Hey it’s Noah. Your Sunday morning host on 93.9 X Indy’s Rock Station and I’m a Festival Newbie. As someone who has lived in the backwaters of the Midwest, I haven’t had the opportunity to go and see various concerts or festivals in my lifetime. So when I got the chance to cover Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival this past Memorial Day Weekend, I jumped on it faster than an Indy Car! This would be my very first rock festival, let alone my first music festival in general.
It’s time for Day 2 of this crazy journey to Sonic Temple! What kind of music did we listen to? What type of shenanigans did we get into? Read on and find out!
After sitting in the sun for the majority of Day 1, my friend and I were stricken by that horrible thing called sunburn. I guess that’s what we get for forgetting to put on sunscreen the day before. With the sun constantly hitting our sunburns we decided to try to stay in as much shade as humanly possible. The only issue is that there was almost no shade to shield us from the sun. So we stayed in the media area most of the day and watched acts on the Temple Stage and the Octane Stage through video they streamed to the Temple Stage. Sorry Soundwave acts. Sun Exhaustion, if that’s even a thing, got to us.
We did have some time after some of the starting groups of the day finished their sets so we decided to walk around and check out some of the art vendors and man there were some amazing pieces on display! For an Art & Music Festival, there wasn’t really that much art to check out though. Just a row in front corner away from the main draws, the music stages. Hopefully this is something they can expand on in the future.
But let’s get to the groups we saw on Day 2 because I’m sure that’s what you are really here for! We saw a whole bunch of great musicians on Day 2 including: New York rocker Des Rocs; Southern Hard Rockers Black Stone Cherry; and both headliners, the returning Queens of the Stone Age and Avenged Sevenfold!
First on the docket was the New York based Des Rocs! Des Rocs (real name Daniel Rocco) and his backing band absolutely smashed it on the Temple Stage for their set! I didn’t know a lot about this group at first but they made me a fan! His showmanship and chemistry with his group are what makes him a stand-out among the other groups from Sonic Temple weekend. I’m definitely going to be diving into their catalog in the near future! Also, their cover of The Boss’s Born to Run made this classic rock fan very happy! Des Rocs, Rocs! Pun intended.
Another group that took over the Temple Stage on Day 2 was Black Stone Cherry! Another group I haven’t really sat down and listened to (a theme from this weekend), Cherry don’t have a lot of songs you’ll know but their energy on stage makes up for it! A very fun time was had! Side note: lead singer and guitarist Chris Robertson’s affinity for wearing geeky t-shirts (he wore a Pikachu shirt) gave them an extra point in my book.
After a few more groups absolutely destroyed it on both Temple and Octane, we decided to get out of the sun for the rest of Day 2. But that didn’t mean we didn’t enjoy so more awesome music! Out of the two headliners for Day 2, I was most excited for Queens of the Stone Age! This was their first show back in over 5 years, so it was going to be very special! They played almost all of their bigger songs with a sprinkling of a few new songs here and there. I unfortunately missed out on most of my favorite QOTSA songs, No One Knows as nature decided to call before their set. I thought “they wouldn’t open with that,” and look what they did! They opened with it! Still an awesome set though. Will they stop in Indy for their tour? Time will only tell, but man I’m hoping. I need redemption!
And now for the last set of Day 2, Avenged Sevenfold. They played some of their classics, like Bat Country, and some newer tracks as well. But this set was a lot more softer than I thought it was going to be. Avenged still rocked, but I think pacing and song choice were a big detractor for me during this set. Nothing is perfect of course, but the crowd were such a vital part of this set being great! The energy that the crowd gave to Avenged Sevenfold, made their heavier songs hit even harder!
Now you’re probably asking, what about this band or why didn’t you talk about this band? Don’t worry my friend, I will be posting a video blog in the coming week that will go into even further depth of all the shenanigans we got into!
Day 2 was a mixed bag of emotions for me. Some groups blew me away, others kind of disappointed me. I still had fun of course, but I think the main reason I didn’t have as much fun as I could’ve was because of our sunburns. I told my friend that I was going to look like Two-Face from Batman at the end of this weekend and this day made that hit two-fold! But what’s ahead of us for Day 3? You’ll have to come back and see!
