Thursday, May 30, 2013

Rock on the Range 2013

We had an awesome time vending at Rock on the Range 2013.  The fellow rock fans, rangers, were all so cool and there was no "rock snobbery" or out of control drunks...two things you sometimes encounter at rock festivals.  Everyone was just there to hang out and enjoy the music.  There was a lot of crowd surfing, stage diving, and horns being thrown during the crowded sets.  It was great to see the spirit of rock and roll alive and well in this era of dj's and horrible pop music.   We got sunburned (as well as a lot of other fans, too) and were super tired when it was all over, but it was a great weekend.  Our booth was busy almost all weekend long, but we got to sneak away and see a few bands.

 We saw a couple Halestorm songs, and they really RAWK!!!  I have never seen them before, but I wanted to check them out, since I had heard good things about them.  I love it when a woman isn't afraid to rock out with a guitar.  And Lizzy has a great rock and roll voice, not too perfect and not too growly.



Then got to check out a couple of  songs from the hilarious Steel Panther.  The go full on with the 80's hair metal schtick and write funny songs in the vein of Spinal Tap.  They looked like they were having a ton of fun and so was the audience.  The song I remember from their set was "My heart belongs to you...but my cock is community property." so if that kind of humor is up your alley, you will enjoy Steel Panther...



We caught a few songs from Ghost, who are a sort of avant garde metal band? They are from Sweden, and are called Ghost B.C. in the U.S.   Not too sure how to describe them....the lead singer wears a ghost mask and dresses up like a pope.  Lots of theatrics and makeup, but I thought the music was interesting, especially for Rock on the Range, because it wasn't typical hard rock music...



Saturday night, we caught a few songs from headliner Smashing Pumpkins.  I loved me some Pumpkins back in the early nineties, and Gish and Siamese Dream are still some of my favorite albums.  But I haven't really listened to them since maybe the early 2000's, and it's really just Billy Corgan as the only original member now.  I saw them play in 1993 at a small club right here in Columbus called 700 High, so I don't think anything could top that.  They sounded okay, but I think the sound was a little off.  For instance, I couldn't really hear anything but the vocals and guitars...the low ends were a little lackluster.   It just all sounded muddled to me...maybe the sound guy was having a bad day.  But they did play some old favorites like "Today", "Cherub Rock" and "Tonight Tonight".  They did play a lot of songs from their new album "Oceana"  and the crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves.  I almost wished I had been up front, and maybe the sound would have been better.  I know several  people who said it sounded great if you were in the crowd and not in the bleachers.  It sounded pretty good from the parking lot as I was leaving, so maybe I should have stayed....

Sunday's line up was the best I think, with Bush, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden all playing it was like 1994 all over again.  We watched three songs of Bush's set...that Gavin Rossdale has a ton of energy for a guy older than me!!  He was running around on stage and ran through the audience, getting the crowd all worked up.  The three songs they played were hits from the CD 16 Stone that everyone listened to in college and were radio hits--"Everything's Zen" (I usually call it find my asshole brother song), "Little Things" and "Glycerine" and they sounded just like they did back then.  Whether that was good or bad, I'm not sure.  Then Mike and I got to sneak away to watch three songs each by Alice in Chains.  They sounded great---the new lead singer sounds a lot like Layne Staley, but brings a distinctive voice to their new music---which is heavy and dark and brooding like the old Alice in Chains you know and love.  Jerry Cantrell writes a hell of a song and the new stuff is no exception.  I heard two new songs which I enjoyed, and then "Down in a Hole" which, if I closed my eyes, I could imagine it being Layne Staley singing.  The new singer has a lot more energy and breathes new life into the old songs.

And we closed up our booth early on Sunday to see all of headliner Soundgarden's set.  I was really excited to see them, as I have seen Chris Cornell solo two years ago, and he sounded great, so I was hoping Soundgarden would tour again.  The whole band sounded really grungey and heavy, and their new songs are a bit slower than their older 90's era stuff, but still really heavy.  Chris sang most of the sings well, but he did appear a little more tired than when I saw him a few years back.  And no, he didn't scream quite as high as he did in 1994, but he just sang all the songs an octave lower.  Still a great fuckin' rock and roll voice...one of the best.  They played half new songs like "Been Away Too Long"  and half old, ripping through classics like "Outshined", "Down on the Inside", "Rusty Cage" and "Fell on Black Days", "Spoonman" (my personal fave) and "Black Hole Sun" to close out the set.  Kim Thayil and the rest of the band sounded great and looked like they were enjoying playing together as a band.  The energy was a bit lower than I expected, especially on Black Hole Sun (which he was probably sick of singing,) when I saw Chris solo, the audience sang along to that song and he looked like he was enjoying it.  They played all the songs straight through without much interaction with the audience and no encore. But it really didn't matter, since they played all of their songs already. They came, they rocked, they left.  Chris Cornell said at the beginning of the set "You look like you give a shit about rock and roll" and that was the beauty of the whole night---people really cared about rock and roll.  And I am placing my bets on Soundgarden helping to bring back rock and roll from it's mediocre state that it's in.  Rock on!!!!!

All in all, I think it was the best line up for Rock on the Range yet.  I am already excited for ROTR 2014.  Here are some pictures from the event...


Our booth and the fabulous grunge sign made for us by our talented friend Bam Bam Grey.

Saw lots of mohawks at ROTR...this guys was the best...







No comments:

Post a Comment