FAMILY VALUES MEANS MUSIC IN AZ, NOT CHUCK & SEN. LARRY

September 3, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

Family Values Tour 2007 from Phoenix, AZ by Andrew P. Edgecomb

When the Family Values Tour first came along, I was old enough to go to shows but I didn’t have a license and no one else seemed to have much interest in going. Looking at the original line-up now, I doubt it would have been as interesting as it seemed to a 16 year old then. And now here we are, at 24, and going to my second straight Family Values event. Last year I went to for free and got pit tickets and it was an interesting show (before then and even after, as I’ve yet to see someone take a piss on my friend’s feet in the pit as that first year.) So this year, seeing the line up had Evanescence, I was curious to go again, if nothing else I would catch one good
band, right?Well, first I would like to thank the Family Values web site and anywhere else including the normally dependable Big Red Radio 98 KUPD (97.9 on your radio dials here in Arizona) for not bothering to post set times. I was gunning to hit the show right in time for Hellyeah, but due to the lack of posting set times I arrived about an hour earlier then need be. As a concert festival it is always just polite at least to let people know when the bands are going on, especially with a second stage, I didn’t know if they ran them first as Ozzfest tends to do or would have them play at the same time. It turned out to be at the same time although it’s not like I missed anything on the second stage.So arriving earlier then planned I got there right in time for Trivium. I’ve never listened to them and had no idea about them, and after seeing them I will probably leave it at that. Not that they were horrible, but just tried a little too hard to be old Metallica in my view, maybe even what I would call ‘Transformer’ music as they would switch styles mid-song. It got old and fast but their half hour set went fairly quickly. So up for a smoke I went between sets and ran into my friend Bo who once again gained pit tickets (he was the aforementioned friend who was pissed on last year). While talking to him Hellyeah started up so I said my goodbyes because this was the band I didn’t want to miss. For those who don’t know, Hellyeah consists of two guitar players from Nothingface, the lead singer and bass player of Mudvayne and the legendry drummer of Pantera and Damage Plan, older brother of the late ‘Dimebag Darrell’, Vinnie Paul. I never expected to see Vinnie tour again after watching his brother get murdered on stage in front of his eyes, but I’m glad he’s back. Hellyeah looks like the kind of band you would see tearing up the stage in a biker bar, except on a much higher quality. The crowd was into them and they did one of the best sets I’ve ever seen, including a great cover of Queen’s “Stone Cold Crazy”. Sadly they only had a half hour set and it went much too quickly in my view.Now by this point it was hot and I was thirsty. So I grabbed a drink of water and went back to my seat in time for Flyleaf to take the stage. I had seen Flyleaf last year and was about as unimpressed as you could be with a band, so I was expecting very little but was shocked to see the vast improvement after a year. The members seemed more confident and the lead singer had come out of the shell she seemed to be in last year. For someone who is only 4′11″, she made sure her presence was felt, even climbing atop the amps and leaping off. It was a very amusing set and I was pleased to have caught it.Now I’m not going to say much about Atreyu as they were so bad they offended me. I felt they should have paid me to sit in my seat and watch them play. I thought Blake Lewis of American Idol fame butchered Bon Jovi, but these guys did such a horrid cover of “You give love a bad name” I simply had to go and walk out of earshot. I didn’t know/like Atreyu before hand and gave them a chance; never will I make the same mistake.So now was the moment I was waiting for, my beautiful love interest Amy Lee…and her backing band were due up or Evanescence if you will. Being co-headliners they got an hour of set time and a much more vast light show. It was an hour I was glad to be a part of as they tore up the stage. I saw them back in 2003 and again another band….well Amy’s stage presence has improved greatly and it was already great to begin with. They showed a lot of energy, the crowd got heavily into it and hell, they covered The Doors “People are Strange” with the second best Doors cover I ever heard (number one goes to Spaceman Jack’s cover of 5-1). A great set and I do recommend seeing Evanescence if ever given the chance.So here I sat, used a lot of my energy on my girl Amy, I was hot, thirsty and hungry and just tired. So I sat for a few minutes, and then I got up, walked towards the door, stopped for a smoke and debated seeing Korn for the forth time. But I went and saw the stage set up was the same as last year, and well, new Korn music sucks in my view, so I decided to beat traffic and just go home, relax and recover. Since tomorrow night it would be right back to seeing Cricket for Manson and Slayer, I figured my energy would be better used there. So thus that was my Family Values tour 2007 experience. No girl pissed in the middle of the mosh pit this year, but to me that’s a good thing and made for an overall good night.

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