Unfortunately for Melbourne’s punk and metal fans, it was a grey and gloomy day. People hurried into the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, huddled around what shelter they could find as rain came down. Long haired and black clad metallers could be seen in the grand pavilion pouring over tiny programs alongside pierced and colorful punks, all deliberating which band they would see and when. Unfortunately I missed 3 Inches of Blood due to entry issues. The overcast day suited Swedish doom metal pioneers Katatonia fine, however.

“We’re not used to sunlight,” vocalist Jonas Renske quipped during a brief glimpse of sun. “We’re usually night people.” Every Katatonia fan in Melbourne stood as close as possible to the “Red Stage”, their excitement unrestrained now that their heroes had finally disembarked down under. Though only playing for about 40 minutes despite some technical hiccups at the start, they tore through "The Longest Year", reaching back into their vast repertoire with the 2003 single "Teargas" as well as international crowd favorite "Ghost of the Sun".

Even the most hardened metal fans rushed toward the Black Stage to catch Frenzal Rhomb straight after – beer flowing freely behind the gated off “drinker’s prison” that separated the licensed areas with the rest of the place. I missed most of it due to the insane lines for merch - not exceedingly long but it still took in excess of half an hour to buy one shirt. But everyone didn’t seem to mind – people were constantly running into old friends – myself included – all making for a lighter-hearted festival atmosphere. Everyone was there to share a love of rock n’ roll.

Me First and the Gimme Gimmes pulled sizable numbers despite being a ska cover band (the highlights being Over the Rainbow and Ghostriders in the Sky – especially a ukulele cover of Xanadu) that seemed to have some punk fans lamenting why organizers didn’t book Lagwagon as well (Me First share two members with Lagwagon and one with NOFX).

Hardcore was well represented at the festival with August Burns Red, A Day To Remember, local favorites Parkway Drive and Atreyu. They may have piqued the interest of some of the “purists” in attendance – but it’s hard to tell if they made any in roads. Patrons did make an effort to at least give them a look in and their dedicated fans? Well, I can only hope they have salved their bruises by now.

One of the more unfortunate scheduling clashes of the festival was that of GWAR and the Dropkick Murphys. Say what you will about GWAR, but there is one aspect that’s undeniable – their thrilling, captivating and uproariously hilarious live shows. Dressed as monsters and spraying the crowd with pus, blood and green jizz from lead vocalist Oderus Ungerus’ massive member, GWAR belted the fans with blasphemous metal fury and even did battle with their pet dinosaur Gor Gor, taking a huge bite out of one of the many slaves. Of course, the defeated slave inevitably showered the fans in liters and liters of blood. I saw many “victims” roaming the park afterward, showing off their “wounds” to friends, unable to contain their excitement.

Luckily, I was able to catch the tail end of the Dropkick Murphys set – a odd transition from a ridiculous cartoonish metal band to the respectful, fun and passionate Celtic punks from Boston, MA. They frolicked about, jigging and dancing to the delight of the crowd. Ken Casey, bassist and vocalist exclaimed “I fucking love this town!” letting us in on a little scoop; he had just recorded a track with Chris Cheney. “He’s in a little band…they might be big one day, you might have heard of it, I dunno,” he cheekily joked.

Departing after a rousing rendition of Shipping Up to Boston, NOFX took the stage and injected some much needed energy into the crowd with their trademark irreverent humor. They even took crowd suggestions for songs: “We can either play a song that pisses off Christians or is nice to Lesbians!” Fat Mike remarked before proceeding to play "Louise". The ribald banter between them all perked us all up, our feet throbbing and joints slowly melding together uncomfortably. El Hefe even flashed his metal cred professing he knew more than 3 chords and the intro to the Four Horsemen…or was that the Mechanix? Either way it was a fun set with Lindsay from Frenzal Rhomb taking away Melvin’s guitar half way through Kill All the White Man to play it on his behalf. Then we walked toward the Black Stage for the metal headlining act.

For me, Megadeth was the absolute highlight – being a life-long Megadeth fan with his favorite album as Rust In Peace about to be played in its entirety, my excitement was at fever pitch. To behold it with David “Junior” Ellefson on bass duties again it was as close to an original Megadeth performance as we were going to get. We were treated to Rust in Peace in its entirety in honor of the 20th anniversary of its release.

Curiously, Dave Mustaine inexplicably went falsetto as he approached the higher “notes.” Whether Mr. Mustaine has ever been a “singer” is debatable but to me at least, this falsetto chicanery ruined perfectly good sections of absolutely amazing songs such as my beloved Holy Wars…the Punishment Due and Hangar 18. Nevertheless, the band played admirably and seeing Vic Rattlehead emerge from the clouds of “nuclear death” (fog backlit by neon green lights) was a great treat. I can’t say they were the most energetic band of the lot and Dave’s vapid negativity toward also billed Suicide Silence was a bit of a downer (you’d think after his “conversion” to Christianity he’d forgive other’s trespasses?) Playing the new material was great especially hearing some prime cuts from Endgame. There were circle pits aplenty, crowd surfers abundant in a sea of raised horns and long hair. When Dave announced that “we’d been great and they’d been Megadeth”, we all wearily traipsed back to the train station. On the Red Stage it seemed that every punk band on the bill was helping out the Descendents with their encore song "Bikeage" – it looked like disorganized flurry of insane activity.

For a first try, No Sleep ‘Til was an admirable one indeed. If the lineup is as good as this one, I expect to return next year.