Rock on the Range 2012 Day 2
Columbus Crew Stadium – Columbus, OH
5/19-5/2012
Rock on the Range Day 2. Sigh. I’m just going to come out and say it. As I get older, it’s getting harder and harder to get up in the morning on the second day of Rock on the Range and be anything but exhausted. After drinking and sweating in the sun for about 14 hours on Saturday, we got about 6 hours of sleep before we got up, showered, and started all over again. But, if there’s anything to get me excited enough to overcome that exhaustion, it’s a day packed full of music. By 9:00 am we were back in the parking lot cracking our first beers and getting ready for the show.
The lineup on Sunday was much more exciting, as it featured considerably harder bands and seemed like it would be much more intense. The shows that day really did turn out to be fantastic, and as I look back on it, I could easily pick a top ten shows, but I again identified the best five in my opinion and gave a snapshot of them below.
5. Black Stone Cherry
I am beginning to like this band more and more. When I first heard their material, they were a bit cheesy for me to take seriously. With songs like “Blame it on the Boom Boom” and “White Trash Millionaire,” it didn’t appear that they really even wanted to be taken seriously. However, their songs are extremely catchy, and after a short period of time, I found myself seeking out the occasional song on Itunes. The more I listened, the more I found myself enjoying what they really are – a simple band that plays fun songs. This was my first opportunity to catch them live, and I was really impressed with this show. Chris Robertson was a stand out clean vocalist throughout the day, and sounded great on guitar as well, all while finding plenty of energy and excitement to engage the crowd and make sure everyone was having a good time. Their set list was well selected, and I have to give them kudos for sustaining a high amount of energy throughout the show. Overall, Black Stone Cherry isn’t going to win any awards for writing or being unique, but their show was good enough to thoroughly impress this metal fan. The fact that they are on this list, despite the number of other good bands that were there that day, should tell you just how good this show really was.
4. Megadeth
I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know nearly enough about Megadeth. Of all the bands that I should love, this is the one that has somehow slipped through the cracks for so many years. During this show, I only knew a handful of songs (Hangar 18 and Peace Sells specifically), so most of the show I was listening without much of a background, but their music and ability was good enough to overcome that and it almost became and advantage for them for me personally. On top of that, it was CLEAR that they have been playing shows since well before I was born…they were so comfortable on stage, it was almost eerie. It really felt like they were in a friends basement jamming through some songs, not in front of 10,000 people playing major metal hits. Somehow, that gave them a certain accessability that is rare – it felt like they were playing with the audience, not playing at them. The show went flawlessly, and Dave Mustaine continues to impress, nearly 4 decades after he started playing music. I got out of this what everyone is already telling me – I need to spend more time listening to this band.
3. Marilyn Manson
Last time I saw Manson was in 2008, and his show was absolutely terrible. He was out of breath the whole show, and was completely wasted. It was honestly one of the worst shows I can remember. I went into this show with very low expectations, but was pleasantly surprised at how well Manson performed. The show admittedly started off a bit slow, with a mediocre version of Disposable Teenagers and a couple other songs that I didn’t recognize, but then really started to pick up steam. As the sun went down and it got darker and darker, Manson’s show got better and better, and by the end, I found myself pretty damn impressed. His live version of mOBSCENE was really cool, and the cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These) was also really well done (in a creepy Manson way). He closed with Antichrist Superstar, which was also really good, but you could tell he had something big in the reserves. As he came back out on stage for his encore, he screamed “Columbus, how does it feel?” and then the crowd got borderline deafening as the drum intro began for The Beautiful People. This was by far the most intense crowd moment of the weekend and brought back haunting memories of Korn in 2011. I was so glad that Manson finally pulled everything together and put on a great show – definitely one of the most enjoyable shows of the weekend. Two minor criticisms held this back from being an almost perfect show for me – first, Manson had to beg the crowd to cheer at some points (which is lame), and second, there were definitely moments where it appeared that backup vocals were prerecorded (also lame). Overall – a very solid effort by Marilyn Manson.
2. Rob Zombie
I fully believe that Rob Zombie puts on one of the greatest shows in the world. The amount of effort and money he puts into turning music into an experience, and his attention to detail that could only come to someone with movie production experience like he has, makes this show something that absolutely everyone should see before they die. Most of the people that I talked to at ROTR that hadn’t seen Rob Zombie before said that this show was the best of the weekend, and that’s honestly hard to argue. He has so many great hits that keep his show exciting – I lost count of how many times I said “I LOVE this song!” throughout the show. Dragula, Superbeast, and More Human than Human are classics that blow me away every time. He also does something pretty cool with Mars Needs Women and Sick Bubble Gum in that the lyrics flash up on stage about 10 feet tall, giving listeners all the encouragement they need to scream the lyrics at the top of the lungs. One simple reason that this show isn’t at the very top of my list – I’ve seen Zombie’s show several times, and this was nearly a carbon copy of the previous one, right down to the giant alien humping the bassist. Zombie’s problem is that he has perfected his live show – he even knows exactly where during the songs he can take breaks and let the crowd sing without sounding like he’s selling out. His challenge from now on will be whether he’s set the bar too high for even himself. As an entertainer, that’s a pretty good problem to have.
1. Trivium
Might as well let my bias shine. Trivium is one of my favorite bands, and I couldn’t wait for this show. They played on the side stage and completely packed the house, and their show, in my humble opinion, takes the award for best show of the weekend. It was a relatively simple show, but was incredibly powerful and consistenly brutal (in the good way). Matt sounded incredibly good on clean vocals, which he’s been dinged for in the past, and I was extremely impressed with the backup screams as well. The show was just full of energy and passion. Unfortunately, they didn’t get real deep into their song library, because they write long songs and were playing a short set on the side stage (which was a scheduling failure). However, the six songs that they did play were incredibly well done. The show opened with the first two tracks from their latest album, (Capsizing the Sea and In Waves) and those two together are such an awesome intro and start to the show. It’s basically all the crowd can do not to lose it before the band even gets on stage. They leaned heavily on their newest album for this show, playing Black and Watch the World Burn as well, but strengthened the performance with my favorite trivium song of all time, Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr, off of the Ascendancy album. Finally, they closed with a cover of Metallica’s Creeping Death, which was a slight negative for me. It sounded great, but I just feel like they have so many great original songs they could have used that would have made this set feel slightly less truncated. Regardless, that did little to undermine the show’s greatness. I somehow made it up against the fence for this show, and it was incredible to get to watch them play so close. Props to Trivium for putting on my best show of the weekend, and for giving me a memory of ROTR 2012 that I will never forget!
A few other notes…
There were so many good shows that day, I wanted to throw in a few additional notes for those that are curious:
- Escape the Fate’s show was absolutely terrible. I like that band a lot, but they had major microphone problems and just couldn’t overcome it. Big disappointment.
- Aranda put on another great show – I just think that’s a really cool band.
- Mastodon’s set was really great musically, but visually was pretty bare. They pretty much just stood around and sang, and without the lights and set construction they are afforded on their main tours, the show was a bit bland.
- Lacuna Coil’s show was really great also. I think their primary problem was that they were crammed on the tiny Jager stage and just didn’t have enough room to perform. I loved hearing Heaven’s a Lie live.
- Attack Attack! was a bit disappointing. I like their music, and their show was good, but not good enough for me to get more interested in the band (like I did last year with A Day to Remember).
That’s it folks – I could go on and on about all the music at ROTR this year – the shows were great, and I got to spend two straight days with a big group of friends experiencing intense sun, music, crowds, sweat, and booze, and I loved every minute of it. Our fourth consecutive ROTR came to an end, and on the way back to the hotel we stopped to get some FANTASTIC gyros at a little place by Ohio State’s campus. All in all, a GREAT weekend.
Hopefully you enjoyed these two blogs about Rock on the Range. Stay tuned for a picture blog that shows all the bands, all the stages, and all the excitement from Rock on the Range 2012.
(Check out Rock on the Range 2012 Day 1)
(Check out Rock on the Range 2012 Picture Blog)
Columbus Crew Stadium – we’ll see you next year for our fifth annual ROTR!! Cheers.