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!

Rock on the Range 2016: Lineup Announcement

Rock on the Range released it’s lineup on Monday, and after two days of letting it marinate, I had to get some thoughts down on what is sure to be a fantastic, record-setting weekend in Columbus. Rock on the Range is North America’s biggest rock festival, and they are celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. For the eighth straight year, The Music Pill will be gathering our crew and heading from Indianapolis to Columbus to participate in the chaos.

Here is a breakdown of the lineup, including my opinion on the headliners, a breakdown of many of the middle-of-the-pack bands, a few bands that have something to prove, and some can’t miss bands that you may never have heard of. Hope you enjoy!

Music Pill Update – April 2014

A brutally cold winter in Indianapolis, coupled with limited music releases, had me shaking with the desire to dive into some music. Still nothing on the concert calendar, but there has been a lot of great music released as we inch closer to spring.

Now, I don’t fancy myself an album reviewer – people who review albums need to use phrases that have big words and sound official but don’t really actually mean anything. Actual example I read recently: “Each and every aspect of this record breathes with dynamic feeling.” Since I have no idea what that means (does anybody?), I’ve never really felt adequate to write official album reviews. Rather, I focus the blog on live shows and the experience that music gives me, because nobody can tell me I’m wrong. 🙂

BUT…..zero shows in months and a craving to write leaves me no choice. So….here’s a few notes on some albums that have surfaced recently. A couple major hits, a couple disappointments, and a couple in between. Enjoy!

Concert Review: The Outbreak Tour

The Outbreak Tour, sponsored by Monster Energy, had an awesome lineup in 2012. Asking Alexandria, As I Lay Dying, and my new favorite band, Memphis May Fire, were big names on the bill, and they played a show at the tiny Madison Theater in Covington, KY.

Here’s some photos and thoughts on the show!!

Opener – Memphis May Fire

The MMF show was awesome. Not that I’m biased or anything (lies), but I just really thought their set was great. Objectively, a friend of mine said that he couldn’t hear the lyrics, which was hard for me to judge, because I know all the words to all their songs. However, I thought they sounded great and I thoroughly enjoyed this show. For some reason the song structure and breakdowns that MMF writes resonate with me extremely well, and they are just such a fun band to listen to. LOVED this show.

Music Pill Update – June 2012

Hello all! Now that I’m finally caught up on concert blogs, I have a ton of exciting music news to pass along. I have been so busy lately that I have been going nuts trying to keep up with everything, so I’m excited to finally be getting this out.

I’m certainly not a news blog, so this isn’t an all inclusive list, but more a list of hand picked facts about bands that I really like and want to share. Included below are new albums and music, other interesting band news, and summer tours that have been announced. Check it out ! (For those that don’t like the variety like I do, skim the red font for bands you like! 🙂 Hope you find something interesting that you didn’t already know!