The first annual Louder Than Life Festival kicked off with a BANG last weekend.Louder Than Life went off as well as one could ask of a first year event of this magnitude.  Billing itself as Music, Bourbon, and Gourmet Food Festival – it was quite the undertaking and they pulled it off almost with out a hitch. There were a few problems here and there, but that is to expected with a festival of this size. But the staff and promoters made up for the slight mistakes with the lined up of super rockers that hit the stage all weekend.

The weekend started off with Killer bands and super food, which i am sure was washed down with great drinks–Going head-on with today’s fast rising hard rock bands.  Artists like Fuel, Alter Bridge, Limp Bizkit, Stone Temple Pilots, and Korn all entered the stage for high energy sets that kept the crowd moving and moshing all day and in to the dark.  Some say the weekend highlight and best set of the festival came early on with Steel Panther.  SP’S raunchy brand of obscenity laced music makes for a comical show, punctuated by some of the best musicianship you’ll find anywhere.  Now, if you don’t know what you’re getting into with them – it’s certainly not a band for the thin skinned or easily offended.  The night closed out with the long awaited set from Judas Priest that sounded amazing . The singer Rob Halford’s scream is one of the most recognizable in the business and he clearly used it to pump up the crowd through out their performance.They played many of the old hits, and some new music of the new album.

 

 

The second day of the festival was when things went insane, with performances that were high in energy from Buckcherry and  – the bar was set high for the other bands to bring it like the early bands did.  Volbeat, the rock-a-billy metal band from Denmark came out giving one of the highlight performances of the festival.  They were followed on-stage by Papa Roach and an explosive Five Finger Death Punch.  But Kid Rock closed out the first annual Louder Than Life Festival with a no frills rock n’ roll show.  His usual set of well over 2 hours was reduced to a mere hour and ten minutes – which is usually the point in the show where Rock is only getting warmed up.  It would’ve been nice to see him get a full headliner length set.  But a concert from such a consummate performer as Rock, was the perfect way to close down the flagship festival that left the crowd eagerly anticipating what Louder Than Life will do next year.