Gigantour founder: Event is no Ozzfest

By John Benson

The heavy-metal tour gives young bands a chance.

Gigantour lives.

What may sound like an alien foe from a ’60s Japanese Godzilla movie is actually a traveling heavy metal festival that in its third year has become one of the more popular spring/summer tours.

Gigantour comes to Cleveland on Sunday at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater at Tower City, with this year’s lineup featuring headliner Megadeth with In Flames, Children Of Bodom, Extreme Job For A Cowboy and High On Fire.

Considering the festival is the vision of Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, there’s perhaps a natural assumption to be made that Gigantour is the thrash singer-guitarist’s personal version of Ozzfest. Though there may be some validity to that theory, just don’t mention it to Mustaine.

“First, it’s not my version of Ozzfest,” said Mustaine, calling from Roanoke, Va. “That would be a festival that is based around somebody, and I’m not doing that. I want to make sure this festival continues on with me or without me.

“The beauty of this is the spirit of heavy metal that I really wanted to parlay and take my experiences as a musician and give it to some of these younger bands.”

Granted the name may not be Mustainefest or Mustainepalooza or Mustainenaroo, but there are comparisons to be made between Gigantour and Ozzfest. Ostensibly, Ozzy Osbourne’s namesake festival was marketing genius in that it provided a sense of relevancy between heavy metal’s founding father and modern acts.

More so, it exposed younger audience to legendary veteran acts. Not only doesn’t Mustaine dispute the latter claim but readily admits in many ways it’s the Gigantour mission statement when picking out the tour’s lineup.

“The criteria for the bands have been have a new record, have good guitar playing and hopefully that they have a great following,” Mustaine said. “Also, they wouldn’t be selling the same exact tickets that Megadeth does. For example, Megadeth and Anthrax are similar and if we went out together you’re double-selling a ticket.

“So we want something that would appeal to different audiences. The other day I was in Dallas and saw a goth girl with In Flames written on her arms and thought, ‘Great, it’s working.’”

Though ticket sales have been strong, the one area where the crossover to younger generations hasn’t been seen is in record sales. Megadeth’s latest effort, 2007’s “United Abominations,” failed to reach the platinum status Mustaine enjoyed with definitive thrash metal releases such as 1992’s “Countdown to Extinction” and 1994’s “Youthanasia.”

However, Mustaine isn’t complaining because as far as he’s concerned, his metal festival has proved to be a success.

“What I love about Gigantour is there is a competitiveness there without it being competitive to the degree where it’s in-your-face, chest-bumping (expletive) like that,” Mustaine said. “We’re all trying to play our absolute best because the fans are going crazy.

“You hear it from the moment the show starts. They’re screaming at the top of their lungs. There is not a band here that doesn’t have an audience in front of them. It’s getting better every year. So, we’re coming in strong and ready to go.”