Picture Blog: 2012 Mayhem Festival

Picture Blog: 2012 Mayhem Festival

2012 Mayhem Festival
Klipsch Music Center
Indianapolis, IN

The Mayhem Festival in 2012 had an absolutely incredible lineup. It was chocked full of amazing bands, both old school metal and new. It had metal giants, like Slayer, and up and comers, like Asking Alexandria. It was just all in all a great line-up. In addition, the headliner was Slipknot, who has the best live show of any band I’ve ever seen. And it’s not really close. So, needless to say, I was extremely excited for this show. So excited, that I paid a $160 for a pit ticket off of stub hub so that I could be up front for the main stage shows.

To say that this show delivered would be the understatement of the decade. I was completely blown away, to the point that I honestly had chills for 4 hours after the show. HOWEVER, I try very hard to remain unbiased on this blog, so, rather than rambling on and sounding like a fan boy, I’ll just let the pictures do the talking. See, thats the thing about Slipknot. If you haven’t seen it….you just won’t understand. I included quick thoughts on the other shows at this festival as well. But mostly, after the jump, is just a shit load of Slipknot pictures. But hey, ya can’t go wrong with those, right. 🙂 Hope you enjoy!

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2012 Day 2

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2012 Day 2

Rock on the Range 2012
Columbus Crew Stadium – Columbus, OH
5/19-5/2012

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.

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2012 Day 1

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2012 Day 1

Rock on the Range 2012
Columbus Crew Stadium – Columbus, OH
5/19-5/20

For the fourth year in a row, a big group of us headed to Columbus Ohio for Rock on the Range. For those that don’t know, ROTR is a two and a half day festival held each year that features over 40 bands, three stages, and averages about 70,000 in ticket sales for the weekend. This year’s lineup was as good as ever, and was true to the typical ROTR strategy of bringing in pretty much every type of band imaginable.

Concert Review: Rockstar Uproar Tour Part 2

Concert Review: Rockstar Uproar Tour Part 2

Rockstar Uproar 2011
Verizon Wireless Music Center – Indianapolis, IN
9/17/2011

Status: We had just heard Sevendust crush the side stage, and Escape the Fate and Bullet for my Valentine do some damage on the main stage. Three powerhouse bands left, culminating with the legendary Avenged Sevenfold. I was on crutches in the pit, but the security guards let me take breaks and sit in the front row of empty seats in between acts (thank God), so I was feeling pretty good.

Take a deep breath. Here we go. Rockstar Uproar – bring it home.

Concert Review: Rockstar Uproar Tour Part 1

Concert Review: Rockstar Uproar Tour Part 1

Rockstar Uproar Tour
Verizon Wireless Music Center – Indianapolis, IN
9/17/2011

I asked my wife what my initial reaction was when I saw the Rockstar Uproar tour lineup – not because I didn’t remember, but because I wanted to hear her perspective of my reaction. She said that I was “completely freaking out,” but I think that’s an understatement. I seem to remember hyperventilating at some point.

Top to bottom, this was by far the best festival lineup I had ever seen. I knew as soon as it was released that I would be going no matter how far I had to drive. The main stage alone, with A7X, Three Days Grace, Seether, Bullet for my Valentine, and Escape the Fate, was enough talent to get me to commit, so the fact that Sevendust was headlining the side stage was just musical icing on my proverbial cake. (We all know I have a creepy obsession with Lajon and their drummer’s hair.) The lineup was so good that I convinced several of my friends, and even a few non-concert regulars, to buy pit tickets. Rockstar Uproar Part 1 – Let’s do this.

Concert Review: JJO Bandcamp 2011

Concert Review: JJO Bandcamp 2011

A few months back, when I was scouring the internet looking for concerts that looked awesome, I found a festival I’d never heard of in Madison, Wisconsin called JJO Bandcamp. Bandcamp is an annual festival put on by a local Madison radio station (WJJO) that has been around for about a decade now. The bill for this year was chocked full of really good smaller bands, like Pop Evil, Egypt Central, Dope, and Anew Revolution, and had three of my top 10 bands as major acts – All that Remains, Clutch, and Five Finger Death Punch. Seeing as how a good friend from college who loves concerts lives about an hour south of Madison, we finally had that excuse we’d been looking for to head up and visit him.

So, once again, the Indianapolis crew hit the road, driving roughly 400 miles north in search of the next great metal show. This blog will hit some of the highlights of the show, discuss some new bands we discovered, and talk about how WJJO may single handedly be keeping my faith in the radio. Enjoy!

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2011 Day 2

Concert Review: Rock on the Range 2011 Day 2

Day 2. The previous entire day was spent drinking, pushing, screaming, singing, and standing for about 14 straight hours. We woke up tired, sore, sun-burned, dehydrated, and with our ears ringing. Usually, after a day like that, I’m usually debating whether I will ever step foot at a concert again. But not this weekend. This is ROTR baby.

Let’s do this.”

While Sunday’s entire lineup was really good, my excitement for Day Two was really focused around three bands: Bullet for my Valentine (an all-time favorite), A Day to Remember (a new and upcoming favorite), and All that Remains (some Phil Labonte redemption). However, I was also bummed because at the last minute Stone Sour had to pull out of the lineup (and got replaced by Puddle of Mudd, blegh) because Ray Mayorga had a stroke a few days before ROTR (he seems to be doing fine now).