Geeks, just with slightly smaller features on he face.

Chimaira came out next, and the crowd got a little k00ky. Once again, it was relatively restrained until it came time for Dehumanizing Process, at which point the "1...2...3...EXPLODE" caused mass chaos to erupt all over the building. The crowd was more substantial at this point, and there was a lot of shoving, pushing, and general rowdiness. AFKS and I got separated somehow, though both of us still held the barricade. God damn can those guys play. Even in the shit-tinny sounding crapbox that is the Ramkota hall, it was awesome. Got AFKS so excited he said he's gonna have to grab some of their CDs now. 'Bout friggin' time. I've been telling him ever since we saw them with Dethklok last year.

We headed back after Chimaira and met all the members of Zillion, shook their hands, got free CDs from them, and bought us each a shirt. They were all pretty cool. They live on the other side of Iowa and were planning on driving home yet after the show, and the singer had to be to his "real" job in the morning. Ouch.

Lacuna Coil took the stage and from second one something was very, VERY wrong. If this was my only time seeing them live, I'd just think they suck balls, which is AFKS take on it. We were standing right behind the mixing board, so we should have had the best sound in the room. What we got was lots of microphonic feedback, instruments dropping out and coming back in out of nowhere, voices fading in and out, and general mix that, if it were my band, would leave me wanting to skin alive a sound engineer or two. They even had to stop playing at one point and demand they at least get SOMETHING coming through the PA correctly. It was horrible. I felt bad for them, honestly.

By the time Killswitch came out, my body was beginning to stiffen from my over-exertion during Chimaira. AFKS ended up having to sit down for a bit, his back pretty much just said, "fu pal, yer dun." I managed to stay standing, mostly to see the antics on stage and the crowd start to liven back up.

There was a group of three girls, I'd say fifteen to sixteen years old, taking turns smacking each other on the ass off to our right. Now, they were doing it hard enough you could hear it over the PA during songs. Yeah, it drew some attention. But hey, it's good clean fun, nobody's getting hurt, well, except them, obviously. Until. . . .

Some drunken mid-forties looking dude decided they were offering free samples. Dumb fuck. So, he runs past them and swats one of them on the ass. She came unglued. Rightfully so. He was likely old enough to at least be her dad's older brother, if not her grandpa. So, she starts jumping at him and hitting him. Which he decides offers him the perfect opportunity to grab her tits.

That was not a good idea.

Now, when security finally becomes involved, they decide that the girl is out of control and they're getting ready to haul her out. I and about six other observers, both male and female, of the entire affair, approach security and try to politely explain what actually happened. In the end, the girl got a timeout in the naughty corner to cool off and dude got himself escorted out to wait for the police to arrive to cart him off for something to do with some sort of contact with a minor or something. All I know is cops were involved and he got carted off.

The girl, once calmed down enough to be let back out into the general ruckus, looked up each of us that talked to security and thanked us for helping her out. Frankly, I'd take the hug I got over the cheap feel dumbfuck got anyday anyway, and guess what? I don't go to jail for it. I WIN!

Killswitch was on-target again. They aren't my favorite band, but they're pretty entertaining live. The spazzy guitarist had on this big honking metal moonboot and gave a big speech about turning himself into a robot and this foot is the first step. Then he said he actually is a clumsy idiot and fell off the stage a few days back and broke his foot. But then he kept referencing it during his playing, hitting a cord then taking a few steps like a robot, then hitting a cord then taking a few steps. It was funny.

Then he comes up and says, "I want to see everybody jumping."

The singer says, "yeah, I want to see you jumping."

"You're an asshole."

They genuinely seemed to be having a good time. They made reference a couple times to the "big tour" they're currently on and how shows "like this" help recharge them. I remember in the Target Center they just kept saying, "god damn there's a lot of people in here." I wonder if huge crowds make them uncomfortable?

Got several comments from people on my t-shirt. I wore my "Pillow Pants 4 Life" shirt. Had some dude in line give me "mad stupid props" whatever the fuck that means and shake my hand. Had a couple dudes yell out "PILLOW PANTS" as I walked by. Had the dude at the Chimaira merchandise table make some comment about it. And some kid walked up to me, give me the thumb-lock shake, and hug me saying, "pillow pants rules." Definitely different from the big bastard that claimed my Bugs Bunny shirt was a Christian shirt up in the cities. WAT? Exactly.

Another good time. And now, two days later, I still can't talk right, my back hurts, I can't lift my head properly, and I'm sore. So, yeah, I did it right.