My buddy Nazz and I went to the inaugural Rockin' Thunder Music Festival held at the Exhibition Lands Racetrack in Edmonton. The festival was held on what used to be the horse racetrack on the Northlands grounds, this would be my first time attending an event at this venue. And it's actually not a bad venue for a festival like this. When this festival was first announced I thought the line-up was pretty good and figured it would probably be a good time. Friday being a classic rock line-up and Saturday being a alternative line-up. But then we looked at the prices and all the stupid tier pricing they had for it. Choices such as Platinum Circle, Platinum Experience, Platinum Seating, Gold Circle, Gold Zone, Gold Seating and General Admission. All these choices and different pricing, just made the whole buying tickets experience very confusing, and pricey. Even the general admission tickets were on the expensive side, but about a month before the event, they put on single day tickets for $99.00 a day. So I bought the Friday tickets and my buddy Nazz bought the Saturday tickets. There, we're going, now I was looking forward to the weekend. Well, a week before the shows, I won the Platinum experience tickets for the weekend through a contest I entered on the local radio station 95.7 CRUZ FM. What a cool surprise that was, these tickets were worth $675.00 a ticket for the weekend. Thank you CRUZ! With that kind of price, not a fucking chance would I pay that. And what did the Platinum Experience get you, you ask. It got you to the front of the stage, a private beer tent, which got you out of the sun or rain, a washroom in a trailer instead of the porta potties. Other than that, that is it. They like to call these events all-inclusive, but with all the tiers ticket pricing, to me it divided people that have money and those that don't. Just make the whole event general admission, that would be way better. Nonetheless, we had the Platinum, so ya we felt like rich bitches.
The festival started at 2pm, with gates opening at 1pm. As we wanted to catch the opening band Queensryche, we made sure to get there early, so we were there just after noon. And because we had to get out bracelets at will call, we knew to get there early. Well, what a shit show it was getting our bracelets and then getting in. The line ups were ridiculous and we were starting to worry that we would miss the opener. People lined up were bringing in lawn chairs and such and some people had enough shit with them that you would think they were going camping for a week. They should have had an express line for those that weren't bringing in anything, and for those that paid big bucks for Platinum and such should have had an express line too. Hell, if you paid that kind of money for tickets, you should at least get the privilege of a shorter line up. We did manage to get in, in time to catch Queensryche, which was one of the main bands we wanted to see on the Friday. So without further ado, here is a little about the bands.
First band of the day was Queensryche, a band I have always liked and was looking forward to seeing. This would be my 4th time seeing them in concert, and ten years since I last saw Queensryche live. This would mark the second time seeing them with their new singer Todd La Torre who replaced original singer Geoff Tate in 2012.
With the sun blasting down on a beautiful afternoon, Queensryche hit the stage opening with the song "Queen of the Reich" from their very first EP released in 1983. And after that song it was into "Operation: Mindcrime", and holy fuck can Todd ever sing, he fucking nailed it. The whole band was excellent in their hour long set. The majority of the set was made up of songs from the awesome Operation: Mindcrime album which was fine by me. Other songs I recall them laying from that album were "Eyes Of A Stranger", "I Don't Believe In Love" and "The Needle Lies". I was surprised to hear the song "Walk In the Shadows" from the 1986 Rage For Order album. And of course it wouldn't be a Queensryche show without playing "Jet City Woman". An excellent set and a great start to the festival.
Next up was the Canadian band Toque led by Todd Kerns who fronted and played guitar in the band Age Of Electric and also played in Slash's band The Conspirators. Toque started as a cover band for a charity event in 2012 playing all Canadian rock music. They have since carried on as a touring band still covering Canadian artists and even some original songs now. I was quite surprised by how many people in attendance were there for Toque, lots of people wearing Toque t-shirts. And yes they did a bunch of cover songs in their set, songs like "Fantasy" (Aldo Nova), "Ironic" (Alanis Morissette), "Sunglasses At Night" (Corey Hart), "Boys In The Bright White Sports Car" (Loverboy), "Tom Sawyer" (Rush), plus a Saga song and an April Wine Song "Roller" and even a Age Of Electric song "Ugly". And they played a few originals to I believe. The crowd seemed to be loving it, I myself found it rather boring and think that they should be playing shitty bars and casinos. Not a fan!
Next up was Bret Michaels the lead singer of Poison. I've seen Poison a few times but had never seen Bret play solo with his own band. The first thing you notice when Bret and his band came on stage was the life size pictures of Bret on both sides of the stage. Can you say ego! And his hour long set was nothing to write home about. Opening with the song "Talk Dirty To Me" and then a song I didn't know, and then the third song into his set he plays the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Sweet Home Alabama", like really, with all the fun Poison songs there are you play a cover, very odd. Other songs he did were "Your Momma Don't Dance", "Unskinny Bop", "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" and closing out the set with "Nothin' But A Good Time". I think in all he played maybe nine songs. While Bret looked to be having a whole lot of fun on stage, I myself found the set to be terrible. Maybe he is saving the best for what is expected to be a 40th anniversary Poison tour next year. Overall, a disappointing set.
Next up was Joan Jett & The Blackhearts. This would be my fifth time seeing Joan Jett in concert, and this was the band I was most looking forward to for day one of the fest. We made sure to be up front for her set, and the first thing I noticed being that close is that Joan is looking a little rough, which is understandable considering she is 66 years old and been doing this for a very long time. her voice is still pretty strong and guitar playing is good as well.
Maybe because I was so hyped to see Joan Jett again I found her set to be a little bit disappointing. Just seemed like her set was missing the edge to her music that I have always liked. She did play some songs I wanted to hear, but I think her song selection could have been stronger. Some of the songs she did play were "Cherry Bomb" a song from her first band The Runaways, and that was played very early in her hour plus long set. Other songs I recall her playing were "Fake Friends", "Do You Wanna Touch Me", "Androgynous" and of course Joan has to play "I Love Rock N' Roll", "Bad Reputation" and "Crimson And Clover". My biggest disappointment was that she only did one song from my favourite Joan album Up Your Alley, and that song being "I Hate Myself For Loving You". Overall a decent set but I was hoping for more. Still very happy that I got to see Joan Jett again and especially being as close as we were to the front of the stage.
To close out night one of the Rockin' Thunder Music Fest was veteran rockers Def Leppard. This would be my fourth time seeing Def Leppard in concert. What can you say about this band, they give you exactly what you're looking for, metal with pop. I swear the first five songs all had the word ROCK in it, "Rock Rock (Til You Drop)", "Rocket", "Let's get Rocked", you get the gist of what I'm saying. And then there were the hits "Foolin'", "Animal", "Love Bites" and "Rock Of Ages", "Photograph" and "Pour Some Sugar On Me". Man this band had a lot of hits back in the day. Lead singer Joe Elliot still sounds good as does drummer Rick Allen and the rest of the band. It was also good to see Vivian Campbell back on stage playing guitar after a battle with cancer. The crowd was eating this pop metal up and rocking out and by the time the show was over, all the Def Leppard fans were in a cheerful mood, and there were a lot of them. First night of the fest, Good times!!!
T-shirt front.
Back.
