The missus and I went up Thursday night with the Mobile Mortuary (our camper) and attended the Thursday night pre-festival kick-off party which included local fav’s The Overtones, who did some decent covers including “What’s Going On” excellently sung by vocalist Cassandra Rose.

The next three days were hot, sweaty, loud, drunken mayhem that had us up until 6am on at least two occasions thanks to some overzealous neighbors in the primitive camping area. Lots of swimming, eating, DRINKING yadda yadda but let’s talk about the bands.

First off, I’m only going to elaborate on the acts that I liked. My momma always said that if “you ain’t got nuthin’ nice to say about someone, don’t say nuthin’”. In that spirit, there are several cover bands that I . . . ahem, endured & won’t go into any further details. On the other hand, here are some of the more positive moments;

Blues Traveler, Hoobastank & Theory of A Dead Man all did excellent shows which were generally crowd pleasers. Not a huge fan of any of these bands but found myself entertained & would go see them again. Especially if the tickets were free.

Cleveland Ohio’s own Jackie , who with a kind of bland band name (say that five times real fast) do NOT play blandly on stage, thankfully.  Hottie vocalist Jackie LaPonza [pictured] belted out originals that were worthy of a big stage performance.  The band is trying to win a slot opening for KISS when they come to Cleveland – consider Jackie as Rim Of Hell endorsed, mmk?

Bad Company Former Lead Singer Brian Howe – the man best known as Paul Rodgers’ replacement, Brian was hilariously entertaining and timelessly professional.  His voice is as strong as ever & he gets my respect for refusing to leave the stage during a thunderstorm.  As the few of us who were brave enough to stand in the downpour found out, Brian “didn’t want you to think we were a bunch of pussies”.   Get that man another Tequila shot!   Will never forget hearing him sing “Bad Company” under a strangely appropriate blackened sky.

Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas – I know what you’re thinking, I was skeptical too. Honestly, they do the name proud even though none are original Jefferson Airplane members. Mickey Thomas (the closest thing to a founding member) still has a great vocal style and smoothly prowls the stage while crooning songs I’d almost forgotten like “Sarah”, “Fooled Around And Fell In Love” & “Jane”. Accompanied by firecracker vocalist Stephanie Calvert, we were also treated to excellent renditions of Jefferson Airplane classics “White Rabbit” and “Somebody To Love” as well as the syrupy 80′s hits “We Built This City (On Rock N’ Roll)” and “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”.  Despite what you may or may not think of that repertoire, the band was tight & sounded great.

Overall, another crazy year spent with perennial friends we only know from this event, to new acquaintances who we’ll probably meet with again in that same campground years from now.

Now the cool part; rather than just drive up to Detroit (the next show on the tour), Tom Kiefer and Co. of Cinderella decided they’d perform anyhow – for free. Tickets were refunded, announcements broadcast all over the radio & amazingly, in that short of time frame (about 48 hours again) the powers that be found a new opening act – local boys gone to hell, the shit-kicking party band American Dog. And there was much rejoicing!

So yeah, the whole thing was free. Other than beer costs. Not free at all for me really, but I digress. American Dog – despite a plethora of sound issues during the first 3 songs, came prepared to entertain – and they did. As comfortable on stage as they are with a bottle in their hands, the bastard sons of C-bus laid it down nicely. A lot of new stuff was presented, not all of it as instantly memorable as some of their classics, but thankfully they did pull out their self-proclaimed anthem (and my personal fav) “Drank Too Much”. And yes we all did. Great show boys – as always.

Cinderella was a refreshing step back into my college days – the 80′s. Tom’s voice seems fully recovered from his own health issues and as a band they were in full form. After all this time, I kinda forgot just how many hits these guys have – and they played them all. Among them were “Heartbreak Station”, “Bad Seamstress Blues/Falling Apart At The Seams”, “The Last Mile”, “Somebody Save Me”, “Nobody’s Fool”, “Night Songs”, “Coming Home”, “Gypsy Road”, “Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone) and “Shake Me”.

I was impressed, and absolutely thrilled that I had joined the nearly capacity crowd to see this show. We all hear about the egos of the bands from the Glam era, I’m here to vouch for a band representing pure & honest rock n’ roll that saved a show instead & turned it into something memorable.

Cinderella, hopefully we don’t have to say farewell anytime soon.

In addition to seeing tons of friends, volunteering my services in security (THAT’S a whole story unto itself) and just soaking up the vibe that is Comfest, I saw some tremendous talent – reminding me that despite what the rest of the world may think, Columbus truly is brimming with excellent bands from various styles of music.  I will review several of these in separate posts, but here’s a thumbnail overview;

Josh Krajcik – multi-talented vocalist/instrumentalist is one of the most natural performers you’ll ever see.  A voice that crosses Michael Bolton with Joe Cocker accompanied by guitar work reminiscent of Stevie Ray Vaughan.  I can’t say enough about him or his band except that the record industry needs to wake up & promote this guy.

Dexter Wesley & The New Experience – One of the best Jimi Hendrix tribute bands I’ve ever seen (ok, I’ve only really seen like 3, but he was better than the other two).  Looked like Jimi, sounded like Jimi, played enough like Jimi to pass my muster.  Dexter hooked me up with a demo disc after-wards which I’ll review in it’s own post.  What an entertaining & talented band!

Locusta – The ONLY metal band this year but that’s ok – they represented!  Bludgeoning death metal, technically perfected and assaulting the senses like a rapid-fire sonic machine gun.  Yeah, their CD will be getting it’s own post here as well.  Paraphrasing the emcee who came onstage after the band was finished says it all – “I’ve seen Celtic Frost, I’ve seen Venom, I’ve seen Morbid Angel.  Ladies & Gentleman – what you just witnessed was right up there with those bands.  You’re privileged to have seen this one”.   Standing in the crowd, I can vouch that we were ALL blown away.  Truly Epic.

Willie Phoenix – Headlining Sunday night was legendary Columbus rocker (and someone of whom I’m a big fan) Willie Phoenix.  You’ve heard me rave about him before, but Willie KNOWS how to put on a show.  Mesmerizing the crowd with his soulful vocals, his blues-driven fretmanship and his totally off the wall stage antics.  No wonder one local paper ran an article a few weeks ago imploring the Comfest committee to return Willie to his former glory of headlining Saturday night’s main stage.  Hey, from what I saw – it might as well have been Saturday.

So many other acts I could rave about; Phantods, Lydia Loveless, The Floorwalkers, The Spikedrivers, Andy Shaw band, the list just goes on and on.  If you live near Columbus, please support these bands!  If you don’t, find them on Myspace, on Facebook, on Youtube WHEREVER.

Like Brigadoon, Comfest is just a vanished village now.  But as in every year, I’m glad I spent a hazy, crazy weekend in Goodale park – with the statue of the good doctor and 70,000 of his closest friends.

So I saw bits & pieces of many bands on Sunday but due to scheduling issues couldn’t see them all – had to pick & choose. The best moments I think came from;

Mistress Juliya – Fuse TV’s hot show host was the official MC for the festival & she must’ve been having a blast because by Day 2, she had almost no voice left. Still, she looked great & I wish I could gotten to see her up close(r). Hope she comes back next year.

Apocalyptica – Is there such thing as ‘Thrash Cello’? If so, these guys invented it. 3 Cellists & a drummer performing originals as well as various cover tunes (most from Metallica) made for an unusual, yet very rocking performance. I never thought I’d see a moshpit to cellos – crazy!

Five Finger Death Punch – Win ‘Most Memorable Performance’ by not only rocking everyone’s asses off & offering a brief homage to the men & women of the Armed Forces, but also by vocalist Ivan Moody’s invitation to the crowd to “come up & shake his hand” – which resulted in the most simultaneous crowd surfers I’d ever seen (nearly 100 in the air at once!). They closed with their awesome single ‘The Bleeding’ which Moody claimed he wrote about a girl “from these parts”. By “these parts”, I’m assuming he meant the midwest but who knows. Very awesome live act.

Slash – The Top Hatted One made us all forget about his former bands with an excellent set fronted by Alter Bridge vocalist Myles Kennedy. Man, that guy has some PIPES! It was especially cool that the band flawlessly performed not only some G n’ R goodness (‘Night Train’, ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’) but some Velvet Revolver (‘Slither’) and great new originals as well (love ‘By The Sword’ and ‘Starlight’ but sure can’t sing them . . .waaaaay out of my vocal range). I would definitely go see Slash again – he was amazing to watch & hear once more.

Seether – I’ve seen Seether before and they just are crowd favorites, pure and simple. Great selection of songs – including ‘Remedy’, ‘Gasoline’, ‘Broken’, ‘Fake it & ‘Rise Above This’ which are all excellent to hear live. Vocalist Shaun Morgan called playing before the RotR crowd “humbling” as they easily finished choruses with him. Very cool to witness.

The last act of the evening for me was Rim of Hell favorite Rob Zombie. His setlist was virtually identical to the last time I’d seen him but his stage show was bigger & more elaborate, with all sorts of creatures roaming around, a multi-armed skeleton/mic stand thingy (I WANT ONE!) and TONS of video monitors & flames everywhere. The band was tight as always and during an extended guitar solo by virtuoso John 5, Zombie was escorted into the crowd where he used a flashlight to check everyone out. As with every show, Mr. Zombie fails to disappoint. I’m glad he’s still taking the stage & we haven’t lost him completely to Hollywood.

Left before seeing Limp Bizkit, but a surprising amount of folks stuck it out. One teenager ran through the crowd yelling “I’m staying for Limp Bizkit – the rest of you can go home!” but it would seem that only a few of us actually ducked out early. Hey, I was out of the parking lot in 10 minutes so I ain’t complainin’.

Met many folks from some pretty far off places (Maryland & New Jersey being the farthest I think) & am ultimately very glad I went. If you get the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend attending next year’s event, or Rock On The Range Canada which is scheduled for August 7th in Winnipeg of this year. Truly awesome concert event!

First up were two local bands that have some history together (member shifts, that sorta thing) – Dark War & Slaves of Shiva.  The first is heavily Black Sabbath influenced, the second reminds me a lot of Clutch.  Both were decent openers but a poor sound mix really hurt their performances in my mind.  Still, I’d check either out again.  ‘Fallen’ by Dark War and ‘The Horns’ by Slaves definitely rank as recommended listening so check out the links.

Next up were some Rim of Hell favs – the beer drinkin’ hell raisers known as American Dog.   It’d been 8 years since these guys have played the ‘rosa and like returning heros they tore it apart.  Tighter than ever with their original lineup, AD continues to show how to entertain.  Sadly, they didn’t play “I Drank Too Much” which is pretty much their trademark – otherwise, excellent set and I was very happy to have a cold one with them.

Up next was a band I’ve also featured here on the Rim, Psychostick.  Almost as a theme to the evening, this is a band that’s hard to pigeonhole.  ‘Humor-core’ they call their own brand of craziness & well, that’s as close as anything I can come up with to describe what I saw.  Part punk, park metal and a whole lot of silly (they did a Heavy Metal cover of ‘Highway to the Danger Zone’ – complete with mirrored sunglasses), Psychostick were at once charismatic & goofy.  But when they cranked, the hordes responded.  And the Reverend saw that it was good (hell, bought a CD and T-shirt which I’m wearing as I write this).  Highly, highly recommended.

Then, after a 19 year absence returned the completely insane Green Jello. . . I mean, Green Jelly (ok, let’s be honest – they still call themselves Green Jello.  Fuck the suits).  Describing a Green Jello show is akin to doing color commentary on an acid trip;  it’s tricky to follow & occasionally you have no idea what you’re looking at.  Still, coming on stage to the announcement “you wanted the worst, you got the worst”, the countless musicians that make up Green Jello (how many is it, really?) formed an endless parade of Cow Gods, Angry Veggies and stuff that just can’t be put to pixel – and entertained the hell out of an audience in the process.  My favorite moments – their cover of Rob Zombie’s Dragula (appropriately called ‘Count Chocula’) and when they pulled 40+ people out of the audience onstage for the big finale – the 3 little pigs.  Two of those onstage being my friend Kevin and my wife (who danced with a Cougar-ish biker chick while I drooled. . . I mean watched).

The last band of the evening, and one I sadly had to miss most of their show, was the nefarious Nashville Pussy.  Named after lyrics in a Ted Nugent song, this is some serious drinkin’ music – enough to put my boys in American Dog to task.  Husband & wife Blaine Cartwright and Ruyter Suys along with bassist Karen Cuda and drummer Jeremy Thompson played a hard driving set of Southern tinged, asskickin’ hymns of mayhem.  In other words, I really wish I could’ve stayed to see the whole set.  Plus Ruyter is one of the hottest lead guitarists I’ve seen in quite some time.

So there you have it, kiddies.  A monumental show that I’m truly glad I attended.  Hope to see everyone again – Here’s some Green JELLO to finish things off;

Hank came to town on Friday at the LC Pavilion. The wife and I decided last minute to go – hell, that’s pretty much how we make decisions these days.  WTF, it was awesome & I recommend everyone do the same if they get the chance.

Rollins spoke for at least 2 1/2 hours, possibly longer as I was having a cocktail or seven and lost track. Despite his ominous appearance – he was funny, he was well spoken with nary a hesitation or stutter in the entire length of time he was on stage, and most importantly – he was educational as well as entertaining.  Where I thought we might be subjected to egotistical rantings from an extensive repertoire of published works, instead we got conversational monologue that felt personal & unrehearsed (“Newport Music hall – you walk in & smell that smell. . . you’re like ‘REALLY?’”).  Anyone who’s been to the Newport knows EXACTLY what Henry is talking about.

Politically, Rollins makes no bones about his dislike of Ann Coulter or Rush Limbaugh – but wasn’t particularly lenient on the Liberals either.  I like a man who pokes fun at everyone as I pretty much do the same.  Fuck it, I still vote so I can do that. 

Regardless, Henry Rollins is a class act & deserving of his Punk Rock icon status in my book.  What could’ve been a regrettable evening of long winded & self important hyperbole was instead a night both my wife and I shall always cherish.

C’ya next time, HR.

And speaking of rejoicing, saw today that one of my ‘dream concert’ pairings is actually gonna happen – Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper.

I know what you’re thinking.  “Rev, didn’t you say in a post a while back that you didn’t think Zombie would be touring much longer?  In fact, Rev. . .didn’t you say you thought the LAST tour was, well. . . the LAST tour??”

My rebuttal, if you were in fact paying that much attention to what I posted so long ago, is “Dude, seriously?  Don’t you have better sites to hang out on?”.  Ok, ok – my rebuttal is actually a simple “yes”.  With Hollywood yapping at his heels, I’m as surprised (albeit pleasantly) as anyone that Mr. Zombie has chosen to resist the Glamour Town siren song a little longer & stay sweaty on the stage in front of loyal metal hellhounds.

Now as always, I just hope I’m able to be one of those hellhounds one more time. Come to Columbus gentlemen – even though Rob is already signed up for Rock On The Range, we’d all go see him twice!

So there were two opening acts but since the show was sold-out and security was uber-tight, the wife and I waited it out at the A&R Music Bar next door.  Thus, didn’t see Captain Clegg & The Night Creatures but was told I didn’t miss anything.  Still, in all fairness I can’t say if I agree or not.

The first act we did catch were the Nekromantix out of Cali.  They play pretty standard Psychobilly/Punk but I still enjoyed them enough to buy a CD.  Added bonus is the lovely Lux on drums – wow, that girl can play!

Then came Zombie & Co. kicking it oldschool and taking no prisoners.  They sounded great, and played mostly old hits with only a few new songs sprinkled in to catch your interest.  Didn’t feel like the entire show was a sales pitch for the new CD, which is always good.

From a visual perspective, the band had a huge Jumbotron screen behind them and two smaller versions on either side.  While this is becoming more and more common with tours (probably easier to set-up/take down),  I do still prefer the old White  Zombie sets with tons of props, mannequins and the like.  Don’t get me wrong, there were still plenty of shooting flames, explosions, dancing robots (I can never remember that thing’s name) and the like – just a noticeable step down from days of yore.

That being said, aside from ticket & t-shirt prices ($35 for a shirt!), I can’t really complain about this show.  Zombie and his band played their hearts out & still act like they enjoy working together – which in the end is what you came to see, right?  Catch this tour if you can ’cause like I said, this may be your last chance to do so.

Zombie’s set list;

• Channel X
• Superbeast
• Supercharger Heaven
• Living Dead Girl
• Demon Speeding
• More Human Than Human
• Sick Bubblegum
• House of 1,000 Corpses/Drum Solo
• Never Gonna Stop
• Scum of the Earth
• What?
• American Witch
• Thunderkiss ’65/guitar solo
• Demonoid Phenomenon
• Lords of Salem (one of my personal fav’s)
• Dragula

The mighty Dethklok rolled into town on Tuesday, and I’m glad to say I survived the event. If you ever watch the show Metalocalypse on Cartoon Network, then you know just how dangerous a Dethklok show can be.  While I was there, few dismemberments or impalings occurred (at least that I noticed).

It was a sold out show, so by the time I had had the obligatory cheaper beers at the bar next door and then gotten past security, I arrived just in time to hear High on Fire say “Thank you, good night”. Bummer.

Next up was the screamcore outfit known as Converge. Very heavy, driving hardcore/metal that has no gray area; you either love them or hate them. Personally, I liked them but they are definitely an acquired taste (must be all that Anal Cunt I’ve been listening to that softened me up for them?). They counted down how many songs they had left in their set so you know they’ve caught their share of flack on this tour. Sad really.

Mastodon followed almost an hour and half set that included their entire new CD ‘Crack the Sky’ BUT neither of their two earlier songs that I really dig – “March of the Fire Ants” & “Colony of Birchman”. Getting to be a trend with me, that bands aren’t playing the stuff I most want to hear when I see them live. Regardless, Mastodon has become, in my opinion, more stoner metal now so the setlist was heavy, but slower paced (and occasionally tedious). Still a good set to see live but I do prefer the older material.

Dethklok were last and well worth the wait. I’d heard that they usually opened with a short animated clip, but then the rest of the show was just the actual band playing live. Not so anymore. With a massive jumbotron behind them, Brendon Small & Co. had active animation going the entire show. Some were clips from the TV series, a lot seemed new. Now I know what you’re thinking – “really Rev, a TV show band?”. They’re the real deal folks. A bonafide melodic Death Metal act that lost no audience from openers Mastodon and easily channeled the crowd into multiple pits across the room. Talented, heavy as hell and relentlessly pummeling the crowd, I would not hesitate to see these guys again.

Here’s their setlist as stolen from Metalsetlists.com;

• Theme
• Bloodlines
• Burn The Earth
• Hatredcopter
• Black Fire Upon Us
• Birthday Dethday
• Dethjingle
• Dethsupport
• Awaken
• The Gears
• Murmurder
• Thunderhorse
• Go Into The Water
• Fansong

Amazing brutal concert!  I remain a loyal fan!! (Pic stolen from Photobucket)

First up was hardcore-ish act From Sword To Sunrise (or FSTS as they’re sometimes called) out of Spokane, Washington. Decent energy, good stage presence. Fairly straight-forward screamcore, but well done.

Next were the surprisingly melodic Maylene & The Sons of Disaster. What a name, right? Just call’em MATSOD. And no, there was no female singer named Maylene fronting this six piece out of Birmingham, Alabama – as I understand it the name is a Ma Barker reference.  Anyhow, the boys’ appearance reminds me a little of the band Stillwater from the movie ‘Almost Famous’ but their sound is very heavy southern.  With THREE guitarists (holy Iron Maiden, Batman!) I was really digging their multi-layered rhythms and singable harmonies.  A big surprise and a group I would definitely see again.

After Maylene, we had the always enjoyable Goth/Alt. metal band Lacuna Coil from Milan, Italy. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen these folks, but they never fail to impress. Plus I kinda have a thing for singer Cristina Scabbia – hell, who doesn’t? Still, their newer stuff is dark, heavy and plays well live. Bassist Marco Coti Zelati had injured his arm, so the band openly admitted to playing along with his previously taped bass parts. No biggie really, and it was cool when his bandmates yelled for him to join them at the autograph table after the show. Gotta love the cohesive team vibe.

Headliners All That Remains completed the lineup with another piledriving performance, complete with an amazing wall of death in the moshpit at the end of show. Kudos to singer Phil Labonte as he orchestrated the maneuver for reminding everyone “No one leaves the floor injured. Take care of each other”. It worked, I didn’t see a drop of blood. If you’re unfamiliar with the wall of death, think of ‘red rover’ done to a metal song. Yeah, pretty brutal.

After the show, and thanks to my buddy Courtney, we were actually able to get backstage to the meet & greet for ATR. This was a blast, and totally worth the lack of sleep to see my girls chatting up bassist Jeanne Sagan, goofing around with guitarist Oli Herbert, and hugging the stuffing out of Phil Labonte. I gotta hand it to the band, every member seemed down to earth & appreciative of their fans. At least three times I heard one of them say “We’re just normal people. We’re just like you”. Very, very cool and what I hope is a wonderful memory for my kids – to be able to meet your favorite band and find out they’re decent folks to boot!

Great show, definitely one to remember.