The last time Maynard James Keenan’s second most popular band, A Perfect Circle,  played in Detroit during their first go around, it was a pretty jam packed show at the Palace back in 2004. Fast forward seven years, and the band is giving it another try [...]]]>

What's with all the covers, guys?

The last time Maynard James Keenan’s second most popular band, A Perfect Circle,  played in Detroit during their first go around, it was a pretty jam packed show at the Palace back in 2004. Fast forward seven years, and the band is giving it another try and based by the hype and how quickly tickets sold out at the Fox Theater- it’s pretty obvious that the demand was there, but was the band up to the challenge of reconnecting with fans? More or less, Maynard and the guys were up to the task.

Coming on right around 9 P.M. for a 95 minute set, the band came out in a very similar style to how they did back years ago: with the other players (including Billy Howerdel and ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha) in the forefront, while Keenan took his customary spot in the background. The crowd reacted really well to the band’s biggest songs, such as “The Outsider” and “3 Libras” sounding just as a crisp and moody as they did in 2004. With his work in Tool and Pusicifer, Keenan’s voice is still spot on and continues to show him as one of the strongest visionaries in rock music today.

But I don’t think I would be the only one to say this- but I was a bit shocked at the amount of covers that the band played. Cover songs made up about half the set, and seemed to just be a way to drag out the set list to an hour and a half. Some of the covers worked- such as the highly haunting cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine” played way early in the set, but others- like the almost unrecognizable cover of Depeche Mode’s “People Are People” fell lost on the crowd.

It’s not that the crowd of 5,000 left disappointed or anything- everyone seemed to be pleased with the show. But I think I speak for most fans when I say that some of the filler could have been cut out. Perhaps trimming the set down to all originals and one or two covers would have made the set a little more consistent and would have left fans raving as they left the doors.

Unlike Keenan’s biggest band, Tool, who consistently play arena shows to adoring fans, A Perfect Circle is a theater sized act for sure and this night at the Fox, the band found a nearly perfect setting to reconvene in Detroit. Next time, trim down on the cover songs.

This year’s installment of the Vans Warped Tour is now over with, and with a good sunny and breezy day behind us, I didn’t see as many people burnt out early as I have with Warped Tours in the past. The [...]]]>

Warped Tour brought the teenage masses to Comerica this past Monday.

This year’s installment of the Vans Warped Tour is now over with, and with a good sunny and breezy day behind us, I didn’t see as many people burnt out early as I have with Warped Tours in the past. The overall crowd (always hard to estimate) looked to be about on par with last year’s crowd, but it seemed far easier to navigate through the crowds this year for some reason.

With the earlier than usual date for Warped (July 8^th versus generally sometime later in July), this year’s festival snuck up on a lot of people this year. But for those in attendance, there was plenty to talk about as always. So, instead of filling up dead space in the article with describing Warped Tour- let’s just start to give out the awards for the scenes that took place at the 2011 edition of the Warped Tour:

Scariest Moment of the Day: During the Acacia Strain’s noontime rager of a set, the pits were on fire as the band launched into what was mostly an old school set and was well on it’s way to the show of the day until some tragedy struck. Midway through the set, a fan was severely injured during the set and even as the ambulances arrived, the fan was still not moving at all. It was a scary moment that cut the band’s set short, but we’re hoping the fan ends up all right in the end.

Highest Decibel Level of Young Girls Shrieking: No question- of all the bands I saw- this award goes to the Black Veil Brides. The music, as with their AP Tour performance, is a mixture of H.I.M. and hair metal (not always a bad combo), but a lot of it was drowned out by young teenage girls screaming every time they saw some guy in kabuki makeup. In the line for the signing,-check, during the set- check, on the way home in mom’s minivan- well hopefully for the mom’s sake, not.

The “I Know We Were Here in 1997, but Maybe We’re Getting Too Old For This” Award: Even though this reviewer would probably finish a close second, the guys in Less Than Jake played to a smaller crowd later in the day, and chatted during the set as to just how out of place they seemed with the rest of the bands on the bill. If Warped ever had a senior circuit, Less Than Jake would one of the forefathers of it and that’s not mean to be insulting because I’d be right there with them.

The “I Thought They’re be More People In Your Crowd” Award: It’s a tie between Dance Gavin Dance and Winds of Plague. The combo of August Burns Red and hometowners We Came As Romans might have taken away from Jonny Craig’s band set, which was still good, but it looked a little sparse. And even though Winds of Plague tore things up during their set, it was obvious a lot of the fans wanted their Jesus Metal as The Devil Wears Prada played at the same time. It’s a shame, because most fans missed a couple pretty solid sets.

Biggest Buzz: Fans were beyond psyched to see the final band of the evening, Asking Alexandria- who most likely won the tshirt sales of the day and hype of the day. Even though this reviewer missed their set, it was sure to be one of the bangers of the day.

Largest Crowds of the Day: Take your pick between Craig Owens’ new band D.R.U.G.S. and A Day To Remember. As was expected, both bands played the Main Stage to crowds that made it almost impossible to see, unless you hopped on top of a porta-potty or a view with binoculars. But both bands brought it and did a damn fine job in their 40 minute sets.

Well, those were the highlights of this year’s Vans Warped Tour. An interview with August Burns Red fell through, but I was able to interview Matt and Nick from D.R.U.G.S.- check for that interview to be posted within the next few days. Until next Warped Tour, whether it’s the senior circuit or not, later!

Heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne hasn’t exactly maintained his cred during the past decade. Even though his OzzFest went pretty strong through most of the last decade, reality shows and shameless promotion gave Osbourne a little bit [...]]]>

Wish my seats were this close, I was touching the rafters where I was at.

Heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne hasn’t exactly maintained his cred during the past decade. Even though his OzzFest went pretty strong through most of the last decade, reality shows and shameless promotion gave Osbourne a little bit of the credibility he spent 30-odd years cultivating.

With Ozzy’s latest album, “Scream” out since last summer and puts the emphasis back on Ozzy’s music ventures rather than extracurricular activites, it is good to see the Prince of Darkness back out and touring. During his almost way too short 90 minute set at the Palace on Saturday night in front of a crowd of roughly 11,000, Osbourne used his short on stage time wisely, focusing in on the man’s major hits from his Black Sabbath and solo days instead of the new material.

Kicking off the set with “Bark At the Moon”, Ozzy proved that even though he can’t string a sentence together in conversation, his singing voice still remains strong. On classics like “No More Tears” and “Crazy Train”, Osbourne sounded like he did 20 years ago and the crowd ate it all up.

If you have seen Osbourne in the past ten years, this set wouldn’t have felt much different to you: a parody montage of pop culture at the beginning (which included a humorous take on “Jersey Shore”), and Osbourne’s stage banter wasn’t anything that we haven’t heard the past 15 or 20 years. What was new was guitarist Gus G., who made his Detroit debut with Ozzy on this tour. Gus’ skills are definitely there, but he’s got a long way to go if he plans of being as memorable to Ozzy fans as Randy Rhoads or Zakk Wylde, but live- he shows signs of hope of being a quality guitarist in fans’ eyes.

With Ozzy’s latest tour, it was obviously that the musicianship and vocals are still there, which made the fans happy. But as Ozzy gets into his early 60’s, you can tell that a 90 minute set may want fans hoping for a longer set, but this may be the limit to Ozzy’s abilites on a nearly every night basis.

Slash’s solo band delivered a 45 minute set of Myles Kennedy’s powerful vocals, and covered material from the solo album, as well as Guns n Roses classic and cuts from Slash’s other band, Velvet Revolver. Hey Slash, as much as I like Corey Taylor (the highly rumored replacement for Scott Weiland in Velvet Revolver), you may just want to look to the guy singing for him now as Velvet Revolver’s next lead singer. Just a thought…

To say the least, the reviews for Linkin Park’s latest album, “A Thousand Suns” have been polarizing. Some fans love the stylistic changes of the album, while others just want to hear the old school Linkin Park [...]]]>

Linkin Park's Chester Bennington live in Detroit on Jan. 25th (photo courtesy of Jeff Hatline)

To say the least, the reviews for Linkin Park’s latest album, “A Thousand Suns” have been polarizing. Some fans love the stylistic changes of the album, while others just want to hear the old school Linkin Park songs. But for one night, both of those camps could rest easy as the band gave a strong mix of new and old in a 100 minute set to a crowd of about 10,000 at Joe Louis Arena.

Coming out to a triangular set with massive video screen, the band launched into safe territory early on, to get any doubters on their side with past tracks like “Lying From You”, “Given Up” and “Papercut”. The energy of the band was on point on the first moments of the show, with lead singer Chester Bennington lighting up the crowd throughout the show.

There was definitely some new material played, which seemed to be met with polite applause. Songs like “The Catalyst” and “When They Come For Me” seemed to fare the best, but the band shockingly left out the new album’s best song, “Wretches and Kings”, and if they did play it, it must have been during a bathroom break.

But obviously, the band’s biggest responses came from the biggest hits, with songs like “Numb” and “Shadow of the Day” had fans going nuts. In a wise decision, the band’s encore was heavy on the older material, and with a one-two punch of “Crawling” and the usual set closer “One Step Closer” had the fans bouncing around like it was 2000 all over again.

After 10 years of recording and touring, the energy level within the band is still high and makes for a highly entertaining show. Following the band through the years, it is still a little odd to see co-lead singer Mike Shinoda fall into the background of the newer material, after watching him and Bennington trade vocals in the early days.

I will admit, I was one of those leery critics of the band’s new direction, but it was obviously that the band knew how to intertwine the best parts of the new album and the interludes and make a very cohesive set and didn’t seem choppy at all. You have to give a band credit for forging out a new path, knowing not everybody would be on board, only to win the fans over and that’s exactly what Linkin Park did in Detroit.

Taking members from Anthrax, Every Time I Die and Fall Out Boy don’t exactly sound like the most likely to join forces in a hard rock supergroup, but that’s exactly what the Damned Things are putting together on their debut.

Mix a little [...]]]>

Even Zombie George Washington would be proud of this album...

Taking members from Anthrax, Every Time I Die and Fall Out Boy don’t exactly sound like the most likely to join forces in a hard rock supergroup, but that’s exactly what the Damned Things are putting together on their debut.

Mix a little Scott Ian (Anthrax), a little Keith Buckley (Every Time I Die) and a little Joe Trohman (Fall Out Boy), and the band’s first album “Ironiclast” is a somewhat potent dose of old school sounding groove rock.

Most of the 10 songs on the record don’t sound vastly different from each other, but it’s easy to see what each guy in the major bands joined forces (or at least this is my take on it): Ian is just looking for a consistent band to play with while Anthrax figures out their lead singer issues, Buckley wants some exposure for his underappreciated vocals and Trohman is looking for a new project, period (since Fall Out Boy is presumed broken up).

Songs like “A Great Reckoning” and “Friday Night (Going Out in Flames)” follows a very classic formula, with the groove style riffs custom built for driving fast and highly accessible lyrics. But two tracks that sound out above the rest are the opener “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” and “Bad Blood”, which have the same overall sound, but seem to hit with a lot more intensity than the others.

Ian’s riffs are not as heavy as his Anthrax stuff, but it totally fits the mood of the album. Buckley is the real star of the album: I always felt his vocals seem wasted with all the screaming that Every Time I Die did from time to time, and always thought Every Time I Die would move in a direction similar to the Damned Things, but he had to wait to join this band for realize his full potential, even it this project is just for fun.

The Damned Things are obviously a side project for many of the members, and there are tons of bands trying to pull off this kind of similar show. But most don’t sound as infectous as many of the songs on “Ironiclast”. Even if it’s not revolutionary stuff, the album is fun and easy to take down.

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wylde, Michael Sheen Director: Joseph Kosinski Rated: PG

Back in 1982, “Tron” was seen as a technological marvel at the time, but the movie was a huge disappointment at the box office. Over time, the movie has gone on to become a [...]]]>

Yeah, you wish you were that close to Olivia Wylde...

Starring: Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wylde, Michael Sheen
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rated: PG

Back in 1982, “Tron” was seen as a technological marvel at the time, but the movie was a huge disappointment at the box office. Over time, the movie has gone on to become a cult classic but I was still surprised to hear news that there was a sequel in the works.

28 years and a reported 150 million dollars later, “Tron” is back and gives the viewer a remarkable special effects show and a somewhat thin but entertaining plot that most viewers are probably checking out in 3D.

The story starts as a flashback with Tron creator Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) talking to his son Sam, sharing stories about “The Grid” in which Flynn created and came back from in the original movie. But Kevin disappears once again without a trace, leaving Sam without a father and direction in life. Fast forward 20 years, the younger Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is a bright albeit misguided twentysomething who spends his time wreaking havoc with the company that his father built from the ground up. But on a fateful night, Sam returns to his father’s old arcade and is sucked into the far more updated version of “The Grid” his father created and defeat his father’s evil creation Clu (Bridges, but in a computer enhanced fountain of youth version of him).

The plot of “Legacy” isn’t exactly rocket science (son enters weird world, meets hot chick, meets up with long-lost father, fights his evil computer generated twin, etc), but the movie doesn’t drag either. The special effects of the original movie were considered ground breaking at the time, the new special effects and colors used for the movie aren’t quite ground breaking, but set the proper mood and tone for the movie. Also, if you want to see it in 3D, there are a few cool scenes that 3D enhances the scene, but to be honest- most viewers would get the same effect in regular 2D.

Bridges does a fine job playing the two different characters- bringing forth that cool, Zen Master type vibe of Kevin Flynn and as the dictator Clu. The computer generated version of Bridges seems a bit odd (think a more human version of Tom Hanks in “The Polar Express”) and even comes off as a little spooky, even if the acting is fine. Hedlund and Olivia Wylde (playing the love interest Quorra) have chemistry and pull off their roles well. And you gotta give the Daft Punk musical score some big points as well, which sounds perfect at a club in the Grid- even if usually stellar character actor Michael Sheen goes a bit over the top as a David Bowie/Ziggy Stardust looking club owner during those scenes.

The new “Tron” isn’t going to win performance based Academy Awards or anything, but if you are looking for a dazzling light show and solid storyline, then “Tron: Legacy” provides a quality continuation of this long dormant story.

Last time comedian Zane Lamprey rolled into town, a drunken good time in June was had by all. Lamprey’s show in June was a fun and rowdy time of stand up and songs and for those expecting the same show during [...]]]>

Zane and crew got their drunk on this past Tuesday night.

Last time comedian Zane Lamprey rolled into town, a drunken good time in June was had by all. Lamprey’s show in June was a fun and rowdy time of stand up and songs and for those expecting the same show during his return to Royal Oak- you would be mistaken.

Lamprey’s “Sing The Booze” tour varied greatly from the show earlier in the year, as Lamprey and friends (including the always insane Steve McKenna) plowed through nearly 100 minutes worth of alcohol fueled comedic songs for a crowd of about 400 people at the Royal Oak Theater.

Fans at the show were first treated to the semi-sober (at the time) McKenna, who started by showing the fans a never seen before episode of Lamprey’s “Drinking Made Easy” show. The humorous episode takes places in New Orleans and begs to ask the question: how in the hell did these guys survive New Orleans?

Along with McKenna, Lamprey and his backing band then came out and started performing different drinking parody songs, all in different stages of completion. Between rounds of shots (during most songs), the guys played songs like the soft-rock tinged “Beer, I Love You”; the play on words of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, which turned into the beer drinking inspirational tune “Eye of the Chugger”.

Probably the most apt song for the set was the Irish folk song “T*** McGee”, which sounded like it would be right a place in some Irish bar during St. Patrick’s Day. The guys seemed to be at ease once the right amount of liquor was in them, and the crowd seemed to eat it all up.

The crowd was a bit smaller this time, more than likely due to the fact the show was mid-week and couldn’t enjoy it as much as they could on a weekend night. But the fans who were there definitely had a good time singing along and drinking with the band.

One last thing: anybody notice just how similar McKenna and Joaquin Phoenix, circa “I’m Not There” are looking? As long as McKenna doesn’t do some of the stuff Phoenix did in that now-fake documentary, he’ll be just fine.

Detroit had quite the metal weekend that took place this past weekend as two major package tours made their way through the Motor City this past weekend. Glenn Danzig brought his third installment of the “Blackest of the Black” tour to Royal Oak on [...]]]>

That almost looks like a smile from Danzig...almost.

Detroit had quite the metal weekend that took place this past weekend as two major package tours made their way through the Motor City this past weekend. Glenn Danzig brought his third installment of the “Blackest of the Black” tour to Royal Oak on November 6^th, while the newly clean and sober Zakk Wylde brought the first ever “Black Label Berserkers” tour to the Fillmore in Detroit.

Check out the recaps of the shows below:

“Blackest of the Black” Tour @ Royal Oak Theater- November 6^th
Bands: Danzig, The Possessed, Marduk, Toxic Holocaust and Withered

Two years ago, Glenn Danzig brought Dimmu Borgir on tour with him for the ’08 “Blackest of the Black” Tour and decisively got his ass kicked on stage by the over the top Borgir. This time around, Danzig picked more bands closer to Danzig’s sound that anything radically different. During Danzig’s 80 minute set, the show was a mixture of new material from his “Deth Red Sabaoth” album, including “The Revengeful” and “On A Wicked Night”. Danzig didn’t disappoint the old fans, playing “Twist of Cain” and of course- the classic “Mother”.

But this show had a little bit for everybody: Bay Area band The Possessed brought it’s old school doom and bludgeoned fans with a wall of sounds that sounded as dark as anything else that night. Anytime you get a group in corpsepaint, such as Sweden’s Marduk- you will get the attention of most people and get a varied cross-section of reactions. Playing cuts of their latest “Wormwood”, the band probably got some looks from the fans just there to see Danzig, but their 30 minute set was searing and showed a lot of people the band has had. The band missed out some previous tours in the States due to visa issues, so it was good to check them out once again. Joel Grind and Toxic Holocaust brought a darker edge to the band’s thrash metal and seemed to have the fans on their side. Ripping through a very quicky 25 minute set, Holocaust proved that shredding guitars and evil sounding music can co-exist quite nicely.

With a crowd of about 1,000 (it’s the best guess I had since the balcony wasn’t open), Danzig and the other bands on the bill proved that anything dark- no matter what sort of metal sub-genre they fall into, can work seamlessly together.

“Black Label Berserkers” Tour @ Fillmore Detroit- November 7^th
Bands: Black Label Society, Clutch, Children of Bodom, 2 Cents

I’ll admit, I tend to far prefer Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society studio albums over the band’s live performances. And with the band’s latest, “Order of the Black”, BLS continued its line of engaging studio efforts. With the band headlining their first “Berserkers” tour to a crowd of about 2,000, Black Label sounded a little bit better, and probably came the closest to capturing the band’s studio sound (I know it sounds weird, because bands usually sound better live than on an album- but BLS is the opposite of that). During their 80 minute set, much of the early set material was based on the new album (“Crazy Horse”, “Overlord”), but played plenty of stuff that the hardcore BLS fans could get into (“Funeral Bell”, “Suicide Messiah”). I don’t know if I can confirm this or not- but after every song, Wylde would seem to get a large cue card next to his monitor, with what could have been lyrics to the upcoming song. Don’t want to say for sure, but it looked quite suspect. Even with that, Black Label did a decent job on stage, but the night probably belonged to Clutch.

The crowd seemed to be into the Maryland based jam-metal band the most, as the pits were going from the first moment of the band’s 50 minute set. The band continues to crank out their bluesy style of hard rock and it sounds organic and fresh just about every time they get on stage.

Finland’s Children of Bodom seems destined for bigger things and we’ll see if the band’s next album can put them over the top in the metal world. But on this night, their 40 minute set was a complete rip-roarer of crazy riffs and quirky keyboards. With songs like ‘Blooddrunk” and closer “Hate Crew Deathroll”, Bodom may have put together the best set of the everything.

So, which show is more dark and evil? Which show would please a black metal fan in Norway? To be honest, hell if I know. Either way, most metal fans in Detroit got a chance to get their fix in with one of these two shows this weekend.

Iron Maiden’s body of work is one of the greatest ever seen in the world of metal. From songs like “Number of the Beast” to “The Trooper”, the band’s anthems are always at or near the top of any metal fans’ list.

Since [...]]]>

It wouldn't have hurt "Frontier" to be a bit shorter.

Iron Maiden’s body of work is one of the greatest ever seen in the world of metal. From songs like “Number of the Beast” to “The Trooper”, the band’s anthems are always at or near the top of any metal fans’ list.

Since Bruce Dickinson came back into the lead singer fold back in 2000, the band has released four albums that has helped re-energize the fan base and make Maiden as big as they were in the early to mid 80’s- not bad for a band pushing past 50 years old on average. But the band’s 2006 effort “A Matter Of Life and Death”, seemed slow and prodding at times and I probably wouldn’t rank it among the band’s best.

But since that time, the band celebrated massive success with their 2008 tour and got everybody pumped up for their new album, “The Final Frontier”, with a big time tour this summer. But the big question remains, does “The Final Frontier” meet the same fate as the last album, or will it go down as one of the band’s epic masterpieces? The answer: it falls somewhere in between.

The 8 to 9 minute songs are still there, and twist and turn in a few different directions, but “The Final Frontier” may be more exciting at times than the previous album. Most have heard the searing first single “El Dorado”, which shows Dickinson’s vocals at some of their strongest- which ends up being the highlight of the album. Tracks like “The Alchemist” and “The Talisman” successfully rebound from slow intros to provide the punch that Maiden fans come to expect. The musicianship is still there, and proves that the band hasn’t phoned it in over the years.

However, some of the same issues that plagued “Life & Death” plague “Frontier”. Most of the best Maiden songs weren’t 9 and 11 minutes long, and songs like “Isle of Avalon” and the opening “Satellite 15” take too long to get off the ground, and by the time they do- the listener is lost or disinterested in those songs.

If this does become Iron Maiden’s “final” album, it will be a quality cap to the band’s illustrious career. Even though it’s better than “Life & Death”, “The Final Frontier” is a mixed bag that will probably require more than one listen to fully get into.

Unlike past years where the sun reigned down on the patrons of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and left scores of sunburns to be had- this year’s mostly cloudy weather throughout most of the day was a welcomed relief from festivals of [...]]]>

Congrats Detroit! You gave Mayhem their first sellout of 2010.

Unlike past years where the sun reigned down on the patrons of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and left scores of sunburns to be had- this year’s mostly cloudy weather throughout most of the day was a welcomed relief from festivals of the past. Inside of a sold out DTE Energy Music Theater, Mayhem provided 9 hours of hard rock and metal that was most likely the third year festival’s most profitable show to date. There wasn’t a seat in the house as Korn & Rob Zombie headlined a high quality day of music.

And because doing a rundown of every single band there could get boring- I am gonna dish out awards- much like I did last week for Warped Tour. There were plenty of observations and stories to go around about Mayhem 2010, and here are my awards for the sights and most importantly, the sounds of Mayhem 2010:

The Perhaps Worst Example of the Sad State of the Concert Business These Days go to…Mayhem itself. Five Finger Death Punch singer Ivan Moody stated during the band’s set that this was the first sellout for Mayhem this year. My response is: with this lineup- really? It seemed just about every band was highly impressed with the number of people in attendance, so way to represent metal Detroiters….

The “Let’s Throw The Schedule For A Loop” award goes to: Atreyu. Don’t know if this was planned out after the initial schedule came out, but most people seemed surprised when Atreyu came on right after Chimaira, instead of finishing out the side stage action of the day. The band played their usual spirited 45 minute set, but it was a good hour earlier than expected. This left In This Moment to play after Hatebreed’s fiery set, and sent most people to grab a spot on the lawn for the main stage action.

The Award For A Potential Arena Tour on Their Own goes to: Five Finger Death Punch and Lamb of God. They may not seem like the most likely tour mates, but given the crowd response for both bands’ 40 minute sets. Five Finger Death Punch proved that they are far superior live than to their albums, and Lamb of God keeps demolishing crowds. Also, it seemed FFDP won the contest for most people wearing their t-shirts, beating out the headliners with the greatest of ease. I am sure the bands feel they could easily sell out a theater, but I don’t think either band should rule a return to the outdoor sheds next summer on their own.

The Most Improved Award goes to…Winds of Plague. It was just a matter of time before the Los Angeles deathcore band honed their set and sounded truly dangerous live. Mayhem was proof of that, as the crowd seemed to response quite well to the band as well. Perhaps the experience on Mayhem has made the band step their game up a little.

The Better Late Than Never Award goes to…Korn. The band was supposed to come out about 9:55, but didn’t go on until almost 25 minutes later- cutting their set brutally short. But until that point, the band blazed through a hit filled set that would satisfied the Korn fans still there- at least until the house lights came on.

The Best Set of the Day goes to…Hatebreed. Maybe, it was just the number of people or the songs they were playing- but the hardcore metal band ignited the pits in the parking lot during their 40 minute set. The set was short, sweet and absolutely no filler. Jamey Jasta’s potshot at the fans that weren’t moving, saying “if you see somebody not moving, they’re probably a Blackhawks fan” was one of the funniest moments of the day.