There's a venue about a 45 minute drive away from me called the Chesaning Showboat which generally has one to two rock concerts every summer. But this year, they decided to go all-out and have a hard rock festival. Instead of just having bands play one after another on the main stage, it was supposed to be set up with two side stages, similar to how Mayhem is set up. Going there was a last-minute decision, because I didn't think I would be able to make it, but opportunity struck on the day of and I made it in there. I took my friend Kyle with me, who also made the last-minute decision to go. For those wondering, here is what the *final* lineup was, which was rearranged and changed either the day of or the night before. I wasn't keeping up much on it because, once again, I didn't think I would be able to go.
Main Stage Black Oxygen Hollow Drive ViFolly Beyond Threshold Art of Dying Taproot Nonpoint Drowning Pool Fuel Sevendust
2nd stage
Recoil Digital Summer Sevin Charm City Devils 12 Stones Last Born Legend ANew Revolution Bloodline Dory Drive Janus Blue Felix Sin Theorem James Durbin Eye Empire Soil ALY Shallow Side Prospect Hill
I know for a fact that Blue Felix wasn’t on there the last time I checked, and I wasn’t even aware of it until the drive down. We were listening to our local rock station and we learned that the third stage had been taken out altogether and merged with the second stage, lineups had changed, and new bands had been added. So it was a pleasant surprise to see Blue Felix added to the bill. Anyway, I got there a bit late, so I’m only gonna review the bands I watched. There was a LOT going on that day though. Before I continue, however, I need to point out that this is one of the most poorly organized festivals I have ever been to in my life. Absolutely nobody working there knew which band was playing when, which band was up next, etc. Some of the bands we talked to weren’t even sure when they were going to be playing or when they were supposed to be getting ready because the schedule had been changed so drastically. My guess is that everything got messed up when the third stage got eliminated. We even talked to the shirt designer lady hoping she would know, and she had no idea what the schedule was. She told us about how she had to scrap all the festival shirts the night before and have new ones printed up to match with the new lineup! What a fucked ordeal! But to be fair, it was the first festival they had done, so there were bound to be some problems anyway. Anyway, on to the reviewing.
Art of Dying – Art of Dying is a decent radio rock band with a few decent singles. I can’t even remember if I watched these guys or 12 stones first, but either way, it didn’t really matter. Art of Dying was a decent live show, a good way to get the day started. There’s not much to say here, except that they sounded great, the guys’ vocals were spot on, and all the musicians performed great. They all sounded balanced, too. By that, I mean that none of the instruments really overpowered each other, and you could hear the guy perfectly. Later on, they signed my stub. A definite 8/10.
12 Stones – These guys are another radio rock band that I have enjoyed a lot of the singles of. This was the first side stage band I watched that day, and there was no barrier, so I was able to get right up front. The side stage was the size of a Mayhem side stage though, so there was no getting up and diving or whatever. 12 stones performed all right, but they really should have done a sound check before hand, because I really couldn’t hear their singer that well over the instruments. But other than that, they performed well, and it was cool to cross them off my list of bands to see. 6/10
Taproot – Taproot is one of the bands I was really looking forward to that day. I’ve heard “Poem” for years and the rest of their stuff is good, too. Plus, they’re from Ann Arbor, so they weren’t all that far from home. I’ve always thought it’s cool to see bands from my home state. Unfortunately, their set was marred by more than one problem. People who know me know that I absolutely hate Dubstep. An intro track started playing as the band was getting ready to come out, which is common for most shows. Suddenly, all I hear is a very loud and obnoxious “DIAL NINE ONE ONE NOW!!!!” WUB WUB WUB PSSHT WUB VVVTTTT whatever. Kyle and I stood up with our middle fingers up Blue Felix style and screamed “FUCK DUBSTEP!” I knew that it was a Skrillex song because I know that particular one is a favorite of my lady. The buzzkill was so big that it almost gave me a headache; I haven’t had such a buzzkill since watching Hyro da Hero open for Mindless Self Indulgence. The set wasn’t that much better, they played about three songs off their new album (which I didn’t know because I haven’t listened to it yet) before some official looking guy walked out and said something to the lead singer. He proceeded to tell us that their set had been cut short and they only had time for one more. What the hell? So, after an angry response, they played Poem and left. What a letdown. Maybe another time? Until then, I give a 5/10.
Anew Revolution – Another Radio band who I’m not too familiar with but decided to watch anyway. Good energy, lots of fun live. A decent use of time, and I’ll probably listen more later on. 7/10
Nonpoint – I’ve seen Nonpoint once before when they were opening for Cold. I’m not too big a fan, but there is no denying that they are fun live. They really know how to get the crowd going. 8/10
Janus – This rock band from Chicago made it big in 2009 with their single Eyesore. I think it’s a great song, and the rest of their stuff is great too. I’ve heard good things about their live show, so I was excited about seeing them on a side stage. I thought they sounded good. Their singer reminds me of both 10 Years and Chevelle. After the show, some random guy came up to me and Kyle and asked us if we had heard their new album yet, and he told us it was the absolute best album of the year out of ANY genre. Despite that ridiculous statement, afterwards, I bought their new album from the singer himself and had him sign it. He was a really cool guy, and the new album is good, but is definitely not album of the year by any standards. But it’s still decent, and the live show was fun. 8/10
Drowning Pool – I’ve seen Drowning Pool once before a few years ago when they had Ryan McCombs from SOiL as their vocalist. I guess I never realized he WAS the lead singer of SOiL until about three minutes ago when I read it, but I didn’t realize Drowning Pool had a new singer either way, but I knew as soon as they walked out. Kyle and I were gonna make absolute sure to catch Blue Felix, who were set to perform right afterwards on the side stage, and we knew for sure, because they were the ONLY band that day who knew for sure when and where they would be to play. Anyway, Drowning Pool opened with a few songs I was unfamiliar with, but we stuck around long enough to hear Sinner, Bodies, and Tearing Away. Regardless of who the singer is, Drowning Pool is fun live and they sounded great. 8.5/10
Blue Felix – As you’ve probably already guessed, Blue Felix is a band I was REALLY excited for. I’m a big fan of industrial metal and some nu-metal (Not Limp Bizkit or any of that shit, but good nu metal, which some people don’t think exists), so I naturally love their sound. They are a combination of both. Their single Middle Finger Up came out a while ago, which had backup Turntables by Sid Wilson, who also produced that album and appeared in the video for Middle Finger Up. Their appearance reminds me of really early Mudvayne, as well as Motograter and S/T era Slipknot all at the same time. The first thing I noticed was a giant seven foot chain link fence in front of the stage which definitely wasn’t there before, but I figured it may have been part of the set. All day, security and police had been breaking up mosh pits left and right, so I wondered if maybe they put it up? I don’t know for sure. Anyway, Blue Felix comes out and their stage presence is immediately awesome. Drowning Pool had just ended in the distance, and lead singer Toxsick Tripp screamed “GET YOUR ASSES TO THE STAGE!” and they started their act. Mosh pits started up almost immediately, and dust was flying everywhere because the ground was so dry. The pit kept going way longer than I expected, because nobody was going in to stop it. They kept up until about halfway through the set. I have some videos I’m gonna include with this review that someone from the stage was recording. Tripp and all of the guys had awesome stage presence, and Tripp himself reminded me of Sid Wilson because he climbed the support beams of the stage to the roof and was doing upside-down sit-ups on it. Tripp was also knocking down his band banners and generally being destructively crazy onstage.
Towards the end of the set, things started getting crazy. Tripp actually picked up this giant wide seven foot fence in front of the stage with one hand and fucking threw it over the crowd. I was worried it was gonna hit someone, but it landed almost perfectly straight up, and proceeded to be pushed back against the stage. I got pushed against the stage by the fence piece with some other people, and I was getting out when I heard a loud rip over the band. I looked down and realized my already-ripped pants had gotten ripped almost down to the ankle, and I’m gonna need safety pins to fix it or something. Interestingly, the first big rip happened LAST year at the Showboat, too. Towards the end of the set, ALL of the microphones stopped working. I thought it was some kind of massive system glitch, but the band just kept on playing anyway. They played Middle Finger Up with Tripp screaming onstage and the rest of the crowd screaming acapella style. Come to find out later that the cops actually were trying to shut the band down during their set, because the crowd was apparantley too crazy and they were gonna try to stick Blue Felix with “inciting a riot” at the show. Showboat management and local authorities were yelling at them at their merchandise booth, and they basically told them to pack up their shit and leave. But before they did, we got CDs, shirts, autographs, pictures and everything. I got their latest album and had them sign it, but they grabbed the other CDs off their table, and he looked at their first one, and he was like “Someone can just have this” and he tossed it back on the table. I grabbed it and was like “Thanks!” and we went to go recover from the crazy show which left us dehydrated and exhausted, but feeling incredible! These guys were easily the best band of the day, and I can’t wait to see them at Dirtfest. A well-deserved 10/10 is what these guys get.
James Durbin – The only part I really saw of this guy was his Rainbow in the Dark cover, but that sounded pretty good, surprisingly. I can’t really give him a score though, since I didn’t really watch that much of him.
SOiL – We thought these guys were gonna be on the main stage, so we went to the main stage and sat around for almost twenty minutes before we decided to go kill time at the second stage while we waited for SOiL. Turns out, they were playing over there at the second stage. I was still beat from Blue Felix so I avoided the pits. We only got to see the second half of their set, but their performance was great! Ryan McCombs even came out to sing Halo with the crowd! That was awesome. They also played a lot of their older stuff. 9/10.
Fuel – We were a tad late getting to Fuel because they overlapped with SOiL, but we made it in good time anyway. They played Jesus or a Gun from what we saw, but then they had to cut their set short just like with Taproot! What the hell was going on with the organization of this festival? Afterwards, they played Hemorrhage in my Hands before leaving. “Don’t faaalllll awaaaay, and leave me to myself. Don’t faaallll away and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands agaaaaiiinnn….” A solid 7/10.
Around this time, it started raining REALLY hard. I wouldn’t have minded, except we were already exhausted and miserable and kind of just wanted to leave. I would have loved to have stayed for Sevendust, but I’ve already seen them once before. Although they are great, we just ended up deciding to leave around this time. Had things been different, we probably would have stayed, but it was just that time.
i remember people saying anew revolution was gonna be the next thing and people were actually really like them..im pretty glad nothing really happened with them tho cuz they suck
I have a setlist of theirs I would like signed but I dont know if I want to carry it in or wait for a signing I would rather watch bands no matter how lame
You tryin to be a hero fool? You wanna see badass mother fucker?! I'll show ya a badass!!!
So i didn't have to drive so that made my day better because usually with my friend i drive but his dad had been waiting 26 years to see motorhead so he went and drove lol.
Whitechapel - watched em just because i wanted to see a band. first time i've seen them and meh. the power went out during their set and didn't get to play a full set. their wall of death was pretty fun. I probably wouldn't go see these guys again though 5/10
Asking Alexandria - :-& also had a fun wall of death where me and my friend just stood in the middle and flipped them off, it was funny. 2/10
TDWP - thought asking alexandria was still playing and the crowd wasn't really into them so they need to fukkov 3/10
Anthrax - finally a band i wanted to see! i'd seen them with joey before like a year ago but this show was even better. crowd was digging it. they played a solid set and joey really looked into it. he made a bj motion at some chick in the crowd shit was hilarious. left during i am the law to go see As I Lay Dying. Also got a frank bello pick \m/ 8/10
As I Lay Dying - the main band i wanted to see. But they disappointed me. i wish they would have been on a side stage because there was practically no one there for them. im really glad i got to see them on an off date. Confined was fun though and i got another drumstick, making that 2 in 2 days not much i can complain about since it was my second time seeing em in 24 hours. wish they would have had a bigger crowd. will still definitely go see these guys whenever 6/10
Motorhead - wasn't really looking forward to these guys but they put on a good show! had me headbanging throughout. couldn't understand lemmy at all but the instruments were good! the drummer is a beast, his drum solo was fucking awesome. overkill was definitely the highlight of the set. 7/10
Fucking Slayer! - everyone that says slayer is boring, kill yourself. these guys brought it! who cares if they just play? i could tell the difference between every song. Hell Awaits, SOA, Angel of Death, Raining Blood, and Disciple were the highlights and these guys really got the pit moving. had a lot of fun during them and shit was it hot from the pyro. after the set kerry king threw out his pick and i guess no one saw it but me because it bounced off a couple people and fell to the ground like 3 people in front of me. i got down and started looking and everyone was asking what i was looking for and i said my phone lol. found it eventually! 9/10
Slipknot - wans't too excited for these guys until about 10 minutes before they came on and then i was nostalgiaing hard. hadn't smoked in like 3 days and this guy offered me a hit from his one hitter and it got me high as hell. it made the set so much better. shit was crazy it was the sweatiest i have ever been everyone was singing along i pretty much knew every word and i don't even listen to them anymore haha. i'm really glad they decided to keep vermillion because that song was awesome live. highlight of the set was probably during spit it out when we did jump the fuck up. me and my friend got to throw sid in the air. the look in his eyes was intense and he was yelling as loud as he could "throw me high mother fuckers!" "come on pussies make it good!" he was yelling at people to get down made me feel like i was in disasterpieces haha. greatest set i've seen. why better than their headline show and they played more songs. i can't fucking wait for knotfest to see them again! i need to see them as many times as i can before they are down 11/10
Comments
There's a venue about a 45 minute drive away from me called the Chesaning Showboat which generally has one to two rock concerts every summer. But this year, they decided to go all-out and have a hard rock festival. Instead of just having bands play one after another on the main stage, it was supposed to be set up with two side stages, similar to how Mayhem is set up.
Going there was a last-minute decision, because I didn't think I would be able to make it, but opportunity struck on the day of and I made it in there. I took my friend Kyle with me, who also made the last-minute decision to go.
For those wondering, here is what the *final* lineup was, which was rearranged and changed either the day of or the night before. I wasn't keeping up much on it because, once again, I didn't think I would be able to go.
Main Stage
Black Oxygen
Hollow Drive
ViFolly
Beyond Threshold
Art of Dying
Taproot
Nonpoint
Drowning Pool
Fuel
Sevendust
2nd stage
Recoil
Digital Summer
Sevin
Charm City Devils
12 Stones
Last Born Legend
ANew Revolution
Bloodline
Dory Drive
Janus
Blue Felix
Sin Theorem
James Durbin
Eye Empire
Soil
ALY
Shallow Side
Prospect Hill
I know for a fact that Blue Felix wasn’t on there the last time I checked, and I wasn’t even aware of it until the drive down. We were listening to our local rock station and we learned that the third stage had been taken out altogether and merged with the second stage, lineups had changed, and new bands had been added. So it was a pleasant surprise to see Blue Felix added to the bill.
Anyway, I got there a bit late, so I’m only gonna review the bands I watched. There was a LOT going on that day though. Before I continue, however, I need to point out that this is one of the most poorly organized festivals I have ever been to in my life. Absolutely nobody working there knew which band was playing when, which band was up next, etc. Some of the bands we talked to weren’t even sure when they were going to be playing or when they were supposed to be getting ready because the schedule had been changed so drastically. My guess is that everything got messed up when the third stage got eliminated. We even talked to the shirt designer lady hoping she would know, and she had no idea what the schedule was. She told us about how she had to scrap all the festival shirts the night before and have new ones printed up to match with the new lineup! What a fucked ordeal! But to be fair, it was the first festival they had done, so there were bound to be some problems anyway. Anyway, on to the reviewing.
12 Stones – These guys are another radio rock band that I have enjoyed a lot of the singles of. This was the first side stage band I watched that day, and there was no barrier, so I was able to get right up front. The side stage was the size of a Mayhem side stage though, so there was no getting up and diving or whatever. 12 stones performed all right, but they really should have done a sound check before hand, because I really couldn’t hear their singer that well over the instruments. But other than that, they performed well, and it was cool to cross them off my list of bands to see. 6/10
Taproot – Taproot is one of the bands I was really looking forward to that day. I’ve heard “Poem” for years and the rest of their stuff is good, too. Plus, they’re from Ann Arbor, so they weren’t all that far from home. I’ve always thought it’s cool to see bands from my home state. Unfortunately, their set was marred by more than one problem. People who know me know that I absolutely hate Dubstep. An intro track started playing as the band was getting ready to come out, which is common for most shows. Suddenly, all I hear is a very loud and obnoxious “DIAL NINE ONE ONE NOW!!!!” WUB WUB WUB PSSHT WUB VVVTTTT whatever. Kyle and I stood up with our middle fingers up Blue Felix style and screamed “FUCK DUBSTEP!” I knew that it was a Skrillex song because I know that particular one is a favorite of my lady. The buzzkill was so big that it almost gave me a headache; I haven’t had such a buzzkill since watching Hyro da Hero open for Mindless Self Indulgence. The set wasn’t that much better, they played about three songs off their new album (which I didn’t know because I haven’t listened to it yet) before some official looking guy walked out and said something to the lead singer. He proceeded to tell us that their set had been cut short and they only had time for one more. What the hell? So, after an angry response, they played Poem and left. What a letdown. Maybe another time? Until then, I give a 5/10.
Anew Revolution – Another Radio band who I’m not too familiar with but decided to watch anyway. Good energy, lots of fun live. A decent use of time, and I’ll probably listen more later on. 7/10
Nonpoint – I’ve seen Nonpoint once before when they were opening for Cold. I’m not too big a fan, but there is no denying that they are fun live. They really know how to get the crowd going. 8/10
Janus – This rock band from Chicago made it big in 2009 with their single Eyesore. I think it’s a great song, and the rest of their stuff is great too. I’ve heard good things about their live show, so I was excited about seeing them on a side stage. I thought they sounded good. Their singer reminds me of both 10 Years and Chevelle. After the show, some random guy came up to me and Kyle and asked us if we had heard their new album yet, and he told us it was the absolute best album of the year out of ANY genre. Despite that ridiculous statement, afterwards, I bought their new album from the singer himself and had him sign it. He was a really cool guy, and the new album is good, but is definitely not album of the year by any standards. But it’s still decent, and the live show was fun. 8/10
Drowning Pool – I’ve seen Drowning Pool once before a few years ago when they had Ryan McCombs from SOiL as their vocalist. I guess I never realized he WAS the lead singer of SOiL until about three minutes ago when I read it, but I didn’t realize Drowning Pool had a new singer either way, but I knew as soon as they walked out. Kyle and I were gonna make absolute sure to catch Blue Felix, who were set to perform right afterwards on the side stage, and we knew for sure, because they were the ONLY band that day who knew for sure when and where they would be to play. Anyway, Drowning Pool opened with a few songs I was unfamiliar with, but we stuck around long enough to hear Sinner, Bodies, and Tearing Away. Regardless of who the singer is, Drowning Pool is fun live and they sounded great. 8.5/10
Towards the end of the set, things started getting crazy. Tripp actually picked up this giant wide seven foot fence in front of the stage with one hand and fucking threw it over the crowd. I was worried it was gonna hit someone, but it landed almost perfectly straight up, and proceeded to be pushed back against the stage. I got pushed against the stage by the fence piece with some other people, and I was getting out when I heard a loud rip over the band. I looked down and realized my already-ripped pants had gotten ripped almost down to the ankle, and I’m gonna need safety pins to fix it or something. Interestingly, the first big rip happened LAST year at the Showboat, too. Towards the end of the set, ALL of the microphones stopped working. I thought it was some kind of massive system glitch, but the band just kept on playing anyway. They played Middle Finger Up with Tripp screaming onstage and the rest of the crowd screaming acapella style. Come to find out later that the cops actually were trying to shut the band down during their set, because the crowd was apparantley too crazy and they were gonna try to stick Blue Felix with “inciting a riot” at the show. Showboat management and local authorities were yelling at them at their merchandise booth, and they basically told them to pack up their shit and leave. But before they did, we got CDs, shirts, autographs, pictures and everything. I got their latest album and had them sign it, but they grabbed the other CDs off their table, and he looked at their first one, and he was like “Someone can just have this” and he tossed it back on the table. I grabbed it and was like “Thanks!” and we went to go recover from the crazy show which left us dehydrated and exhausted, but feeling incredible! These guys were easily the best band of the day, and I can’t wait to see them at Dirtfest. A well-deserved 10/10 is what these guys get.
James Durbin – The only part I really saw of this guy was his Rainbow in the Dark cover, but that sounded pretty good, surprisingly. I can’t really give him a score though, since I didn’t really watch that much of him.
SOiL – We thought these guys were gonna be on the main stage, so we went to the main stage and sat around for almost twenty minutes before we decided to go kill time at the second stage while we waited for SOiL. Turns out, they were playing over there at the second stage. I was still beat from Blue Felix so I avoided the pits. We only got to see the second half of their set, but their performance was great! Ryan McCombs even came out to sing Halo with the crowd! That was awesome. They also played a lot of their older stuff. 9/10.
Fuel – We were a tad late getting to Fuel because they overlapped with SOiL, but we made it in good time anyway. They played Jesus or a Gun from what we saw, but then they had to cut their set short just like with Taproot! What the hell was going on with the organization of this festival? Afterwards, they played Hemorrhage in my Hands before leaving. “Don’t faaalllll awaaaay, and leave me to myself. Don’t faaallll away and leave love bleeding in my hands, in my hands agaaaaiiinnn….” A solid 7/10.
Around this time, it started raining REALLY hard. I wouldn’t have minded, except we were already exhausted and miserable and kind of just wanted to leave. I would have loved to have stayed for Sevendust, but I’ve already seen them once before. Although they are great, we just ended up deciding to leave around this time. Had things been different, we probably would have stayed, but it was just that time.
In this one, I'm already on the fence.
This one had Tripp climbing the stage.
But it also depends if it's happening during a band I want to see. I also don't know when the AILD signing will be happening.
So i didn't have to drive so that made my day better because usually with my friend i drive but his dad had been waiting 26 years to see motorhead so he went and drove lol.
Whitechapel - watched em just because i wanted to see a band. first time i've seen them and meh. the power went out during their set and didn't get to play a full set. their wall of death was pretty fun. I probably wouldn't go see these guys again though 5/10
Asking Alexandria - :-& also had a fun wall of death where me and my friend just stood in the middle and flipped them off, it was funny. 2/10
TDWP - thought asking alexandria was still playing and the crowd wasn't really into them so they need to fukkov 3/10
Anthrax - finally a band i wanted to see! i'd seen them with joey before like a year ago but this show was even better. crowd was digging it. they played a solid set and joey really looked into it. he made a bj motion at some chick in the crowd shit was hilarious. left during i am the law to go see As I Lay Dying. Also got a frank bello pick \m/ 8/10
As I Lay Dying - the main band i wanted to see. But they disappointed me. i wish they would have been on a side stage because there was practically no one there for them. im really glad i got to see them on an off date. Confined was fun though and i got another drumstick, making that 2 in 2 days
Motorhead - wasn't really looking forward to these guys but they put on a good show! had me headbanging throughout. couldn't understand lemmy at all but the instruments were good! the drummer is a beast, his drum solo was fucking awesome. overkill was definitely the highlight of the set. 7/10
Fucking Slayer! - everyone that says slayer is boring, kill yourself. these guys brought it! who cares if they just play? i could tell the difference between every song. Hell Awaits, SOA, Angel of Death, Raining Blood, and Disciple were the highlights and these guys really got the pit moving. had a lot of fun during them and shit was it hot from the pyro. after the set kerry king threw out his pick and i guess no one saw it but me because it bounced off a couple people and fell to the ground like 3 people in front of me. i got down and started looking and everyone was asking what i was looking for and i said my phone lol. found it eventually! 9/10
Slipknot - wans't too excited for these guys until about 10 minutes before they came on and then i was nostalgiaing hard. hadn't smoked in like 3 days and this guy offered me a hit from his one hitter and it got me high as hell. it made the set so much better. shit was crazy it was the sweatiest i have ever been everyone was singing along i pretty much knew every word and i don't even listen to them anymore haha. i'm really glad they decided to keep vermillion because that song was awesome live. highlight of the set was probably during spit it out when we did jump the fuck up. me and my friend got to throw sid in the air. the look in his eyes was intense and he was yelling as loud as he could "throw me high mother fuckers!" "come on pussies make it good!" he was yelling at people to get down made me feel like i was in disasterpieces haha. greatest set i've seen. why better than their headline show and they played more songs. i can't fucking wait for knotfest to see them again! i need to see them as many times as i can before they are down 11/10