Uproar Music Festival Hits "Hot-lanta"... Part II

Saturday, September 4, 2010
Aaron’s Lakewood Amphitheater – Atlanta, GA
Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival
Part 2… The Main Stage Opening Acts

(From Part I…)  About the time I started making the walk over to the main, I worked myself into a slight panic. Both of the headliners are known for their cult following, devout fans who spend mucho on merch and camp out for hours for decent seats. Did I wait too long to stake my spot? It’d be a crying shame to drop that much cash on tickets just to stare at the back of some sweaty guy’s Ozzfest 1999 event shirt…

Luckily, my fears were eased when I approached to find the gates to the mainstage just opening. There were a lot of people filing in, but it was a big stage with plenty of room to spread out. I ended up behind some cool chicks that were actually a tad shorter than me, so I had a pretty decent view at stage right. 

I’ll give the Uproar Festival major props for their schedule. All of the bands were set to go on just 20 minutes after the close of the prior act. I’ve NEVER been to a concert with more than one act, much less nine bands, that could flip a stage in under 30 minutes. But Uproar did it with precision and kept the entire day’s schedule on track. It made the fan experience all the better.

First up on the main stage was Halestorm. Anyone who knows anything about me will testify that I could successfully run for President of this band’s fan club. (Not that I’m biased or anything.) I first saw this talented group on the third stage of Rock on the Range in 2009. Since then I’ve seen them three more times, each time moving up in their “stage status” and rightfully so. Opening the mainstage for the caliber of acts as seen with the Uproar tour is a huge step for them, and I can’t help but feel like a proud mother watching them grow.

Lead singer Lzzy Hale’s haunting vocals flow through the speakers a capella long before the band appears onstage. She dramatically extends the opening lyrics to “It’s Not You,” before she and the rest of the gang take their places and begin the show with a bang. But it takes me a moment to  get over the shock of Hale’s new haircut (gone are the wavy chestnut locks that typically accent her metal head banging, replaced with some kind of cross between the Joan Jett mullet and Sanjaya faux hawk.) Maybe it’ll just take some getting used to, so I’m willing to cut her some slack for now.

“It’s Not You” has been a successful single for the band. The story it tells is self-explanatory from the first line: “I’m in love with somebody, found someone who completes me, I’m in love with somebody, but it’s not you.” Like I said, straight forward and to the point.

It’s quickly apparent that I’m not the only Halestorm fan in the house, as many others were singing along to the rest of the set, which included “What Were You Expecting,” “Dirty Work,” “Familiar Taste of Poison,” “Nothing to Do,” and “I Get Off” which was the band’s breakout hit.

One must-see of the band’s set is the drum solo taken half-way through. And I don’t mean just a killer performance by Arejay Hale (the little brother of frontwoman Lzzy, whose long haired drumming skills are slightly reminiscent of Animal from the Muppets.) I’m talking the full-out, Stomp-worthy show put on by the entire band after they each drag out their own metal trash can and proceed to bang the snot out of them. I’ve now seen this routine three times and it has yet to get old.

As the band leaves the stage, the girl in front of me catches the crumpled set list thrown out by guitarist Joe Hottinger. She quickly turns and hands the list to me stating, “Here, you deserve this.” I don’t know if she was annoyed that I had sung all the lyrics to all the songs just performed, or if she was simply being nice because I was obviously a huge fan. But who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? So I did what any self respecting chick fan would do… I shrieked like a 13-year-old Justin Bieber fan and assaulted her with a crushing hug while I jumped up and down.

Second on the mainstage was the group Stone Sour, better known as the band with “that guy from Slipknot.” Yes, lead singer Corey Taylor fronts both bands. But what most don’t know is that Stone Sour actually came first in the chronological history of these two groups. Taylor took a break from the band when the opportunity to join Slipknot came along. But he didn’t forget where he came from and resurrected Stone Sour as soon as he had the chance.

I got to see Slipknot at Rock on the Range in 2009. Though EXTREMELY entertaining, let’s just say they’re not for the faint of heart. When performing in Slipknot, Taylor wears a mask and plays the leader of his band of psycho-clowns. Most of his vocals are comprised of guttural screams to match the “death metal” music the other 80 members of the band create in the background (yes folks, I’m being sarcastic. Slipknot only had 9 band members before the death of bassist Paul Gray earlier this year. But in all seriousness, you’ll be hard pressed to find other bands with that many members unless you’re Earth, Wind and Fire.)  

Stone Sour offers Taylor, as well as guitarist Jim Root also of Slipknot, a chance to showcase their “softer” side. The band is set to release their third album, Audio Secrecy, on September 7th. So their set was heavy on tracks from the new CD, including the first single “Say You’ll Haunt Me.”  I love this new song and have to say that hearing it live was a highlight of the entire day for me. It’s pretty darn rockin’ for the band that’s perhaps best known for the acoustic ballad “Through Glass.” (Which was highlight number two…)

When the house lights came up after Stone Sour, I turned around to quickly realize just how much the audience had grown. A near sold-out crowd had filtered in during the day and it was obvious who they wanted to see. Avenged Sevenfold was up next, but how would their set be received during their first tour out without drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan? Stay tuned…