Rock Fest 2012 Part 1

I just got back from my second annual trip out to Cadott for the highly anticipated Rock Fest, and while I'm really bummed that the weekend quickly came to an end, it's nice to be home.

There's so much about Rock Fest, so many amazing stories and details crammed into four days, I don't know where to begin. I'll jump right into it, and I'm probably going to be all over the place. So keep up.

Man Friend and me waiting for a show to start

This was the 19th year for the four day fest, and according to my uncle who has gone every year, not very much has changed from year to year. It's an outdoor music fest out in the middle of nowhere on a gigantic plot of open land that used to be a pig farm. There's tons and tons of camping space, where you see every kind of camping (or not very camping) imaginable. From people who drive in on their motorcycles with barely anything with them to small tents to huge tents to pop-ups to massive RVs, the Rock Fest grounds has seen it all. And of course, the important part: the concert area. The stage is at the bottom of a grassy hill where you can bring in your own chairs and leave them to save a spot for the day if you'd like. Right before the stage is also VIP seating for the people willing to pay the big bucks. Up on the hill can be kind of hard to see the band, but whatever you can't see on stage you can definitely make out on the big screens they have on either side of the stage.

In my opinion, the line up this year wasn't quite as impressive as last year's, but it was more than worth the tickets. I was the most eager to see Shinedown, Five Finger Death Punch and Halestorm, with Papa Roach, Buckcherry, and Black Stone Cherry coming in closely behind. I was pleasantly surprised the most by Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden.

FFDP

Shinedown

Shinedown and FFDP are two of my top favorite bands, and I was so eager to see them live. It was my first time seeing FFDP and second for Shinedown, but that was years ago and before I really listened to a lot of their music. Both shows I knew nearly every song the bands played, and couldn't have enjoyed their shows anymore.They had incredible energy, great lighting and actively engaged the crowd. FFDP even brought about 10 kids in the first few rows up on stage for a song or two and rocked out with the "next generation of rock music" as lead singer Ivan Moody put it.

Lizzy Hale

Even though I'm a new fan of Halestorm, I've liked everything I've heard by them so far and found out they certainly do not disappoint live either. Lizzy Hale is a phenomenally talented woman on lead vocals, guitar and even piano on some songs. She has great stage energy and it's so cool seeing a woman as the front line of a band. It is so rare to see a woman in a mostly male band, especially a harder rock band like theirs, and I love it.

I'm not a huge 80s hairband/metal fan, but I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper. Maiden was the headliner for Saturday night, and actually played for about two hours instead of the typically allotted hour or occasional hour and a half. I only recognized one or two songs, but their entertainment value was so great, I stayed for about 3/4 of the show. They had great lights, so many background banner changes, film clips and pyrotechnics that it was hard to not enjoy watching them perform.   Alice Cooper was also wildly entertaining, and added bonus, I actually knew some of his songs. He had outfit/costume changes after nearly every song, little skits acted out to songs and was just all over the stage.

I was sadly disappointed by Buckcherry, and even more so by Godsmack. I really like Buckcherry as a band, so to see them do a mediocre job live was such a let-down. They had a decent amount of energy, but I felt the only crowd-interaction they had was when the lead singer used the crowd as a sounding board to vent his life story. The only time it made sense to include some ranting in between songs was when he talked about his drug experience before the song "Cocaine." If I didn't know any of their songs, I probably would not have enjoyed the show much.

Godsmack was just absolutely boring to watch. I'm not a huge fan, but do enjoy some of the songs I've heard on the radio throughout the years. At the beginning of the show, the singer said "I don't have much to say tonight, so I'm just gunna play a bunch of songs for you guys." And he wasn't kidding. He just played song after song with faked enthusiasm for about 3/4 of the show. Finally, the second to last song before the encore, he started telling the crowd to "wake up," which is a pretty clear indication that everyone else was as bored as I was. I recognized the first song, and then not any again until that second to last song. The next three were the more popular ones that have come out in the last couple of years. Why you would lump all your biggest hits together at the end of your set is beyond me. If the whole show was like the last 15 minutes, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more. But it wasn't. So I didn't.

More to come about the campsite and the rest of the vacation in the next post.