18 Years Ago, Disturbed & Stone Sour Rocked the WCYY Holiday Bizarre

WCYY's annual tradition of bringing bands to town for the holidays started all the way back in 1997 with an up and coming Candadian band called the Barenaked Ladies, who were on their way to blowing up here in the states. The tradition would continue for many years after that.

One that sticks out as a memorable night happened 18 years ago this week. Like most Holiday Bizarre concerts, it was an all day/all night affair for us WCYY DJs and staff. The days would consist of the promo staff putting up station banners at the venues, while the DJs would chat with the performing bands, either at the venues or at the radio station.

WCYY's 2006 Holiday Bizarre was a big one. We welcomed Disturbed back to play their 3rd Holiday Bizarre, along with Stone Sour, Flyleaf and Nonpoint. We had all 4 bands come by the radio station to chat on the air and/or perform for some lucky winners. Flyleaf lit up our conference room with some big noise coming out of the petite Lacey Sturm.

Later that afternoon, I would interview Corey Taylor of Stone Sour (also of the band Slipknot). To be completely honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. A few years before at the Pledge of Allegiance tour stop in Portland, I had the pleasure of meeting all 9 members of Slipknot, all masekd up. What's wrong with that? Nothing, except Corey growled at me when I went to say hello.

Shortly after the interview began, it was clear that is his sense of humor. We riffed on the air for probably about 20 minutes and had a blast. I rank it among my favorite interviews I've ever done.

Disturbed and Nonpoint also stopped by for a visit to meet some fans and chat on the radio.

Then it was over the Cumberland County Civic Center (now Cross Insurance Arena) for showtime. All 4 bands brough their A games and had fans fired up from the beginning of the night, right until Disturbed played their last song.

Here's to one of the many CYY Holiday Bizarre concerts that prominently landed in the Portland, Maine, history books on November 17, 2006.