The Rock Carnival Review Part 1- Getting There And The Bands

     The day started out like any other.  I woke up around 7am and had about half a bag of Reese's Pieces.  It's also the Rugby World Cup, so I watched USA play Samoa (and lose).  After that I went to Tierney's to catch the Patriots play the Bills (and win).  I bought a grilled cheese and a pitcher while waiting for my friends to arrive.  We headed out, but stopped at QuickChek first to get some road snacks.

     The chocolate nut clusters were actually pretty good.  A very nice mix of salty and sweet to cover all the bases on your taste palette.  I only had about 4 or 5, don't want to get too full before a food truck event.

     QuickChek brand cookies.  Not so good.  Really inconsistent mix of chewy and crunchy.  I like both, just pick one and stick with it.  I knew I should have gone with the 12 cookie box instead (even though they were twice the size of these).

     And to top it all off, Nesquik Vanilla milk.  Milk was a bad choice.  Beer and milk are a quick way to heartburn.  That made it really tough to eat all those cookies.

     We also had a fucking killer roadtrip playlist.  Rage Against the Machine, Limp Bizkit, Anthrax, Audioslave, Korn, The Beastie Boys.  All absolute classics if you're a white, middle-class male with lots of angst in the early 00s.

     The next part of this blog is going to cover the bands.  Over the three days there must have been 50 bands there ranging from pub bands to international headliners.  We didn't go Friday or Saturday, and we only saw 4 bands on Sunday.  My buddy wanted to see Lita Ford but there was a scheduling conflict.

     First up was Anthrax, one of my personal favorites.  I've even had a beer with their bassist.

They played a killer setlist- Madhouse, Caught in a Mosh, Got the Time, Antisocial, Fight Em, Lone Justice, In The End, and Indians.  There was a huge energy in the crowd for a relatively short stage time.

     There were 2 stages with bands playing back-to-back.  After Anthrax we checked out Clutch.  They're a good stoner-rock style band with a bluesy feel to them.  Also, they're in their mid-40s and dress like it instead of wearing stage get-ups.

Their vocalist kinda reminds me of the Preacherbot from Futurama.

   

     After Clutch we checked out Stone Temple Pilots.  I've never seen a band with such a mismatched style of dress.

Robert DeLeo, bass- This is a man who goes to bar, buys himself a scotch and soda, introduces himself to a woman, and makes love to her.

Scott Weiland Chest Bennington, vocals- This guy goes to a club and bangs some chicks.  (At one point Chester jumped into the crowd and all you could see even after he got back on stage was a wave of phones.)

Dean DeLeo, guitar- Dean's having a little trouble adjusting to the bachelor lifestyle after his wife kicked him out.

Eric Kretz, drums- And then we have the drummer.

     The last act was Godsmack.  I consider myself a fairweather Godsmack fan.  I have most of their albums, but last time they toured my area was with Hellyeah, who are fucking terrible, and tickets were more than I was willing to pay for one band.

     Their song selection was pretty good, but the crowd for them was huge and we were really far back.  We didn't get to be part of the crowd and feel the energy up close which took a bit away from their kick-ass performance.

And that concludes part 1 of my review of the 2015 Rock Carnival.  Tomorrow I'll put up part 2, which will have the snacks and people watching.