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!

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!

Concert Review – Mayhem Festival 2013

Rockstar Mayhem Tour 2013
Klipsch Music Center – Indianapolis, IN
7/26/2013

As usual, the Mayhem tour was packed full of great bands. Young metal, prog metal, old school metal, Rob Zombie metal (?), and everything in between was slated to be a part of this show. Thanks to some freakishly cool weather, it was a partly cloudy, 75 degree day in the middle of July – a perfect setting for me to muster up some of my energy and rock out for the day!

Mayhem – lets do this!

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.