When I got to the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion, where "Acid Bath", "Mars Volta", and "System Of A Down" jammed this past Saturday, there were already about 20,000 people roaming around the lawn, checking out the pit area, and buying the standard concert stuff always sold at booths...shirts, stickers, buttons, food, and beer...the crowd was upbeat and eclectic and anxiously awaiting System Of A Down's first headlining appearance at this large outdoor arena in north Houston. As some of you may already know, portions of the concert were broadcast live on Houston's hardest hitting radio station, 94.5 The Buzz. I found it odd that 94.5's broadcasting booth was set up not 50 feet away from an Army recruiting booth, complete with uniformed recruiters and an armored Humvee. All hard-core System Of A Down fans know how political and anti-war the band and their songs are, but hey, what better place to try and sign up young angst ridden, adrenaline pumped teens for a tour of duty... but I digress.

"Bad Acid Trip" cranked up the noise at around 7:05 and weren't that bad at all if you take into consideration that their sound quality sucked ass. It was more the mixers fault than the band...the drums could barely be heard, the bass and drums were fusing together but the vocals were loud, clear and strong throughout their entire 40 minute set.

I tried to get backstage to interview Mars Volta, but you'd have thought I had the plague or something...I don't know, maybe it was those big ass over priced beers I was lugging around? Anyway, Mars Volta was pretty good for about 10 minutes then I started thinking they sounded more like a bad acid trip than the bands name sake that played before them. They've definitely got talent, but with no breaks between their spaced out psychedelic metalish sound I soon noticed it was more than just me that started to "zone" out.

After their 20 minute guitar solo, I decided I needed more beer and on my way to the nearest watering hole I decided I'd try once again, to get backstage for an interview with System Of A Down. This time I got in touch with "the guy that let's people backstage" I think that was really his title as the whole Pavilion staff were calling him that...I mentioned www.metalcoven.com and asked if I could interview them for 5 minutes, he said no...so I went down to 3 minutes...he sighed and said wait here. A few minutes later, the drummer came out and said "We aren't giving any interviews tonight."...I asked him why and he just shrugged and shut the door on me...oh well. After Mars Volta left the stage you could feel the electricity in the air, as well as see flying beer cups, coozies, a shoe and other assorted inanimate objects. Obviously the crowd was becoming a little restless.

Suddenly the stage lights flashed and System Of A Down burned into B.Y.O.B. like maniacs. These guys and the crowd blew me away immediately. Their sound was mixed so well they almost sounded CD quality! They did a little compilation mix of a couple of their new songs then went into "Needles" for their third song and let the moshing begin! I soon noticed that System Of A Down love to change their songs up a bit during their live performances and I found it to be unexpectedly amusing and just plain bad ass.

There was total crowd participation during "Chop Suey", it seemed everyone there knew that song as the crowd hopped and swayed and slam danced accordingly. They soon played a partially acoustic version of Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My." before shredding their way into "Psycho"...the mosh pits doubled...then tripled in size!

O.K....so THAT's when I dislocated my pinkie finger on my right hand...hahaha. I tried to ignore it but it soon was turning purple so I found a "medical staff" guy to pop it back into place at the Medic Room where I met 2 guys with broken noses, 1 broken rib guy an overdose chick and many other assorted fuck ups...seemed everyone was having a good time! So, after fixing my finger and sending me on my way, S.O.A.D. played "Jet Pilot"...this time I tried to avoid the pit but did accidentally poke some chick in the eye with my new finger splint (sorry if your reading this).

I must admit, the whole atmosphere of the show was completely incredible and despite the teeth grinding pain in my right hand I personally had a great time. I noticed the cross cultures of the people there: skinheads, headbangers, goths, punks, dreadlocks, longhairs and hippies from the ages of 10 to 50 years old, all clustered together in a seething humid human mass of music lovers....all pounding there fists in tandem to "Toxicity" and "Aerials" as the lights and sounds overwhelmed everyone.

This show was one of the best concerts I've seen in years and I'm guessing around 30,000 other people agree.