As we are sitting here on the road bringing our soar necks, ringing ears, and melted faces to the place that we call home. It is evident that the organizers of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival are doing something very right. Everything from how the show is run to the lineup that is carefully selected year after year, makes this the most important Heavy Music Festival in North America. This year it was a chaotic case of conquering domination!
We arrived from New York City to the Comcast Theater in Hartford Connecticut around 10 am, and headed to the press area to wait for our turn to interview a handful of rock-stars. During the press part of the day we spoke with Phil Demmel from Machine Head, Shawn Drover from Megadeth, Kirk Windstein from Kingdom Of Sorrow, and Trevor Phipps from Unearth, just name a few. The overall vibe was great and everyone spoke very highly about the success of this years chapter of the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival. Definitely keep your eyes open for our exclusive coverage.
As soon as we were done doing press, we headed to the Jägermeister Stage and caught the furious set brought to life by Kingdom Of Sorrow. Jamey Jasta got the place moving from the get-go and Kirk Windstein laid down his infamous powerful riffs. Right after Kingdom Of Sorrow delivered their last note of the day, Suicide Silence stepped onto the Revolver Stage and proved why they are one of the most dangerous bands in Heavy Music today.
Then it was Unearth's turn to deliver the hungry Connecticut headbangers a lethal dose of fully charged head crushing Heavy Metal. This band always performs their very best and never fail to leave all their fans drenched in sweat and hungry for more. While most of us were drying sweat off of our faces thanks to Unearth, the mighty Machine Head stepped on stage! Do we really need to tell you that they kicked ass and that they sounded absolutely amazing? Machine Head is always on point, and our only complain is that they should have played a longer set on the main stage.
Finalizing the phenomenal performances that both the Jägermeister Stage and the Revolver Stage delivered to the hungry headbangers, was Sweden's Heavy Music experts In Flames! As usual, the vocals delivered by Anders Friden were heard all around the festival camp and the band sounded tight as hell. It is always a pleasure to see In Flames play their own flavor of Heavy Music at full force!
After grabbing a beer and a bite to eat, it was time to get chewed by Dave Mustaine and the rest of Megadeth. Once they began their set they delivered the thousands of fans that took over the main stage some true headbanging Thrash Metal. Besides some sound issues which resulted in Mustaine throwing his guitar in anger, they kicked ass as usual! During Megadeth's set, Mustaine gave one of the guitars he used during their performance to this kid who won a contest on WCCC 106.9 FM.
Warming up the crowd for Disturbed's headline set was Godsmack, who as usual brought with them their hard rocking music that gets any venue grooving out of control. We had high expectations about Godsmack's performance and they did not disappoint. The highlight of their set was when two drum sets were rolled onto the stage and Sully Erna (vocalist), joined Godsmack's drummer Shannon Larkin for a drum-off. We had no idea that Sully was such an amazing drummer!
Concluding the 2011 Rockstar Mayhem Festival in Hartford, Connecticut, was Disturbed. The band definitely brought a lot of energy with them on stage and made it clear that they were ready to headline this huge event! Its hard to find a band this days that has such a unique signature sound and that puts together such a visually and sonically stimulating performance.
All in all, the 2011 Rockstar Mayhem Festival was a huge success and it was also the first event we covered via our
Facebook and
Twitter accounts in the form of a "webcast". Stay tuned for exclusive video coverage of the entire event!
Special thanks to Steve Lars, Paul Sosa, Adrenaline PR, all the bands, and of course Rockstar Energy Drink for organizing this killer event year after year.
Photo credit:
Steve Lars from Creative Ventures International
Related links:
Official Site of Mayhem Fest
