Loud Park 2012 Series: The Slayer Incident

 PART 1: THE SLAYER INCIDENT

This Slayer fan rests up and gets fit so he'll be right as dodgers for their upcoming shortened set at 8:20 PM.


Creativeman, the promoter of the Loud Park “ The Heaviest Metal Festival In Japan” series in Tokyo owed the Japanese fans big time. Last year's Loud Park was the worst ever, with Whitesnake and Limp Biscuit co- headlining like it was 1990. All the other available hard rock and metal artists refused to come to Tokyo after the 3/11 disaster. This year they improved, but it was still a lackluster event. It doesn't matter, Japanese metal fans are so starved for white dick that it's always at least 80% capacity 

(37,000) no matter who they send over.

What the security team expected.

This year was slow and only the inexplicably slightly -more -popular -in- Japan than anywhere else, Helloween (who were reportedly acting like typical prima donna rock- star faggots) was available.  Sales were predictably awful, and rather than risk a 40-50% house, some more money had to be spent to bring someone else in with much more drawing power.

 Foreign artists have been coming to Tokyo since 1978, after Cheap Trick's Live At Budokan put it on the touring map. The bands management saw Japan as a cash cow. Tickets were 5 times that of what they cost in other markets and Japanese fans spend more on overpriced goods than anyone. The sexy groupies are also a bonus. 

The scheduled autograph sessions are actually just a place were the artist choose cute girls to be taken backstage and put in bikinis to dance to club music.  Some guys even take the girls seriously, like John Lennon. However, to most artists, they are just temporary playthings that are disposed of like used chopsticks after they ejaculate.

Condescending foreign rockers view Loud Park as a chance to exploit Japanese fans.

Slayer had availability and was booked. They exceeded the budget and were known to draw and undesirable and possibly menacing crowd ( heavily tattooed foreigners scare the shit out of Japanese folks), they were reluctantly signed.  Japanese novelty act , Dir En Grey, were also added to draw the Harajuku -type Emo girls. If you like them you should go to the ladies room, sit on the bowl and take a piss.

Sexy, female fans in the pit were often targeted for gropes from sweaty metal nerds and Brazilians.

Having Slayer on the bill meant security would have to be increased by 10%, and should be better trained to handle possible violence.

This fan likes metal as heavy as it gets and wants you to hear him scream.

Unlike the US and Europe, where metal is seen as a rebellious, bad boy form of music. Japanese metal fans are usually just nerds in black T shirts. The past Loud Parks have always gone off without much trouble.

The annual festival is the perfect compliment to their directionless lives of solitude and desperation.

Metal fans in their 40's live lonely lives 364 days of the year.

This year some major missteps were made with choosing the artists. Number 1 was Slayer. They are well know to draw a rowdy and uneducated element to shows. Big mistake number 2 was Hibria from South America, who were put on the bill to attract the Brazilians. While they themselves are pretty non- threatening, the South Americans that came for them and stayed, raised hell among the normal Japanese fans. They were drunk and bullied the men and sexually harassed the female fans in attendance. They were easy to identify due to their soccer jerseys, but the guards were too scared to ask them to calm down.

Brazilians randomly terrorized the peaceful Japanese fans.

My new friend, 33 year old construction worker, Fumimaro Konoye of Chiba is a metal and punk fan who is another one of the reasons. In and out of reform schools since he was 13, The Loud Park festival is an event he looks forward to all year.  It's a chance to let loose, drink beers and kick ass. He was looking for trouble all day.

The guards are there to make sure no one can have too much fun.

What are you drinking?

"The fucking beer was all flat and tepid by 5pm. They had Jack Daniels but wouldn't sell it cause they had no more fuckin' Coke or ginger ale. The little cunt wouldn't sell me that shit on the rocks due to some bullshit policy. I usually go to the Earthdom live house in Shin -Okubo for live shows and we buy our drinks outside and bring that shit in."

Fumimaro didn't wear a shirt all day!

Are you making any new friends?

"All those cute chicks they had working at the official bars were stuck up, it's like they demand a guy with an income, decent looks and good hygiene. Still it's a good chance for me to rub shoulders with people I don't normally get to meet.

  I hate the loser security part time guys, but now I understand why they are being dicks, the girls who work here get the fun jobs, the dudes have to do security. Creativeman shows always have security up the ass.  Searching bags and shit like that. But, if I see one of those fuckers after the show I'm kicking his ass."

The sexy groupies backstage with the bands are where the real action was.

What bands are you here to see?
 

"A lot of dorks like to hang out at the other side so they can grope girls. Not me, I'm staying at the Extreme Stage all day, man. The other side is for glam rock fags and poseurs. We gotta go over there after Children Of Bodom though, Slayer is the only thing I'm gonna check out there. This side is the real metal side, not that false metal shit.  

I read that Helloween says they are 'co -headlining' with Slayer! What a joke, maybe 5% of the fans here came to see them. I had to listen to that shit and the goofy German front man muttering about how he wanted to hear some noise, then they had a 10 minute drum solo while a bunch of angry fans were waiting for the Slayer gate to open."

Agitated by Helloween's moronic singer speaking down to them, the crowd wants to get in to the Ultimate Stage area for  the upcoming Slayer

Did you get a good spot to watch Slayer?
  

"They said it was over capacity for Slayer but we bum rushed the gate.  Some rich kid dick in a suit was shouting orders for us to keep back and calm down. He had some little shrimp part -time guards trying to hold us all back. Some tall guy smashed one of the guards in the face and the crowd cheered and everyone rushed in like a stampede of cattle, it was fucking great!”

Little Akkihiro Noda ( 23) of Saitama took the job as security for the festival. 

Moments before the Slayer Incident, Captain Ozaki's Flying V- Wedge formation will not be effective with 5 guards vs. 500 Slayer fans.

I heard some shit went down. What happened?

“ I tried with all my might to hold back the crowd of metal fans. It was no use, there were too many of them... It was like being overrun by zombies. First they broke the gate , but even then , they are Japanese so they didn't run for it. They waited. Then under Captain Ozaki's orders, we had to slowly let them move down for safety and we took a V formation. 

They got faster, restless and more agitated. I was not 'smashed in the face' as reported, I was getting pushed back on my heels and then a big nosed, foreign creep facepalmed me and threw me down to the floor- he was much stronger than I expected. "

Like good sheep, a majority of those in attendance stayed behind the Mojo Barriers.

That's terrible. What happened after you fell?

"Then they all ran for the stage and the crowd watching from the stands roared to life. I got stomped on and pretty trampled and lost my glasses. I found them after the crowd passed and amazingly they were not broken."

Fuck yeah! The crowd breaks through the gate and Captian Ozaki's Flying V-Wegde formation is proven ineffective.

Captain Ozaki knew little of what to expect from the fans and underestimated the danger that Slayer added. His big folly was directing 12 guards to assist in the Big Rock Stage for Helloween's set. While Helloween is arguably one of the top German melodic speed metal bands from the 1980's, their shows are known as being very peaceful and for dorky metal fans who like to play air guitar, rather than violent dancing and crowd surfing. Technical metal fans are more interested in what type of equipment the band is using rather than causing any trouble.

Akihiro is shaken up but has more to share.

“Other than my pride I am ok. The onlooking crown cheered when I was thrown. That was shocking.... I'm here for everyone's safety, not just the artists. We need order in these events. The manager of the part timers wanted to have me doing cleaning because I'm small. I really campaigned for security. I wanted to be in front of the stage so protect the artists but they give that post to the bigger and experienced guys."

The Mojo Guard gates keep the loser fans away from the artists and prevent suffocation.

You're just a low- paid part timer, why didn't you just let the crowd pass?

"Safety is the number one concern and sometimes that comes at the cost of people having fun. Our boss, Ozaki san expects the best from his part time security staff."

No offense, but your boss seems like kind of a dick.

"He's a great man and coordinated all the staging areas and checkpoints. He wears a dark suit to command our respect. We wear white T shirts. He is our head and we are the body. He tells us what to do because he's been working here since 2009, so he has more experience than anyone else by at least 2 years.”

But Captain Ozaki fucked up good.  He broke the rule of not allowing patrons to amass against a facility entrance. His use of the Mojo Barriers was ineffective in protecting the customers and keeping his guards working in a safe environment. Too much time was spent during the training having his guards practice and rehearse holds, locks, strikes and escaping from holds and locks, should the concert-goers should fight back and attempt escape.

Slayer's backstage room was pretty rockin'

Akihiro adds,

“It wasn't Ozeki sans fault. Our Flying V- Wedge needed a sharper pointed formation 10 men deep with the first rank being composed of 2 men, each rank composed of 2 more. We only had 5 guards at the Ultimate Stage gate. We were overstaffed with guys keeping fans without reserved seats from sitting and guiding people to the exits. We could have used them to keep these animals in line. If we only had mace or Tazers we could have taught those scoundrels a lesson in violence they wouldn't soon forget.”

The root of the problem.

There were only 5 arrests all day, mostly due to trying to enter with counterfeit tickets.  Several sexual assaults were reported but the perpetrators were not caught.

Some deep review of what will be know as the Loud Park 2012 Slayer Incident will be needed. Ozaki san is responsible for the tactical errors made from  7:50 to 9:30 pm. This case will be studied at the Tokyo College of Saftey and Event Planning for years to come. What is important is what Japanese security and crowd control professionals can learn from this-never underestimate the power of Metal.

 Due to the trouble during the day long festival, Creativeman productions is uncertain of if they will permit a Loud Park 2013.

Motherfuck false metal, the pathetic part- time wimpy guards, the Japanese metal sluts and the foreign acts who rip us off, I'm going to town on my Jack and Cokes.