Now Dance, Fucker, Dance

I sure hope that some of you dear readers recognize today's title. If you don't, I'll help you out. It's from The Offspring's song "You're Gonna Go Far, Kid." And this is important, why? you may ask? I'll tell you why. Because I just came home from the 20th anniversary of Rock Fest, where they happened to be playing. That's why. The five days for the Fest are the only days of vacation I get and I still don't get paid days off, but it couldn't be more worth it. I spent the entire time not worrying or stressing about anything, getting to see a great line-up and spending time with wonderful people. 

Is there anything greater than spending your vacation next to the love of your life?

The only qualm I had with the whole trip was that almost all the bands that I wanted to see were packed into Thursday and Friday's line-up. That still left Saturday and Sunday and there were few bands I was actually eager to see. I know that they have to comply with different generations and different style bands, but I really wish the modern bands and the hair bands were spread apart a little. I'm not exactly a huge 80s hair bands fan and although each band did have songs I enjoy, I would far rather see the newer groups. Frankly, I would rather see a band that plays more of a variety of songs. So many of the older bands have only been playing their hits from 20 or 30 years ago and no new material. Doesn't that get old? Because so much of Saturday and Sunday's line-ups were bands I wasn't interested in seeing, I skipped many and left others early. I was kind of bummed to spend so much time in a row not at the shows, but at least I got to spend most of the last two days simply relaxing with Man Friend under a canopy.

I don't find KISS to be the most talented band I've ever seen,
but at least they are good performers.

Even though the majority of Saturday and Sunday weren't my cup of tea, I don't think I could have enjoyed the first two days more. I was really looking forward to seeing many of the bands; in fact, three of them are in my top five favorite bands. (The other two played last year. Hell yes.) I had already seen Seether three previous times, Halestorm and Theory of a Deadman once each, and Three Days Grace twice (though not yet with the new singer) but I enjoy them all so much that I was still quite eager to see them again. The first three are from the top fivers, if you already didn't know. I had not ever seen The Offspring, but have loved them since elementary school and had not seen KoRn, but figured they would have a good show. I was happily surprised that I was rather impressed with The Offspring. Ok, actually, it was one of my top shows of the weekend. They played a good mix of their old and newer songs, had amazing energy and played mostly upbeat songs to keep the crowd jumping and dancing the whole show. I was also impressed that Three Days Grace still had the same energy and stage presence as they did the last time I saw them and the vocals weren't terribly different either.

The Offspring

More Offspring

I just love Lzzy Hale. She is so damn talented.

Three Days Grace

Theory of a Deadman

Tyler Connolly. What a babe.

Because my aunt and uncle are awesome and have connections, they got us in to the VIP access area for KoRn and KISS (but really, I just cared about KoRn). KoRn is one of Man Friend's top fivers and he was so pumped to be able to see them so close. The VIP picture line is even more amazing than the general admission one; you get literally right in front of the stage and are at the same level as the band. In the general admission line, you are quite a bit lower than the stage and you can't see much when you're right in front. Man Friend and I each got a ton of pictures, many of them pretty good quality. I didn't know a significant number of their songs, but their entire show was amazing. I was not disappointed at all and it was fun being able to sing along to the songs I do know. It is so unbelievably cool being so close to the singers and being able to see them "in person" without the jumbotron screens. Sitting in VIP was easily one of the best parts of the weekend. Man Friend and I were also particularly excited because KoRn is Man Friend's best friend's absolute favorite band. Not only do we get to tease our friend that we got to see his favorite band and he didn't, but we also get to further add salt to the wound that we were right in front of the stage.

Since we had enough free time Saturday afternoon, my aunt, uncle, Man Friend and I took a trip to Chippewa Falls to check out and shop at the Leinie Lodge. Preface: Leinenkugel's is my favorite beer and a major preference for much of my family. The Leinie Lodge is attached to the brewery, though we decided no to tour. Inside the store was more clothing and merchandise than I could have imagined. I picked up a shirt, a bottle coozie and some post cards for the Rock Fest scrapbook that I'm making. The coolest part, though, was the section with the history of the company. There were displays of cans throughout the years, a timeline of all the beers the company has ever made, pictures of employees and the building and newspaper articles. It was particularly interesting to see the clippings from the end of Prohibition. I can't even imagine the fear that era struck in companies that solely made their living from liquor. Not counting speakeasies, of course. I also had no idea that Leinenkugel's once fell victim to a devastating fire. In 1948, the brewery was struck by lightning, which started a fire that caused $30,000 in damage. $30,000 in 1948? Holy. Shit. That would probably be millions now.

Beer tap handles for all Leinie's flavors

More about the Fest will probably come later this week, but for now, I leave you with one final picture. Rock on, dear readers.

This year's camp group

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.