Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival

Rockstar Energy Drink
Uproar Festival
Rock The Rapids, Grand Rapids Michigan.
08/21/2012

My Son and I never went to the outdoor festival called Rock The Rapids.  Rock The Rapids is located behind the VanAndel Arena, in the large open parking lot.  This location makes for a great outdoor event.

We both wanted to see the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival.  Because of the great line-up of five great sounding bands it made the show complete and amazing.  The first thing I have to say is that all the bands could have headlined each other.


All of the bands were that good live. My son and I heard all the bands live we’re undecided at which one we like the most.  They were all that good at performing live.

The Rock the Rapids area had plenty of area to breath.  Many people were allowed to bring their own bag folding chairs which were great for us covering the show.  If you didn’t bring a chair people could rent folding chairs there at the show.

This show had two VIP areas with plenty of room on the north and south sides of the stage.  V.I.P.’s had food, drink and bathrooms which were nicely set up.  General admission standing had a great view of the stage on the north and south sides of the stage also.


This is where I mostly stayed while my son took the photos.  I had a great view from the south side by the stage of all the bands.

Adelitas Way:
I always say the hardest part of any show is the first band needs to start the show.   The crowd is there wanting the first band to charge them up.  Surprise them with their music.

Once you get the crowd energized you have to keep it going until the next band gets on stage.  Adelitas Way did it all with some great songs they blasted out.  The true test of a band is hearing them live.  They flat rocked live. 

Some of the songs by this band that I like are, “The Collapse”, “Last Stand”, “Sick”, “Scream”, and my favorite “Invincible”.  If you hadn’t seen this band live go to youtube and take a listen for yourself.  I would be happy to see them live again and maybe interview them next time.

P.O.D.:
My son and I have been waiting many years to see this band live.  We’ve watch for their show to come around and really love their music.  When they came out live they took the stage by storm.

Full of energy and great sound live.  I really enjoyed their show when Sonny Sandoval the lead singer went out into the front row.  He sang and high fived people while sang.

P.O.D. really rocked the crowd I couldn’t think of one thing wrong with the show they put on and neither could my son.

Some of our favourite songs by P.O.D. are, “Satellite”, “Youth Of A Nation”, “Boom”, and “Alive”, which they performed live.  We would love to see this band again and again and maybe interview them next time as well.

Stained:
Stained casually took the stage and knocked the crowd back with their great music.  We really liked, “Something To Remind You” live.  There are so many songs they played that we like.

 

Other songs of Stained that we like are “Not Again”, “Eyes Wide Open”, “Now”, and “Failing”.  We would love to see them over and over again and maybe interview them next time. 
If you never have seen this band live you’re really missing out on a great show.

Godsmack:
It’s hard to figure out where to start with Godsmack because they had many great things to list.  The first thing we really enjoyed while my son waited to go take pictures of them was the personal video show.

 

The video showed video clips of the band having fun kidding around on and off stage.  The crowd really loved the video you could hear people laugh.  The video idea is genius, to connect with the crowd even before they hit the stage.

This is the second time we saw Godsmack live and would keep seeing their show again and again.  They sound great live which is a true test of any band.  Our favourite songs by Godsmack are, “Cryin Like A Bitch”, “I Stand Alone”, “Awake”, “Keep Away”, “Straight Out Of Line”, “Speak”, and “Voodoo”.

Sully really wanted the crowd to sing with him and connect.   When he sang, “Voodoo”, he acted like he forgot the lyrics to get the crowd involved.  This was clever way to get connect with the crowd. 

One thing I really liked that Sully told the crowd was to put away the cell phones and all the electronic for two minutes.  Sully wanted the crowd to sing back to him without distractions. 

I really liked what he mentioned the electronic devices wouldn’t be able to replicate the energy of a live crowd.  “Rock On Sully”, I think and feel the same away about that moment. 

To finish off with my favourite parts of the show would be to mention the double drum play off on stage. With multi-talented Sully Erna playing the drums as well as guitar. 

If you have never seen this band live you really miss out on a great show.  The only downfall of the whole show was not being able to interview the band but hope next time we could catch them at a concert.  “Rock On, Rock Hard, Rock Loud and Rock Proud”, we say.

Shindown:
When Shindown took to the stage they really surprised the crowd with pyrotechnics of flames and booms but their music impressed me more.  They have a lot great songs out that really my son and I both like.

Some of the songs, “Bully”, “The Crow And The Butterfly”, “Enemies”, “Unity”, “Diamond Eyes”, and my favourite cover song, “Simple Man”.  Shindown sounded amazing live and would watch them again and again.  We loved the pyrotechnics show with the music. 

All of the bands really impressed us at how great they all were.  You don’t know until you go and see them live and at a small price it was worth every penny to see them live no matter where they play.  But don’t take my word for it find out for yourself.

By Nosforotu Poet (Dan Spratt) and Andrew Spratt 08-23-2012.