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Now that there has been some blogging on my part on some of the sights and sounds of this year’s Rock on the Range, we have a chance to sit down and digest all of the performances and different. The 2009 edition was a bit better than last year’s version, even if the weather was an exact duplicate of the year before. Although attendance figures aren’t out yet, but more than likely due to the economy, the numbers were slightly down from last year. Even though the numbers were down, the concourses and beer lines were as busy as ever from the first guitar licks of Early Pearl to the encore of Motley Crue late Sunday night.
So, here are the highlights and lowlights of what you might have missed at Rock on the Range 2009:
Saturday:
Highlights:
-Static-X- Maybe it was the brief torrential downpour during “Cold”, or the couple of dudes that fell out of trees while trying to climb them- but there was an element of danger at the crammed Jager Stage for their Saturday headlining set. During the 40 minutes, Wayne Static and company gave the rest of the bands on that stage a taste of their “evil disco” and sent people moshing into beer tables and fences. The set was reminiscent of the days of early OzzFest yore- days that are sorely missed in this era of corporate run traveling festivals.
-All That Remains- The rain turned to a fine mist during the Boston’ boys set, and even as lead singer Phil Labonte slipped as he came out, the band seemed to gain a lot of new fans in their set. ATR didn’t shy away from full on metal ragers such as “This Calling” and “Six”, while delivering their first rock radio hit “Two Weeks”. Note to Rock on the Range organizers- bring on more metal in years to come.
-Alice in Chains- With Jerry Cantrell and new-ish lead singer William Duvall in tow- this was clearly what the fans were looking for. Name a song by the band- “Would”, “Rooster”, “Angry Chair”, “Man in The Box”- the band kept the hits coming in a 50 minute set that showed that even as Layne Staley rests in peace, the band soliders on and sounding almost as fresh as ever.
Lowlights:
-Halestorm- All right, we figured out that 5 seconds into the set- that singer Lizzy Hale can sing. We can all agree on that. But the band’s set on the Jager Stage seemed a bit off and never really caught the fans in attendance’s attention. There is a “Wayne’s World”/Crucial Taunt joke somewhere in here, but we’ll let it rest for now.
-Korn- Let me say this- Korn sounded great as always. But to only play for an hour is doing your fans an injustice. Especially for a band that has a massive back catalog like Korn does.
-Loaded- Note to Duff McKagan: We like you and the Loaded band has a punk edge that we know you are dying to show. But unfortunately, the 30 minute set that Loaded played just quite didn’t capture the spirit of punk or Duff’s other bands.
Saturday Random Notes:
-It’s good to see Saliva lead singer Josey Scott up and moving again after a serious hernia injury that kept him in active for months.
-Our estimation skills aren’t always the best, but about 30-40 percent of the crowd left before Slipknot’s headlining set. Too bad, they missed the usual top notch set from the masked men from Iowa.
-When is Black Stone Cherry gonna get the hit that puts them in the sales range of Nickelback and Hinder? The band is tons better than the previous mentioned bands and looks one song away from making a huge break.
Sunday:
Highlights:
-Avenged Sevenfold- The band seems to have found their groove live and now look and feel like an official crazed band like their idols in Guns n Roses. The band’s 50 minute set provided plenty of pyro and wailing from Synsister Gates’ guitar, and gave the growingly chilly fans in attendance exactly what they wanted. Now, only if we could get them to play a few more songs from the “Waking The Fallen” record- it’d be perfect. Will A7Z reach the heights of their idols- maybe, maybe not. But its gonna be one hell of a road, one way or another.
-Clutch- Just like Static X the day before, Clutch made sure their crowd was rowdy at the Jager Stage. Usually, Clutch crowds are full of bearded 40 year trucker looking dudes. This crowd was a bit younger and a bit rowdier than usual in their 35 minute set.
-Motley Crue- Most of the crowd stuck around for the main stage headliner, which was a good thing. Vince, Tommy, Nikki and Mick started with “Kickstart My Heart”, and continued to pound out Crue classics like “Live Wire” and “Shout at the Devil”. It was a great way to cap off an entertaining weekend.
Lowlights:
-Hoobastank: The band was relentlessly ripped on by the guy working the Harley Davidson tent. Mixed with a tepid fan response, you kinda felt bad for Hoobastank. It’s appearance was an experiment that just didn’t seem to make sense.
-Blue October- Same thing. They were just not the right band for this festival. Seemed a little mellow for a Sunday afternoon main stage slot.
Sunday Random Notes:
-Burn Halo played a decently sized crowd and gave us a taste of what could be one of the big hard rock stories of the year. Stay tuned…
-I think EVERY single Canadian at ROTR was in attendance for Billy Talent’s performance. When the band announced that they had a secret and they were Canadians, most of the Ohio fans in attendance looked at them like they were from a different planet.
-Score one for Michigan: Grand Rapids’ Pop Evil played to a large crowd and had plenty of girls willing to show what they had during their set.
-If the beer bong contest that Buckcherry announced on stage was true- it must have been one hell of a party and wish we were invited.
-It was obvious that Shinedown was the clear favorite of the crowd of the day. A set like this would have normally been the highlight of the day. But with Avenged, Motley and Clutch on the same day- Shinedown just added to the strong bill.
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