MAYHEM FESTIVAL 2014

My latest trip took place over 4th of July weekend! When we saw that Korn and A7X were co-headlining the Mayhem Festival this year, we knew missing was not an option. We decided we would go to the first stop on the tour-San Bernardino CA. Thursday night we stopped in Vegas and spent the night at the Bellagio. We had prepaid for a room with a view of the fountains, but they had given away all of those rooms before we got there. The lady got on the phone with her boss and they decided to upgrade us to a suite! I figured it was going to be a "suite" as in the room is a little bigger than a regular room but nothing spectacular. Oh how wrong I was! We had to use a special set of elevators and had to swipe our key to even get to our floor! When I saw that I knew. This was going to AWESOME! We got to the room and I about died. It was HUGE! 1000 square feet. 2 1/2 baths, spectacular views of the fountains, and everything had a freaking remote! They had a fruit tray waiting for us as well as some Belgian chocolates (the tray of fruit had a card addressed to someone else, apparently 'Edward' didn't show up, so we got his room. and his fruit. sucker!) One bathroom had a jetted tub and the other had a shower/sauna which was way cool. The mirrors had remotes and so did the drapes (that was my favorite part-opening the drapes. from my bed. like a boss). Not to mention the beds were like sleeping on a cloud. It was the best nights sleep I've ever had. It seriously felt like something out of the movies. Needless to say it's going to make staying in a normal people room in Vegas next to impossible because I know what I'm missing now. Totally worth it though.

The next day we just played on the strip and did some shopping and ate lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe which I love. Around 4 we decided we had better start the next leg of our trip which was a 4 hour drive to San Bernardino. We got there around 8, checked in to the Holiday Inn Express which was a far cry from where we had just come from. Somehow we survived though! We went to Red Lobster for dinner and mentally prepared ourselves for what was about to happen to us the next day. 

    The concert was held at San Manuel Amphitheater which apparently is the largest outdoor music venue in the country. After seeing it and seeing how many people were there, I can totally believe that. We got there around 3 in the afternoon and it was wretchedly hot. It was only 100 degrees but it felt so much hotter because of the humidity. Thankfully we had enough sense to buy the VIP package so we had access to the private lounge complete with couches, shade, private bar, and free ice cream! There were 4 stages total-3 on the outside and then the main amphitheater stage. We wandered around to the three little stages and watched Mushroomhead and a few other smaller bands, but ultimately we didn't like any of them enough to sweat to death for them, so we headed back to the lounge after visiting the merch booth. It wasn't too long before they opened up the main stage area that I began to notice some familiar faces in the VIP area. Famous faces. Jonathan Davis's (Korn's lead singer) youngest son walked right past me to go get an ice cream. Members of Asking Alexandria's crew were hanging out at the next table over and Da Kurlzz from Hollywood Undead was standing a few feet away. I swear he is at every concert I go to anywhere from California to Las Vegas. I see him every time, but I always wuss out and never get my picture taken with him. Maybe next time. Tons of famous people too numerous to list were hanging out in there to the point that I almost wondered if I was in the wrong place! It was crazy cool. We finally went out and took our seats at the main stage area and watched Trivium and Asking Alexandria do a pretty good set. Apparently most of the crowd wasn't feeling AA, but I thought they did pretty well. During this time I also noticed that Ice-T was sitting a couple rows behind us! That was pretty cool. Once Korn came on all hell broke loose in that place. Bon fires on the lawn (border line out of control fires might I add, no wonder that state is always on fire...), lots of crazy crowd activity and true to form for every CA concert I've ever been to, that familiar haze hung over the crowd from all the weed. Korn performed the best set I've ever seen them do, which is saying something because I saw them 4 times in 7 months last year alone. honestly I think I've seen them a total of 7 or so times. They were amazing! It was fun to see the crowd respond so well to them. At the end several of the band members brought their kids out of stage to jam with them for the last song. It was adorable. 

   Finally A7X was up again and they were simply incredible as always. It was my 9th time seeing them and as always, it was life-altering. I could seriously see them perform every day of my life and be completely happy. They put on one of the best live shows ever. Everyone should see them at least once in their lives, but once will never be enough. I've decided that for my 10th time seeing them I want to chase them someplace really cool. Maybe out of the country? Who know, that remains to be seen. That's the goal though. By the time the night was over I was sweaty, smelt like illicit drugs, and had ruined my poor toms but it was such a great night! San Bernardino sure knows how to party! Apparently they are having Knotfest at that same venue in October. If it was any other month I would SO be there, but sadly because of work I'm missing out on what is sure to be one of the biggest rock weekends ever. Definitely disappointed, but frankly if the crowd was that out of control for Mayhem I can't even image the level of crazy they will bring for Knotfest. So maybe in the end it is for the best. 

    Sadly I don't have any rock concerts planned until Labor Day weekend where we are going to Tampa FL for the Uproar festival. Sadly they haven't announced if they are playing in SLC yet, but they have a few dates left open so I'm really hoping we snag one of them. Then I will just go to Uproar twice this year. It's going to be amazing! 

   Well here are some pictures from Mayhem. Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again! Stay classy. 

Ice-T just hanging out at the concert after his set

A little portion of the VIP area

Flaming Gorge Days 2014

Like I said, we are playing catch up here. I'm breaking up all the adventures I forgot to tell you about into their own posts. I hope that helps! So my next concert after ROTR was technically Kiss and Def Leppard here at home, but there isn't anything of merit to tell. So just know that I was there! My next destination concert however, was Flaming Gorge Days in Green River WY. We are always on the look out for a reason to get out of dodge, so when we heard about this dinky little concert happening in no-mans-land WY, we decided why not! It was a very small concert compared to our usual 20,000+ concerts that we attend. It was still fun! The bands were Pop Evil, Redlight King, Royal Bliss and Otherwise! Pretty good lineup for the middle of nowhere, right? But as small town concerts usually do, there were some technical difficulties with Otherwise which made me so sad! I was there with some family members that had never seen them before and I had told them how great they were, but that night they made me look like a liar... The sound was all sorts of off and it actually made it painful to sit through their set. That has never happened for me with them before so I was pretty sad. The second band to play was Royal Bliss from back home in SLC. It never ceases to amaze me just how amazing they are live. I love everything about this band, and not just because they are from home. They are genuinely the nicest guys and are so down to earth. They aren't a big band by any stretch of the imagination, but they have a pretty good following. I could seriously watch them perform all day. Such a great band. Frankly I wanted to support them, so they were my main reason for even driving up to this concert. I had literally just seen Redlight King and Pop Evil the month before, so I wasn't exactly waiting with baited breath for their sets, but they both did a decent job. Sometimes I go to concerts like this, not necessarily for the bands themselves, but to support live rock music. I was hoping for a big crowd so the bands didn't feel like they were wasting their time, but was a little disappointed by the turn out. Then again we were in the middle of nowhere and it was a miracle that people showed up at all. I don't know the rock music scene in WY works, but somehow I think it's even worse than at home. At least at home we get some concerts! So I was happy to get up there and freeze my ass off in the name of rock music. Plus I got to go play on the lake the next day so that made it all better.
  I don't know if people really read this stuff or if I'm just shouting into the void, but if you're reading this I beg you to get out there and support the bands you love. Without our support they can't do what they do. When you hear a band you like on the radio, let the station know you loved it and to keep it up! Take for instance today. I listen to Sirius XM radio because where I come from rock music on the radio is all but dead. So I turn to satellite radio to get my fix (I listen to Octane station 37 for those of you who have it-look it up!). They played a Royal Bliss song this morning! I was seriously elated to hear our hometown boys played on a nationwide radio station! If a band that you like is coming to town, get out there and support them! Let's be honest-you can get concert tickets pretty cheap if you need to, so get out there. Show them some love and let them know that rock isn't dead. It's people like us that will keep it alive. So do your part. Stay Classy.
-Nicole

I'm Baaaaaccckk!! ROTR 2014 RECAP

 Long time no see!! I feel like a major slacker and frankly I forgot I even HAD a blog for a little while. That's how crazy my life has been these past few months! So let's play catch up. Brace yourselves. I will start off by saying that a few posts back I mentioned taking a "break" from the concert scene. Yeah, that didn't happen. I tried I really did, but it just wasn't meant to be. I literally cannot stay away from the music scene. at ALL! When they released the 2014 line-up for Rock on the Range in Columbus, OH I was feeling SUPER conflicted about it. I desperately wanted to be there, but I had told myself I just wasn't going this year. It wasn't in the budget and I needed to take a break. The presale dates came and went, and the regular sale dates came. I had a pretty severe meltdown, grabbed that freaking credit card and said f*@k it, I'M GOING! I'm pretty sure this is going to happen every year as long as this festival is around, just saying. May FINALLY came around and we headed out. This time we got to the airport plenty early because I wasn't going to almost miss my flight like last year! We had a layover at O'Hare in Chicago. A VERY short layover. Like less than 40 minutes. I was so stressed about making the flight myself that it didn't even occur to me that my luggage was going to have the same damn problem! We got to Columbus around midnight and headed to baggage claim where we waited. and waited. and waited. and our bags were no where to be found. I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack. I had heard horror stories about lost luggage and I didn't know if I would ever see my bag again. While we were waiting there was this incredibly hot guy that I had been playing eye-tag with the entire flight from Chicago who appeared to have the same problem. Waiting at the turn-style we kept the game up, and soon realized that we were both in the same predicament. Lost bags. So he and his group of friends as well as myself headed over to the scary little room to report that our bags hadn't made it. We finally talked and I learned that they were from Canada and had also come for the festival. Their bags got stuck in customs, while mine just didn't make the transfer because there wasn't enough time for it to hop planes. So after spending what felt like an eternity describing our bags and giving them the info on where to ship it when they finally showed up, we parted ways with our Canadian friends and I feared I would never see them again. My eye-tag buddy in particular because he was freaking hot. I knew it would be nothing short of a miracle to find him in a sea of 50,000 crazy metal heads. We parted ways and Shelly and I headed to the nearest Wal-mart for a 1 AM shopping session for the essentials to get us by until our bags showed up. We finally made it to the hotel and got a little shut eye before we had to head to the concert the next morning.
    Day 1: Being that this was our 3rd year, we know the ropes. We know where to go to get in the quickest. We know that you buy field tickets. We know that you have to stake your place near the main stage early if you want to get a good seat and keep it. So we found our gate that got us in the fastest, and headed straight for the merch booth because that's exactly how I roll. I'm going to be honest here. I spend a crapload of money on concert merchandise. Like I could probably put a down payment on a house with all the money I've spent on concert shirts and jackets and hoodies and whatever. But it's completely worth it. I had literally started saving months in advance because I knew I was going to be dropping some serious cash. Every day started this way. Get in, get merch, get your seat. The lineup (the bands that I watched anyway, there is no way to see every band and keep your main stage seat) for friday consisted of Thousand Foot Krutch, Redlight King, Black Stone Cherry, Killswitch Engage, Black Label Society, Seether, Staind, and Guns and Roses. It was a pretty epic day with so many great bands! My favorite of the day was without a doubt Seether. They are my #2 band and I am seriously in love with the lead singer Shaun Morgan. They were downright amazing. It was really cool to get to see BLS and GNR for the first time. We left the first day on a pretty great music-induced high, with sore butts and happy hearts.
  Day 2: Rain. Lots and lots of rain. I was deathly worried about how this was going to impact this day. This was the best day lineup wise and I was seriously going to die if things didn't clear up. We got in and one of the little booth merchant guys was selling blankets and ponchos. Smart, smart man. I'm sure he made a killing. We bought two blankets and two ponchos and waited out the storm. This was a day that I was so sad I wasn't seeing all the bands that played because they were all awesome. Every freaking one. But the bands that I saw were Rev Theory, Fuel, Pop Evil, Theory of a Deadman, Chevelle, Slayer, and my personal favorite, Avenged Sevenfold (A7X). It was cold. Damn cold. The music was worth it though. By the time A7X came on I couldn't feel my feet, but I didn't care. They are my favorite band and I just prayed that their pyro was strong enough to warm my poor toes! Obviously A7X was the best band of the day, but Pop Evil, Theory of a Deadman and Chevelle all did really great as well. It was pretty cool to say I've seen Slayer, but they aren't my favorite. It was a fantastic day and I always hate saying goodbye to A7X, but I finally had to go home and get warm before I died. A7X made the whole cold rainy day worth it. Best. band. ever.
 Day 3: By this point we are pretty exhausted. 11 hours a day for 3 days straight is draining, but it's our favorite weekend of the whole year so we nut it up and have a great time! The lineup that I saw consisted of Trivium, Adelita's Way, Wolfmother, Mastodon, Alterbridge, 5FDP, and Kid Rock. Day 3 was the complete opposite of day 2 in the weather department. It was hot. Damn hot. I got some serious sun that day, but after the day before I didn't even care. Bring on the heat. It was a pretty good day, with my favorites being Adelita's way, Alterbridge and 5FDP. I was sad to see the weekend over, but it was amazing and it just gets better and better every year.
    Now you may ask, what happened to Mr. Canada as I lovingly refer to him now. I saw him. Every day. Somehow despite impossible odds I saw him every day. I wish I wasn't the big freaking chicken that I am, because if I wasn't, I would have talked to him. But I didn't. I just stared. Needless to say this experience is helping me change a few things in my life so I don't have to be scared put myself out there sometimes. All in all this weekend was a complete success and I already can't wait to go back. I love Columbus. I love ROTR weekend. Best weekend of the year. 57 bands, 150,000 people who all come together for one purpose. To prove that rock and roll is alive and well! Below are some videos and photos from my amazing weekend- as always parental discretion is advised!

Thanks for stopping by, you stay classy!

-Nicole