Festival Review: Chicago Open Air 2016 Day 1

There’s nothing quite like a music festival. As long time veterans of Rock on the Range and Louder than Life, the folks here at The Music Pill were extremely excited earlier this spring when the first annual Chicago Open Air was announced. This brand new three day festival was held on a beautiful summer weekend at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL (a Chicago suburb). It featured a spectacular lineup of hard rock and heavy metal bands from all over the world. The Music Pill was there all weekend, taking notes, snapping pictures, and digesting all the music so we could give you the gory details on how the weekend went down. If you missed the action, our goal is to make you feel like you were there to see the magic happen. If you WERE in Chicago that weekend, then this is simply an excuse to relive the madness.

To get us started, this post will cover Day 1 (Friday) of Chicago Open Air 2016. We’ll touch on many of the great bands that played on Friday, and split them up into three categories: rock solid shows, slight disappointments, and mind-blowing performances. Because of the logistics of the festival, we can’t review every band, but what you’ll find is a thorough analysis of a multitude of great bands from all different genres. Friday gave us fantastic bands like Periphery, Chevelle, Trivium, Meshuggah, In This Moment, and so many more, ending with the almighty Rammstein as the headliner.

Without further ado – here we go: Day 1 (Friday) of Chicago Open Air 2016, you are officially under way. Let’s do this.

Music Pill Update: Summer 2016 Music

It’s a great time of year to be a music fan. Not only are we in the middle of festival season, but the airwaves are saturated with fantastic new music. In an effort to help you keep up with all the great music that’s being released, we’ve created a list of songs that we want to make sure you don’t miss. We touch on multiple genres below, and hope you’ll find something that you haven’t heard that you might love.

Let me know what you think of these songs, and more importantly, let us know what else you are listening to!

Cheers!

Festival Primer: Chicago Open Air 2016

The inaugural Chicago Open Air festival, held this July 15-17 at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL is sure to be a weekend of fantastic music. Headliners Rammstein, Disturbed, and Slipknot are surrounded by a host of high quality bands that run the spectrum from hard rock to heavy metal. An in depth analysis of the lineup was previously released by The Music Pill.

In addition to all the great bands, there are some really awesome activities surrounding the music festival that we wanted to share with you!! These activities include unique dining and drinking activities, once-in-a-lifetime experiences, as well as opportunities to catch even more music. Check out the info below directly from the festival producers for some details on all these great opportunities!!

Festival Review: Rock on the Range 2016 Day 3

Rock on the Range 2016 Day 3 featured one of the most exciting and unique lineups in recent memory. Not only did it offer the chance to see several bands who were playing Rock on the Range for the first time, but from a genre standpoint, the lineup was all over the map. The main stage was a wild mish-mash of genres, especially early in the day, as we would be treated to bands like Highly Suspect (rock), Wolfmother (stoner rock), The Struts (English glam rock), Death from Above 1979 (dance punk), and many more. In addition, I was really excited about solid representation for punk rock, something that rarely happens at Rock on the Range. I couldn’t wait to see how the crowd reacted to bands like Anti-Flag and Pennywise. Finally, the day would close out with Bring Me the Horizon, Deftones, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, all of which had extremely high expectations to live up to.

Would this day be as good as it looked on paper? Would the metal-crazed audience at Rock on the Range appreciate the variety? Or, would they agree with many on the internet who complained that the day was way too “soft”. We fought off the headaches and sore backs and headed up to Mapfre Stadium to find out. Sunday was a beautiful day – after two days of rain and clouds and cold, it was sunny and warm with a cool breeze. It was the kind of weather that made you thank God you are alive, and thank Him even more that you were at a music festival. On a day like that, I can’t imagine wanting to be anywhere else.

Time for the pièce de résistance. Rock on the Range 2016 Day 3. Let’s do this.

Festival Review: Rock on the Range 2016 Day 2

Rock on the Range 2016 started out with a bang on Friday (coverage here). Saturday stacked up to be just as good – bands like Parkway Drive, Lamb of God, Five Finger Death Punch, and Rob Zombie made the lineup feel a bit more metal-focused than the first day, at least on paper. That being said, the day was still chocked full of variety, with bands like Lacey Sturm, Aranda, Pop Evil, and Clutch to cleanse the pallet. We headed to Mapfre Stadium from our hotel, stopping at Kroger (as we do every single ROTR day) for a made-to-order breakfast and the ever-crucial Monster Rehab. I grabbed a poncho on the way out of the store on a whim, juuuust in case it decided to rain on Saturday. Best decision ever: As painful as it was to wear something with an Ohio State logo on it, it was totally worth it. (Sorry folks, but The Music Pill is in Indianapolis, in the heart of Hoosier country).

It rained pretty much all day on Saturday, but try as she might, Mother Nature couldn’t put a damper on Rock on the Range. Saturday’s crowd was every bit as rowdy and engaged as the crowd from the day before, in spite of the cold and rainy weather. As the day progressed, it turned into a sloppy mess, but that didn’t stop it from being a fantastic day of music.

Speaking of music – lets get to it! Following a similar format as the Day 1 (Friday) blog, I’ll discuss the shows that were rock solid first, and then move on to a few that were slightly disappointing. Finally, I’ll explore the shows that really blew my mind in a bit more detail, and try to describe what made them so great.

Day 2. Let’s do this!

Festival Review: Rock on the Range 2016 Day 1

Simply put, this is one of my favorite weekends of the year. For eight straight years, a contingent from The Music Pill has been traveling from all over the Midwest to meet in Columbus, OH the weekend before memorial day for North America’s biggest rock and metal festival. The weekend features nearly 60 bands on three stages over three days, and boasts a complete sell out audience of 120,000 for the weekend. It’s become the pinnacle of the concert season for me, and provided the setting for some of the most unique, memorable, and amazing shows of my long concert history.

Rock on the Range 2016 was no different – the festival celebrated it’s 10th anniversary this year, and did so in style by putting together their most unique and star-studded lineup yet. Staying true to it’s identity, the ROTR festival featured bands from countless sub-genres, resulting in a weekend that everyone could love. The three day festival boasted headliners of Disturbed, Rob Zombie, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and The Music Pill was there to capture it all.

As I’ve done the past couple years, I’ll do three separate posts – one for each day of Rock on the Range 2016. My hope is that by reading this, you either get to relive the madness that you experienced a few weeks ago, or you weren’t there, and you get so bummed that it finally convinces you to give ROTR 2017 a shot. If I’ve done that, I consider this coverage a major success.

So lets get rolling! Below is a detailed analysis of which shows were rock solid, which were slightly disappointing, and which ones blew my mind.

Happy Reading!

Concert Review: Mumford & Sons

I’ll admit that Mumford & Sons isn’t the typical band that I review. Clearly we gravitate towards the harder stuff on this site, but that doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate great music of all kinds, and I think Mumford & Sons clearly fits that mold. The band is full of talented musicians who really love what they do, and their quick ascent to worldwide fame indicates that they struck a chord with a much broader fan base than anyone expected. I’ve heard so many good things about their live shows, and decided a long time ago that I needed to go see for myself if they were as captivating as I’ve been told. I finally got that opportunity when Indianapolis was given the last spot on the recent Arrow Through the Heartland Tour. The show got pushed back a day due to the Pacers schedule, but went off without a hitch on a Sunday evening, and it was undoubtedly a sight to be seen.

Chicago Open Air 2016: Lineup Analysis

It’s festival season!! Over the past several years, festivals have gotten more and more popular in the US. This year, that landscape got a significant boost by the announcement of the first Chicago Open Air Festival. This three-day event, held just north of downtown Chicago, will take place July 15-17th, and has an absolute monster lineup.

Announced in February, the festival has strong headliners anchor the weekend, as well as a contingent of great bands that are headliner quality but slotted as support. It also offers fans some rare opportunities to see bands that they don’t often have a chance to see. The lineup is so good, it merits a deep analysis, and that’s what we’ve provided below. While we can’t discuss them all, the post below breaks down bands at every tier (Headliners, Top-Tier Bands, Middle Tier bands, and Bands that Have Something to Prove). In addition, we finish the post with some lesser known bands that are absolute can’t-miss shows. Hope you enjoy!

Concert Review: Dropkick Murphys

College taught me many things, but none more important than the fact that any St. Patty’s day party worth sneezing at ends the night with the song “Kiss Me, I’m S***faced” by Dropkick Murphys. It’s one of the most ridiculously fun Irish songs around, and it became a staple among my college friends. In fact, one of those friends (Bryan) insists on wearing an obnoxious green shirt with that song title featured prominently across the front whenever he gets the chance. As much as I hate that stupid shirt, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Dropkick Murphys, partially because of fond memories of those college years. For years I’d been looking for the chance to see them live, and for some reason it had never worked out.

Fast forward nearly fifteen years – Dropkick Murphys schedules a 20th anniversary show at one of my favorite venues in Cincinnati (Bogarts). There was just no way that I could turn this show down, even though it was on a Sunday night.

Concert Review: Glassjaw

Recently, a group of us headed up to Chicago to catch out Coheed and Cambria and Glassjaw at The Aragon Ballroom. A previous post covered the fantastic Coheed and Cambria show, as well as detailed what makes The Aragon Ballroom such a cool venue. (Check out that post here). Typically, we would have included some notes on the opener in that post, however, Glassjaw was really interesting, and so we felt it merited it’s own post. Here’s some notes!

As the resident post-hardcore fan of The Music Pill, Glassjaw is a long time favorite of mine. Over the years they’ve been through a variety of line up changes, but have always remained pretty true to their original sound. The latest incarnation includes bassist Travis Sykes and drummer Chad Hasty, both previously from Glass Cloud. It has been many years since I’ve seen Glassjaw, and this show was the first time for the current lineup, so I was cautiously optimistic. Glassjaw started their show with a medley of the first two songs off their album Worship and Tribute (Their best overall album in my opinion), “Tip your Bartender,” and “Mu Empire.” These two were a great combination of songs that feature lots of energy as well as catchy choruses. Guitarist Justin Beck has always had a very cool guitar tone, and it really cut through at the Aragon. Surprisingly, Daryl’s vocals were a bit more tame then usual, but sounded really good in the mix. As usual, his unique blend of scream/growls/clean singing was on point. New comers Travis and Chad, really seemed to fit the band’s latest sound and image, and I was impressed how tight they all sounded.