24 bands, 4 venues. For those unfamiliar... it's not as if you could actually see all 24 bands. Not unless you could be in 4 places at once. The time slots were staggered, but unless you could be satisfied seeing only a few minutes of each band before heading off somewhere else, you kind of had to just find pleasure where you were at. Take, for instance, the 4 headlining acts:

Circus: 10:00 - Brutal Truth
Bernie's Distillery: 10:30 - Absu
Newport: 11:00 - Cannibal Corpse
Skully's: 11:30 - Shrinebuilder

Now, this might appear doable, save for the fact that there is just over a mile between the venues on both ends of the route (Skully's to Bernie's = 1.1 miles). The venues were not near enough to each other that you could just drunkenly stagger from one to the next. The festival did offer Band Shuttles to take you between venues, but I only saw one or two in passing. To be fair, I had to work that day and by the time my sister and I made the 2-hour drive and got our wristbands, it was already after 8:00PM. So.. we quick-stepped it from Skully's to Newport for the bands we were going to the festival to see, anyway: D.R.I., Voivod, and Cannibal Corpse.

Had a good time. The Newport was packed. The sound was excellent for DRI and Voivod. Cannibal Corpse sounded fantastic, except for one thing. The sound guy was totally cranking the solos between Barrett and O'Brien. I can understand a little boosting, but this was overbearing and distracting. But I realize that this doesn't really speak of the band's performance, which was dead-on perfect. Totally brutal. Perfect setlist (in my opinion), including I Cum Blood, Fucked With A Knife, and the blazing set-ender, Stripped, Raped, & Strangled. The entire floor was a pit.

My only regret was not being there in time to see Landmine Marathon... but I'm not complaining, at all. Here are a couple of setlists from the show:

Voivod
Voivod
The Unknown Knows
Ripping Headaches
Overreaction
Tribal Convictions
Global Warning
Tornado
Missing Sequences
Astronomy Domine
(This whole setlist was masterfully built of songs from 84 to 89, save for Global Warming, which appears on their 09 release, Infini.)

Cannibal Corpse
Scalding Hail
Unleashing the Bloodthirsty
Murder Worship
Sentenced to Burn
I Cum Blood
Fucked With a Knife
Shatter Their Bones
Make Them Suffer
Pit of Zombies
Vomit the Soul
Priests of Sodom
A Skull Full of Maggots
Hammer Smashed Face
Stripped, Raped and Strangled

Can't wait to see the line-up for next year.