Festival Review: Chicago Open Air 2016 Day 2

The first day of Chicago Open Air 2016 gave us some amazing performances, but we’re thrilled to move the focus to our of coverage to Day 2 (Saturday). Every day is a great day for rock music, but the second day of this festival was especially perfect. The weather was as good as it possibly could be (partly cloudy and a high of 77°!), and a fantastic set of bands were slated to play. Saturday’s lineup was split right down the middle, with the main stage focusing primarily on hard rock bands, and the side stage bringing the heat and keeping the show metal. It made for an interesting experience as we traversed back and forth between stages – almost like we were alternating between a really great change-up and an unhittable fastball.

Thanks to a great experience on Friday, we learned the lay of the land, and spent more of our day Saturday enjoying the other “experiences” that Chicago Open Air 2016 had to offer. My personal favorite was the Monster Energy Experience, where we spent a good deal of time talking to fans from all over the world. (The free monster was a great pick-me-up as well!). We also put way more thought into food on Saturday, which was a far cry from the stadium food that these festivals used to feature. ‘Gourmet Man Food’ was on full display at this festival – I had meals that included a killer spicy shrimp po’boy, a thick and juicy Hawaiian burger, and a pulled pork/mac and cheese sandwich that was life changing. We ate like kings!!

Alright, enough niceties. As good as the food was, that’s not what is still ringing in my head two weeks later. Saturday gave us countless opportunities to see incredible shows and get lost in the lights. The day would feature great bands like Nothing More, Beartooth, Breaking Benjamin, Gojira, Alter Bridge, and so many more. To end the night, we’d hear from two titans of industry, Korn and Disturbed. Chicago Open Air 2016 Day 2 – it’s go time.

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 2014 – Day 2

Rock on the Range Day 2. As I gathered my old, nearly-30 year old self up on Saturday morning to get in the shower at 8am and get ready for the day (which included recovering from some ill-advised White Castle sliders the night before), I’d be remiss if I didn’t utter “man…this thing used to only be two days…”. But, nonetheless, I was excited, and we were out in the parking lot at 9am, getting the grill ready and preparing for a great day of music. This would prove to be one of the strongest days of the weekend, and one that came out of nowhere a bit with some great side stage bands.

Without further ado – Here’s Rock on the Range 2014 Day 2 broken down.

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!