Rock on the Range 2018: Lineup Analysis

We are ONE WEEK away from the festival of all festivals. For many of my hard rock and heavy metal bretheren, May represents the beginning of festival season. There are many great festivals all over the country that give fans a great chance to experience a weekend packed full of great shows. The biggest, and arguably the best of any of these is the almighty Rock on the Range, which takes place May 18-20th in Columbus, OH.

We snagged our tickets prior to the lineup announcement, which occurred late in 2017. This will be the tenth consecutive year that we make the trip from Indianapolis to Columbus to take in the weekend, and I have to tell you – I cannot wait.

I know that all of you are like me – you’re having trouble focusing on anything else as you look forward to one of the best weekends of the year. In order to support that obsession, we are releaseing a last minute line-up analysis for Rock on the Range 2018. The analysis below is for people who may not know all the bands in this years lineup and are looking for an opportunity to catch a new band that may become a favorite. However, it’s also for those who know every song of every band, and are just looking for an excuse to think about Rock on the Range for an hour. 🙂

The Rock on the Range 2018 Lineup Analysis below provides a detailed look at the landscape for this year’s ROTR. We provide commentary on what you might expect based on previous experiences, other shows and tours we’ve seen, and the current status of the bands. The bands are grouped by the slot they were given: the headliners, the top-tier bands, and the mid-tier bands. In addition, we include some bands that have something to prove, and suggest some can’t miss shows that may not be on you radar.

Concert Review: Rockstar Mayhem 2014

I look forward to Mayhem each year, because when you live in Indianapolis, it’s your only opportunity for a metal festival. Previous years’ shows have been fantastic, highlighted by an extremely memorable performance by Slipknot in 2012. Mayhem consistently brings a solid lineup of bands across the entire metal spectrum, as well as lots of different flavors of metal, and gives an all around great experience into the current landscape of metal music. This year featured sets from Texas Hippie Coalition, Mushroomhead, Miss May I, and Emmure, and more on three side stages, paired with headlining shows from Trivium, Asking Alexandria, Korn, and the mighty Avenged Sevenfold.

So here goes nothing. Mayhem 2014 – bring it!

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.

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 2011 Day 1

Rock on the Range 2011 Day 1 Columbus Crew Stadium – Columbus, OH 5/21-5/22 This is it my friends. The pinnacle of the concert season. The greatest concert of the year. A 72-hour binge of music, music, and more music.