At Sacramento’s Aftershock festival, metalheads encounter hard rock and sea lions

Metalheads poured into Discovery Park Saturday for the third day of the annual Aftershock Festival to sacrifice some inner ear hair cells in order to rock out en masse, many wearing their finest all-black ensembles. When New Years Day started playing that afternoon, the drums were so loud that the beat could make a sternum thrum from more than 500 feet away from the stage.

The lead singer, Ashley Costello, whipped her long, half-black and half-bright-red hair, and as her voice rang out through the oaks, hordes of people began to stream toward the stage. She was a magnet. Early in the set, she paused to tell the crowd that the band was there for weirdos and outcasts and “the ones dressed in black at noon.” She really meant it, she said.

The festival — held at the confluence of the American and Sacramento rivers and right next to a riparian habitat restoration project — presents an opportunity to headbang in an unusual setting. A princess whizzed up the Sacramento River bike trail on an electric scooter, the black lace of the dress trailing behind in the wind like gothic gossamer. Merrymakers crossing the Jibboom Street Bridge with their clear backpacks and sharp tattoos stopped to marvel at the sea lions making a racket in the water.

Hours before Aftershock’s Saturday headliner, Iron Maiden, was slated to take the Jack Daniel’s stage, dozens of bearded men bobbed their heads in four-four time as Gozu rocked so hard that no one could hear the traffic whizzing overhead on Interstate 5.

Zen Ramirez and Rudy Raya had driven from Stockton for the festival — her second time, his sixth. Both were excited for Judas Priest that night, but arrived hours earlier. The couple planned to bring their 6-year-old with them on Sunday, but they savored spending the first three days alone. They were beaming, and she had affixed clear gems around her eyes. “When Aftershock comes,” Ramirez said, “this is our time.”

Ramirez said one of her favorite things about rock is the sense of community. As she put it, “It’s like a family.” The night before, she’d been in the front row to see Evanescence and felt completely at ease, “and I’m eight months pregnant.” She grinned.

They’re expecting a boy, and — with any luck — a rocker.