NPZ #1 — NOVEMBER 2024 — PAGE 5
Fresh off my first big metal concert, Metallica in LA, I splurged on tix for Aftershock (“post jolt” in our group chat, credit to Evan for that) with a couple friends for Friday and Saturday.
FRIDAY - 10/6/2024
Unfortunately, Thursday night we’d had a bday party, so 2 of my friends were crazy hungover and we missed the morning shows.
We did make it in time for MEGADETH! Though they’re the band I was looking forward to most, I know ~5 Megadeth songs (I can do album reactions in the future!), but it was cool to see an iconic band in metal history playing live. The energy was a little lowkey, maybe cause of an older crowd, but I enjoyed “Peace Sells…” and “Symphony of Destruction” which were a given. Was kinda hoping for “À Tout le Monde”, but obviously that wasn’t likely.
After Megadeth, we joined up with another hungover friend. LIMP BIZKIT were trolling as Nu Metal Cowboy, then we checked out DEAFHEAVEN and GODSMACK. I paid $17 for a tiny Jack and Coke, when will I learn to not buy drinks at Aftershock?? (hint: not this year either). An older white couple asked to take photos of my battle vest, even a panorama while I spun around awkwardly.
Most of all, my friends wanted to see TOOL. I was tired and light-headed from the weed smoke in the air, so I spent most of the show with my eyes closed just vibing.
SATURDAY - 10/7/2023
Next day we got there early afternoon. ITHACA was cool af, there was a girls-only circle pit, and the singer spoke up for trans rights, shout-out to them. AVATAR were fun, and I felt for them in suits and clown makeup in the Sacramento sun. ESCAPE THE FATE tried to do a wall of death, but no one partook since it’s banned at the festival iirc.
Now BABYMETAL has lore: in middle school when I was early into metal, one of my teachers would play Babymetal songs to see my reaction. I’ll admit: I was a hater for likely misogynistic reasons, but they’re great for their niche! Not my vibe, but hating on principle is lame. I sat nearby when my back hurt, but my friend, Olivia, crowd surfed, and recorded a vid when she went up! We enjoyed later going back to our teacher to tell him about the show. Got a whiskey lemonade at the Metallica Blackened bar, which tasted great, and the bartender gave me free picks!
We got food while a tik-tok popular band played nearby; insult to injury, they played their viral song RECORDING, didn’t even perform it live! I don’t wanna be an elitist, but that was lame as hell.
Unfortunately, I left my friends a few times to sit since my back hurt like crazy. They got in the SLEEP TOKEN crowd, which were on a small stage despite being crazy popular. I was briefly with them at the barricades for POLYPHIA, who they were more hyped about than myself. On my own, I saw PARKWAY DRIVE, 311, and TURNSTILE, which were ok.
But KORN is where shit got REAL. I knew like two Korn songs, but being in a pretty shit mood, I just found myself really getting into the vibe. There was a kid in a tree doing hair windmills, which has to be an Aftershock ritual; we all booed when security made them get down. During the encore, Korn broke out the bagpipes, iconic. Then, after dragging my friend—Olivia—closer to the stage—then immediately losing her—they started the double-bass kicks of their “One” cover, and I lost my shit (and my voice)! I wouldn’t call myself a huge Korn listener, but that show was super fun and made my Aftershock 2023 experience for sure.
POST JOLT: THE SEQUEL
FRIDAY - 10/11/2024
Last year I had a big art gig, but 2024 I didn’t really have the budget for Aftershock again. I tried to get tix through giveaways and connections, but no luck. My friend who went 2023, Nico (words from him later!) had a 4-day pass, but I was on the fence, even though the lineup was WAY more up my alley: Judas Priest, Slipknot, Slayer, even Poppy and Tom Morello. Slipknot was the biggest one, as my friend, Evan (also at Aftershock 23), had introduced them to me and is a long-time listener himself.
By the week of the fest, I realized my chances of free tix were out, so fuck it: I wanna see Slipknot live before they’re done. But tix were at their most expensive, so I went on a hunt for resellers. Despite its manyyyy flaws, gotta shout-out Reddit. I found someone selling 2 Friday passes, and in the Bay Area!!
Evan, love you, but this mf had me stressed cause he wouldn’t reply to my texts. Literally had a deadline of Wednesday afternoon to get back to the seller, but finally this mf responded like an hour before the cutoff. I met with the reseller at a mall, and secured two bands for $150 each.
I had class Friday morning, so I knew I was gonna miss the earlier bands, like Poppy. I like a few songs, but I was okay missing her. By the time we got to the festival, it was the third to last shows. I love System, but don’t know Daron’s band, so we decided to see EVANESCENCE. It’s not really my type of music, but Amy Lee’s voice was fucking fantastic. Afterwards, we met up with two other friends, Nico, and a friend I met at a show months ago, Ayden! I also got an overpriced shot of Jack to prepare for Slipknot, which did nothing. NOTE TO SELF: NEVER BUY DRINKS AT AFTERSHOCK AGAIN
We waited at the stage for SLIPKNOT, and it quickly got PACKED. The crowd crush in the first 10 minutes was miserable, all the pushing and shoving, and I felt myself struggling to breathe at times. Unfortunately, Ayden dipped, for very valid reasons. It sucked ass.
The crowd got crazy claustrophobic when the show started, but I just threw myself into headbanging ‘til I was lightheaded. Corey gave a disclaimer at the start: they were ONLY gonna play songs from 1999, and that meant it was gonna be a good fucking show. Personally, I theorized that lots of people left because they wouldn’t hear the newer hits, and the crowd crush eased as people started to trickle out.
Compared to last year, I was less afraid of the crowd, so I kept trying to get closer to the stage and dragging my friends along. Even though I only knew a few songs at the time, I loved the ones I did know, and just had fun headbanging, and singing along to choruses I recognized like “Eyeless”.
Now, one of Evan and I’s favorites is “Only One”. In Evan’s own words, he expected 0 chance of hearing it since it’s one of the less popular songs. It was also the song we figured would have the craziest pit. We made an agreement: if they play “Only One”, we’re getting in. But that’s not gonna happen, right?
I can hardly describe the feeling when Corey said “Y’all want one more song? ONLY ONE?” The crowd started BOOING, idk if they didn’t know or were just playing along, but me and Evan LOCKED eye contact, like NO. FUCKING. WAY. I’m getting jittery just reminiscing on That Moment, it was SICK (sic).
INSTANTLY, I grabbed Evan and he grabbed Nico, and we DOVE INTO THE FUCKING PIT. Holy shit it was easily one of my favorite moments of all time. I had to hold my glasses before they flew away, just thrown into the pure chaos and bouncing off everyone, fell down and got hoisted up by the vest. After a bit, I got out and caught a short video (and yes, I did make my friends help film a “I hope she plays HOT-TO-GO” video lol).
I lost track of my friends after that pit, but I stuck near the front during the rest of the encore, where I happened to run into the drummer of a local band I’ve seen before. He offered to boost me for a crowd surf and I was like hell no. Also, sang along to “Spit It Out” with a random dude who filmed a selfie vid with me.
Even though we saw less sets, the memories from this year were so worth it, especially the “Only One” pit, which was Evan’s FIRST ONE (cherry PIT popped!!). I’m just getting even more into Slipknot following the show, especially their first album which I loveeee (pg. 1), and definitely expect more thoughts about their music and Corey Taylor’s political outspokenness in the future.
