(PCM) It is the inaugural year for the Louder Than Life Festival held at Champions Park in Louisville, Kentucky and thus far we can say that it is certainly living up to its’ name.
We have just gotten back to our hotel room to recover from day one of this monster of a two day festival which boasts a line-up that consists of rock n’ roll royalty. Day one brought us performances from bands such as Judas Priest, Korn, Stone Temple Pilots w/Chester Bennington, Limp Bizkit, Theory Of A Deadman, Pop Evil, Alterbridge, Otherwise, Thousand Foot Krutch and many many more!
Day one featured a fairly good sized crowd and despite the fact that temperatures dipped fairly low, especially after the sun went down the raw enthusiasm from the crowd never waned. However, that could have something to do with the fabulous variety of bourbon and other spirits that were on-hand throughout the entire day.
We were absolutely blown away by the performance from Judas Priest to close out the first day. Vocalist Rob Halford and the rest of the band sounded utterly fantastic. Halford is always one of my favorite performers to watch in the live environment, as his vocal prowess is second to none. Oh to be able to hit some of those notes … and he does it almost effortlessly.
The band is celebrating their 40th anniversary, however watching them perform it was as if no time had gone by at all and their set was filled with the classic metal staples that we all know and love.
I was able to catch Korn perform back on the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival earlier this summer and I had commented after their show in Camden, NJ that I had not seen vocalist Jonathan Davis looking so excited and refreshed as he did during that particular performance. Well, yet again Davis appeared to have discovered some kind of new found zest and excitement just oozes off the stage when watching them perform.
There is definitely no phoning it in with this band and their performances have certainly did more than deliver. Always an epic live band throughout the years, however there is something about now that is working and whatever it is I certainly hope it keeps up, as we are super excited for the band’s upcoming co-headlining run with Slipknot!
Prior to both Judas Priest and Korn taking the stage, we caught sets from both Stone Temple Pilots w/Chester Bennington and Limp Bizkit. While I think that STP feat. Chester Bennington are fabulous, I could not help but note that they brought the energy level in the crowd down just a notch.
The band’s performance was solid and I have to admit that Bennington is certainly holding his own in the band, but after a blazing set from Limp Bizkit and gearing up for Korn, throwing STP on in-between the two just seemed a bit odd and slightly out of place in the days line-up.
Many people continue to have mixed feelings about Limp Bizkit, but I will freely admit that they have always been one of my very favorite bands. Their music, to me, is like a trip down memory lane and back to the late nineties. It was a time when their were more carefree days and Limp Bizkit was definitely part of the soundtrack.
Vocalist Fred Durst has showed no signs of slowing down as he bounced all over the stage, at one point even coming down to the barricade to become a little more up close and personal with the thousands of screaming fans in attendance. Guitarist Wes Borland sounded incredible and it without a doubt one of the most unique and versatile players in modern rock.
The only slight complaints I had about Louder Than Life, and I’m sure many of you who were in attendance will agree, were the incredibly long lines/not enough porta-potties and for some reason the sound on the Main Stage South was fantastic, but Main Stage North at times because a bit muffled and was incredibly heavy on the bass.
The best part about these two-day festival is that we get to go back and do it all again tomorrow! Stayed tuned for more updates as we catch performances from Kid Rock, Five Finger Death Punch, Volbeat, Buckcherry, Chiodos, Hellyeah, Crobot and more!
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