PNC Bank Arts Center
http://www.rockstarmayhemfest.com
Exit 116 Garden State Parkway
Holmdel, NJ 07733
THE CONQUEST
I’m hanging out at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival at it’s stop in Hartford, CT and I get asked “Rev, when are you gonna grill for us?” See, the people behind the Vans Warped Tour are also involved in the Mayhem Festival so they know all about “Kev and Rev’s Awesome Parking Lot BBQ” and clearly, they wanted their own. There’s been a lot of buzz around my involvement on the tour due to the fact that I manage both Shadows Fall and Big Jay Oakerson who are performing on the fest and I also designed The Mayhem Burger.
It’s generated a lot of chatter and folks on the tour want them some RevBQ. Who can blame them? Not I and in fact, all I want to do is make them happy, so I said yes. Every couple of nights on the Mayhem Festival they have one of the bands host the “metal mixer” which is a fancy way of saying “after show bbq.” I recruited Big Jay to be the DJ to my grill master and we decided to call our little shindig “Big Jay and The Rev’s Sausage Party *with big cans.” The plan was to grill up sausages, burgers and drink beer in cans while Jay busted out with the metal jams.
I always say “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing,” and this BBQ was not going to be the exception. First thing first, I designed a show flier from that created 3-D laminates with some help from our friends at i6tix.
Check out the cool effects:
Next we need beer, cans of beer to be specific. Thankfully, the wonderful road crew for Rockstar Energy Drink agree to help supply beer some beer, energy drinks and even the DJ system! Now all we needed was some sausages. I knew exactly who to call; Esposito and Son’s from Hell’s Kitchen, NYC. Their hand made sausages were a huge hit at “Kev and Rev’s Awesome Parking Lot BBQ” and I thought the metal crew at Mayhem deserved only the best. I stopped by the sausage factory and picked up a box of hot and a box of sweet Italian sausages. The last item on my grilling list; a box of Kansas City Steak Company burgers sent to me for my birthday by none other than my Mom!
With that all in town, we headed off to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ for a day full of metal and meat. Big Jay kicked it off with a couple of jokes before introducing In This Moment.
Then we headed over to the Jagermusic stage to watch Shadows Fall shred the place to absolute pieces.
While it might sound like this was just a little back stage gathering for a few people, that was certainly not the case. The Mayhem production team printed fliers and put them up all over the stages on each bus on the tour. The excitement for sausage was growing and growing.
My last tour duty of the day was to escort Big Jay onto the main stage for his final set. Once Jay gets done, he heads out into the crowd to meet fans and sell CDs. It’s pretty amazing to think only a few short months ago, the biggest show I had ever see Jay do was to a couple hundred people. It’s spectacular and I am glad people find him as funny as I do.
During Rob Zombie and Korn’s sets it was time to set up the party. We decided to have it at the VIP press tent just to the side of the main stage. Jeff and Kelsey from Mayhem catering helped me stage the food, prep the grill and get the big cans chilling on ice. Nothing says party like a larger can filled with a bunch of smaller cans (unless you’re M. Emmet Welsh and you hate typical bastards.)
Jay got the party started with some Pantera because nothing puts you in the mood for sausages and beers like the Cowboys From Hell.
With about 200 VIPs waiting in the tent for food, it was time to get grilling!! First a round of sausage followed by burgers. I had wanted to make the actual Mayhem Burger but with the need for speed, I really couldn’t do much more than just churn out hot meat.
After an hour on the grill, the grub line was just not dying down. Jay cranked up the jams and I kept the goals a burning.
Once the line started to ease up, I was able to bust out the Esposito and Sons sausages. I wanted to be sure to take my time and grill ’em up the right way. Of course that back fired because once the smell of fresh hand made sausages hit people’s noses, they ran over to get some.
Unfortunately the party had to be cut short due to an early bus call and the tour had to leave the PNC to get to the next show. Big Jay and Keri Lee grabbed up the last of the sausages and took them on their respective buses to eat on the road. As I was saying good bye to Jay, he looked at me and said “hey son, them sausages are mine!” I grabbed two and jumped into our car to head home.
The Hot Italian Sausage served in a tasty potato roll. These tasty numbers are spicy but with great flavor and spicing. Somehow Esposito and Sons know how to make a sausage that holds its juices inside. When cooked properly, the encased meat mixture gets warm and stays juicy.
The
Sweet Italian Sausage wrapped in half of a hamburger potato roll because we ran out of hot dog buns. Too call these sweet is a slight misnomer as they are “Sweet” like as in “awesome” not as in “sugary.” The spices are just right giving a the quality pork flavor accents, without overpowering the meat itself.
Thanks to all the tour crew, production, caterers and bands on The Mayhem Tour. This summer has been amazing due to your hard work and great attitudes. Muchas Gracias the madman known as Nick Allen from Rockstar, you are the true host of this party! Thanks also to Esposito and Sons, you truly have the best sausages I have ever eaten. Thanks to Lil’ DJ Big Jay Ice Z Dog for co-hosting what was easily the most mack daddiest, slammin’, jammin’, night poppin’, booty shakin’, back yard grillin’ summa party! And thank you to all everyone who was willing to wear our ridiculous laminates around all day and stop by to taste my grill skill!
