The first night of Metallica arrived and you could feel the electricity in the air! I arrived at the festival about 1pm and parking was already almost full, a stark difference from day one’s crowd. Everyone there was excited to see the epicness, the insanity, the metal gods that are Metallica!
Kicking the day off on Metallica’s stage though were my buddies in South of Eden! I have hyped these dudes up since I first listened to their music and they did not disappoint! They had one of the toughest jobs which was setting the tone for the rest of the day and once guitarist Justin Young made his guitar sing, you knew they were gonna bring it! Singer Ehab Omran was bringing it so hard in fact, the mic was peaking out due to how powerful those vocals are. You could consider them a blessing and a curse I suppose. Best part of South of Eden’s set…THEY GAVE ME A SHOUTOUT ON STAGE! Ehab pointed at me and said “I see you Jordan Roos thank you for the support!” Made my day and it wasn’t even 2:30 yet.
After South of Eden wrapped up, I went to talk with the master distiller of Metallica’s Blackened Whiskey, Rob Dietrich. I’ll post the audio of our interview next week when I get back from the festival, but the knowledge Rob has about whiskey and his love for the craft makes me enjoy Blackened even more than before.
Once I left the Blackened tent with a bit of a buzz, I had to get food on my stomach and tacos sounded divine. Only one taco place in the place and they served up MASSIVE ones that certainly filled me up the rest of the day.
A band high on my list to see was Fever 333 because those dudes are known for literally and figuratively tearing up a stage! Singer Jason Butler was climbing on guitar cabs, jumping off the drum set and at one point, pushed two monitors together to set up a little hammock to lay one.
All the way from Sweden, Avatar graced the stage next. The past shows I’ve seen from there were a lot more theatrical, even at festivals, but they toned down the theatrics this year to replace them more with straight-forward metal show that the crowd thoroughly enjoyed.
I watched Starset’s show for about 15 minutes until I decided it was time to find a seat to rest for the long haul of bands at night that ultimately ended with the legends in Metallica.
Metal heavyweights, Gojira was the next band I HAD to see and my neck is still sore from the headbanging. I’m not the biggest Gojira fan, but the technicality in their music, time changes, along with the crazy stories in the lyrics all form to make this unique form of metal that only Gojira seems to have perfected.
A band that I adore, Rise Against, followed Gojira and, as always, they put on a fantastic show. Singer Tim McIlrath sounded beautiful as they ripped through their hits that concluded with a 40,000 person sing-a-long to “Savior”.
The one band of the day that I’ve never saw live was Jane’s Addiction and they were…interesting. Not in a bad way though. Perry Farrell ran out on stage in a gold glitter jacket, gold boots and a bottle of wine? (looked like a wine bottle, but he kept saying it was whiskey). I did not expect for Perry to be as eccentric as what I was witnessing. That dude was contorting his body in weird ways all while battling a bit of mic feedback due to a voice box he was using. The main reason I even cared about seeing Jane’s Addiction though was Dave Navarro and that dude lives up to all the hype and more! The most memorable part of their set though was the finale where they brought out two girls with pierced backs (yes, their literal back was pierced) and hung them up in the air by like 10 feet, swinging by their back piercings! Mind-blowing to witness!
Now…the moment we’ve been waiting for, for almost two years now…METALLICA! I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Metallica twice before Louder Than Life and they are one of the greatest band of all time live with this set living up to expectations. They came out of the gate with a blistering rendition of Whiplash that made the crowd of 40,000+ roar in excitement! Metallica went on to play all their greats, Ride the Lightning, Memory Remains, One, Moth to Flame, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Fade to Black, Master of Puppets, Battery, Fuel and finished the night with Seek & Destroy!
Day two of Louder Than Life was overall perfect from the weather, music, food and everything in between. We’re halfway through with the insanity! To be honest with you, I don’t know how much I’ll have to say about day 3 because I’m probably leaving early for Disturbed and MGK…but you’ll find out on the Day 3 update! Cheers Loudmouths!
