Rock on the Range 2017: Lineup Analysis

We’re closing in on May, and that means that Rock on the Range 2017 is quickly approaching. ROTR is North America’s biggest rock festival and year after year, it has hosted the best lineup, the biggest crowd, and the best organization of any festival attended by The Music Pill. Quite simply, it sets the standard.

This will be the ninth straight year that The Music Pill is lucky enough to attend this great event, and I can assure you that there’s no shortage of excitement in this camp! In fact, we’re desperate for any excuse to turn our attention towards anything ROTR, and because of that, we’re releasing our in-depth Rock on the Range 2017 Lineup Analysis.

The past few years, we’ve channeled our obsessive focus on the weeks leading up to ROTR by providing a detailed lineup analysis. The analysis below is for people who may not know all the bands in this years lineup, newcomers to the ROTR festival, or other people who are desperate for a legitimate excuse to focus on how amazing this festival will be.

The Rock on the Range 2017 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.

Festival Review: Rock on the Range 2014 – Day 1

Another year, another great Rock on the Range. Last week, a group of us headed to Columbus, OH for our sixth consecutive Rock on the Range – North America’s biggest rock festival, and an epic three day event featuring 3 stages, over 30,000 fans a day, and some of the most incredible performances I can remember. The thing that makes ROTR great is it’s variety – there’s hard rock, old school metal, metalcore, and everything in between, and it’s all on stage at the most well-planned, well-executed, and affordable festival in North America.

This is the first of a series of posts that I’ll write about the weekend – because of the number of bands, the nature of the three day festival, and the amount of awesome that they cram into one weekend, one post simply won’t cut it. This one in particular will focus on Friday and the bands that kicked off the weekend strong. Keep in mind that I can only write about the bands I chose to see at the festival – set times do overlap, so there are bands that I missed, but I like to think I make pretty good decisions on which way to head. 🙂

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.

Random Thoughts: Epics

I’m often told that I’m far too quick to change the song while I’m in the car with other people. Often times, its only one chorus and a verse into a song before I’m reaching for the seek button to head off to the next one. This is ESPECIALLY true when a song is longer than it should be – if it’s longer than 4 minutes, it better be good or it doesn’t have a chance.

HOWEVER, occasionally, I come across one of these long songs that just really blows me away. These ‘Epics’ (a very technical term that I just made up) turn out to be some of my favorite songs, because in order for them to be great AND really long, they have to have something special or something unique about them that makes them really stand out.

So, I threw together a list of ‘Epics’ that I really like, and while they range from metal masterpieces to borderline broadway songs, they have two things in common: They are all really long songs (most 7-8 minutes), and they are all really unique and worth your time. If I’ve done my job, I hope you are intrigued enough to go check some of these out. I’d love to know what you think! (click on the song title for a link to the song on youtube)