Hope everyone is having a great Memorial weekend and thanks to all our military past, present and future for their sacrifice. About to leave to host day 3 of Rocklahoma and wrap up another great year of this festival. Yesterday was great weather and performances. From what I was able to watch Twisted Sister was a highlight for sure. Dee came out like a madman! There was an undercurrent for sure that TS was not happy to not be closing the show last night (Staind headlined), and Dee and it no doubt fired Dee and the boys to another level. He smashed an acoustic guitar saying TS will always play electric and unplugged sucks and also went on a rant about all these bands that don’t have original members when they can. Saying the only excuse for bands not making it work with original members is that one of them is dead! It was classic Dee and the guy is in insane shape and had unreal energy for almost 60! TS followed Jackyl and that no doubt drove them some too. In this area of the country Jackyl and Jesse are loved and he always brings it. The band is such a kick ass in your face hard rock band and Jesse has to be one of rocks most underrated front men. Him and Dee back to back was awesome! Side stage acts I caught some of included Kix and THC and both had great crowds to see them. Spent some time with the guys in Stained and Pop Evil as well. Truly all the bands really bring it next level in a festival setting and the crowds have been great.
Today should be some amazing guitar fireworks with Zakk Wylde & BLS on the main stage followed by Nuno and Extreme! Really looking forward to this! Kid Rock closes it out, never saw him live or met him, but major respect for his crusade to lower concert prices. Will also see Tom Keifer solo today for the first time. Photos and reports via Twitter @EddieTrunk and Instagram at eddietrunkofficial .
Didn’t see the Golden Gods since I am traveling but was fun to host it with Don & Jim. For those asking to see it in HD ( I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER VH1 CLASSIC NOT BEING AN HD CHANNEL), it will air on Palladia in HD next weekend.
Enjoy your weekend and more when I can post here. Due to the holiday and my travel the Monday SiriusXM show is not live. Back with a full report and live a week from Monday.
29 Responses
The Golden Gods show was pathetic. That hard rock/metal fans have become so desperate to be begging to be included in the HOF and have a lameass “Grammys for us” like the Golden Gods. And Zakk Wylde’s lachrymose ballad/tribute…ugh. Embarrassing-he thinks he’s Neil Young. Axl “lifetime achievement” award seems like a brilliantly sarcastic gag. And any VIACOM awards show is going to blow.
It was pathetic, and I agree. The Axl Rose thing was hilarious.
We can enjoy our music without a bunch of lame ass made up reward shows.
Metal/Hard Rock turning into Youth Soccer “Everybody gets a trophy”. This is something I never imagined when I was a kid. We REJECTED the mainstream. This needy bunch craves their attention. Annoying as hell.
I’ll be a bit more charitable about the Golden Gods, but I too was underwhelmed. Slayer kicked things off OK, and the TMS guys were fine at the helm. But dittos regarding Zakk and his ballad. (Lachrymose describes it perfectly). I’m OK with Axl getting an award for past accomplishments, but their set only reminded everyone that those accomplishments cannot be recreated. For my cable dollar, Joan Jett stole the show.
I’ve been coming to Rocklahoma from Florida since 2008. It seems there is always something interesting (weird) that happens every year. Storm comes through and blows down both side stages, Tommy Lee and Rob Zombie chastising the audience for taking pictures…. the Geoff Tate rant. This year Dee Snider was AWESOME. Totally enjoyed his rant (Jay Jay French even took a turn at the end). Then Staind comes on after TS and as my wife and I were leaving after their second song because they were just BORING, the singer says how he’s not going to be running around the stage like an idiot (a sharp dig at Dee). Hey Staind guy…. maybe if you had some stage presence there wouldn’t have been so many people heading back to the campgrounds DURING your set. Also, Killer Dwarfs were great and the update from their FB page says that all are alright, Russ was released from the hospital and they don’t even anticipate cancelling any shows. They got lucky. That all being said, I look forward to ROK 2015! BRING ON JUDAS PRIEST!!!!
Who’s staind? never heard of them. No wonder why Dee was so pissed! If I was there, I would have left too!
On the Golden Gods, I’ll take any excuse to see some live performances. If you’re having trouble dealing with another awards show, think about it like this. These are like the awards that used to be published in the metal magazines of my day; Circus, Faces, Hit Parader…all history now. But Revolver magazine publishes similar awards, throws a heck of an awards party with performances and gets it televised. Pretty awesome! Avenged Sevenfold gave their award to a fan! How awesome is that??
As for the performances, Joan Jett was as great as ever and the best performance of the night in my opinion. Slayer did their thing and even introduced an unreleased song. Zakk Wylde cool to see hulking over the piano for a tribute to those no longer with us. The saddest thing to see for me was Axl. His band was great and it was cool seeing Duff back in there, but Axl has fallen far from the great vocalist I saw live on the Use Your Illusion tour. He still gives a great performance, but his voice was unable to carry Paradise City or Welcome to the Jungle. He kept going to his falsetto or using vocal performance tricks when he can’t hold a note. But I thank Revolver putting him out there. I’d rather find out Axl can’t hack it like this than after I”ve paid for a ticket.