All That Remains
—————-
Hold On
This Calling
Forever In Your Hands
Dead Wrong
The Air That I Breathe
Now Let Them Tremble
Six
The Last Time
Some Of The People, All Of The Time
Won’t Go Quietly
Aggressive Opposition
Two Weeks

Five Finger Death Punch
———————–
Under and Over It
Salvation
American Capitalist
Hard to See
The Way of the Fist
No One Gets Left Behind
Bad Company
(Bad Company cover)
White Knuckles
Far From Home
Bulletproof
Never Enough
Burn it Down
Encore:
The Bleeding

Chimaira
——–
The Age of hell
Clockwork
Losing my mind
Power trip
Nothing remains
The Flame
Pure hatred
Destroy & Dominate
Severed
The Sun disappears
year of the snake
Born in blood
The Venom inside
Secrets of the dead
Resurrection

As I quickly found out, MonstrO is a (yet another) band out of Atlanta, with a couple members whose previous projects I was into. Namely drummer Bevan Davies, who’s played with seemingly everybody, but notably Bloodsimple, Comes With The Fall (who were Jerry Cantrell’s backing band for the Degradation Trip tour), and Still Rain. Bass player Kyle Saunders was also in Bloodsimple, and come to find out, their CD was produced by William Duvall, Bevan’s old bandmate in CWTF and now singer for Alice in Chains! So with all these connections, I was hoping for good things, and got good things! MonstrO kinda sounds like a Soundgarden-esqe type of heavy rock, but I wouldn’t necessarily compare them. Singer Charlie Suarez can get into that Chris Cornell (and even Jeff Buckley) sort of range at times. They were very entertaining, and almost out of place on the bill, given the next two bands. I got to talk to Kyle and Charlie after their set, and picked up their CD on the way out.

Thou is described as sludge/doom metal with a punk edge. I can’t claim to know where the punk edge came in, but they had sludge/doom down. And I realized that I’m not all that into it! The singers vocals/screams were high and harsh, just not a great combo to my ears. Not a whole lot of melody to be had.

Black Tusk are a three-piece from Savannah, GA, and describe themselves as Swamp Metal. I’ve also seen them described as Stoner Metal, but either way, I liked them a lot better than Thou. The songs went somewhere, had some structure, and while obviously got slow and chuggy in places, there was some headbanging to be done also.

Not too shabby for dropping in on a whim, dropping $12 and not knowing any of the bands. It worked out pretty well!

Cold

Around this time I met up with Kiersten, Pete and their crew, said hi, and compared notes on Uproar the weekend before. Red was up next, and they didn’t sound too much different from when I saw them in ’07. A standard radio rock band with some Christian influences, and they didn’t sound half-bad. Not much to say about them. Red Setlist: Feed the Machine, The Outside, Let Go, Lie to Me (Denial), Death of Me, Breathe Into Me.

Since this show was at the brewery, I got to chat with the one person I know that works for North American and got a bit of a hook up! Also, work Pete showed up and we moved on up towards the front. P.O.D. was up next, and it was nu-metal mayhem. Hello 2000! Every P.O.D. song you know, they played, and they sounded pretty damn good at it. The crowd sure was into it, and I forgot that Alive was probably a bigger hit than Southtown and Youth of the Nation were, at least judging from the reactions. Interesting! P.O.D. Setlist: Boom, Set It Off, Roots In Stereo, Youth of the Nation, Southtown, On Fire, Alive, What I Got
(Sublime cover).

Youth Of The Nation

Puddle of Mudd. Again. In all honesty, they sounded pretty decent this time around, but they still lull in the middle of the set. This time they played two off of their new covers album in the middle, Neil Young’s Old Man, and the Stones’ Gimme Shelter. The other radio hits were sufficiently energetic to get the crowd moving. Puddle of Mudd Setlist: Stoned, Psycho, Away from Me, Control, Gimme Shelter, Old Man, Blurry, She Hates Me.

Up next was a band I *gasp* actually have never seen up until now. Buckcherry! I’ve heard some good things about their live show, and I heard correctly. Lots of energy, Josh Todd’s voice sounded fine, and the band rocked it hard. It helps that they have a lot of uptempo songs, mostly about partying, and they made use of them. By this point the crowd was feeling pretty good, so that only added to the party-like atmosphere. We’d camped out right in front of the soundboard by this point, so we had a pretty good vantage point for both the show and the crowd in front. It started getting cold out also around this point, so how Josh was parading around with no shirt on I don’t know. Dude must have been freezing! Buckcherry setlist: Dead,
Rescue Me, All Night Long, Dead Again, Everything, It’s A Party, Next 2 You, Lit Up, Sorry, Crazy Bitch.

Crazy Bitch

Last band on… Papa Roach! Started with a bang, with Getting Away With Murder, and ran through a bunch of hits, including to Be Loved, Angels and Insects, and Kick In The Teeth. The band had a ton of energy, the crowd had a ton of energy, the set was getting to just about the midway point, and just after The Enemy… lead singer Jacoby Shaddix announces that due to a mis-communication about what time curfew was, they had one more song and that was it. “Fuck the promoter” was the phrase used, and why curfew was 10:30pm and not 11pm I’ll never know. In any event, they played a ferocious take on Last Resort and quickly exited the stage. (Looking at other setlists, we got jacked out of Lifeline, One Track Mind, Scars and Hollywood Whore.) While it was an abbreviated set, P Roach put on a great show for the nine songs we did get.
P. Roach setlist: Getting Away With Murder, To Be Loved, Burn, Between Angels and Insects, Forever, No Matter What, Kick in the Teeth, The Enemy, Last Resort.

Getting Away With Murder

Like everyone else, I too was bummed with the early end to the night, but it didn’t put that much of a damper on the show as a whole. Good times with good friends and good bands!

Year two of Uproar for Darien Lake, and also for us! Pete and Jerry met up at my place, and away we went. Tailgated at the place across the street again, which was far emptier than it had been last year. Not sure quite why, but hey, more room for us. We wandered in right as Art of Dying’s set started on the side stage, and for not knowing a ton about them, they sounded pretty good. I recognized a couple of the tunes, and what I didn’t came across well. The crowd seemed to enjoy them too. Art of Dying setlist: Straight Across My Mind, Get Thru This, Best I Can, Whole World’s Crazy, Die Trying.

Die Trying

Next up was easily and obviously one of my highlights of the day: Sevendust! I meandered my way up to the front, and proceeded to jump and mosh with everyone else for the next half-hour straight. MUCH better crowd than the fools in Rochester at Music As A Weapon. No contest. These people were here for 7D, and we let the band know it. They started with Splinter, and that set everyone off. Praise and Forever were next, then it was what’s becoming my all-time favorite live 7D song, Pieces. That song just oozes energy and screaming. The End Is Coming was next, and the always-too-short set was capped off by the usual mosh-worthy Face To Face. Another 7D show, and another ridiculously fun time had by all.

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Forever

After extricating myself from the side-stage crowd, I found Kiersten and Pete to say hi, then headed under the tent to our seats for Escape the Fate. They were decent, generic metalcore if you ask me, not exactly main stage material. After their set I took off and while I didn’t have a wristband for it, at the tail-end of Sevendust’s autograph tent time, they made time for a handful of us off to the side. I got to briefly say hi to Clint and John, and grab a quick autograph. Always such cool guys to the fans, never fails. Back under the big tent, and Bullet For My Valentine was better than I had expected. I’d heard a little bit of their stuff, but never really checked it out in depth. I still may not, but they certainly commanded the stage and kept everyone’s attention.

Seether was up next, and while this may sound like a slam, it’s not: It was a usual Seether festival set. They opened with Gasoline into Fine Again, and went from there. It was their typical solid set, heavy on the hits, loud (save for Broken), and had everyone bouncing and singing along. They were the perfect band for the middle main stage slot. Seether setlist: Gasoline, Fine Again, Broken, Tonight, Country Song, Rise Above This, Fake It, Remedy.

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Fine Again

Next up: Three Days Grace. Now, I’ve been down on these guys the last couple times I’ve seen them, mainly because I’ve never thought singer Adam Gontier’s voice was strong enough live. I’m happy to report that he proved me completely wrong this time around. He and the rest of the band sounded fantastic, and this was easily the best I’ve ever seen them. Their set was a sprint through hitsville, but they did it well. Adding a little cover of Eminem’s Lose Yourself tacked onto the end of Home was a fun ad-lib that the crowd ate up. During the closer, Animal I Have Become, some of the band members’ kids came out on stage with little instruments and were rocking out alongside their dads! Totally cute! I came away very impressed with the band this time around. 3DG setlist: The Good Life, Break, Pain, I Hate Everything About You, Home/Lose Yourself, Never Too Late, Riot, Animal I Have Become.

Animal I Have Become

And finally, the night’s headliners, and Uproar alums from last year, Avenged Sevenfold. I think they sounded better than they did last year (and they were great last year). Anyway, A7X apparently were asking fans on their website which deep cuts they wanted to hear on this tour, and as such they’d been mixing up the setlists a bit from night to night with some older stuff. I’m no A7X expert, but I do know we saw some older tunes that don’t normally get played (Won’t See You Tonight Part 1, Not Ready To Die, Little Piece of Heaven, etc.), and Bat Country made it’s reappearance (didn’t get that at either show I saw last year). The stage setup was even cooler than last year, and again, the band sounded fantastic. These guys know how to bring it live. A7X Setlist: Nightmare, Critical Acclaim, Beast and the Harlot, Welcome to the Family, I Won’t See You Tonight Part 1, Afterlife, Not Ready to Die, Scream, A Little Piece of Heaven, Bat Country, Unholy Confessions.

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I Won’t See You Tonight

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White Knuckles

Guitar Duel / Rise Today

Theory of a Deadman was up next, and the crowd went even more nuts for them than they did for AB. Tyler’s voice sounded better than the last couple times I’ve seen them, so that combined with the band’s usual tightness made for an excellent show. The set was super-heavy on the latest two albums, with Gasoline only getting one track (Santa Monica), and absolutely nothing off of self-titled. Yes, I’m whining, because those are just hands down better songs, especially live. However, the new stuff they did play sounded pretty good, including Gentleman and Bitch Came Back. They threw in a cover of Clapton’s Cocaine, and closed out the encore with The Truth Is… and naturally Bad Girlfriend. Again, no problems with how they sounded, but as an old-school fan, the setlist left a lot to be desired.
TOAD setlist: Gentlemen, Got It Made, All or Nothing, So Happy, Bitch Came Back, Not Meant to Be, Lowlife, Better Off, Out of My Head, Santa Monica, Cocaine (Eric Clapton cover), Hate My Life. Encore: The Truth Is, Bad Girlfriend.

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So Happy

Bad Girlfriend

On both counts, it was pretty damn cool of both bands to lengthen their standard CoM sets to make up for the other bands not being able to make it, and give those of us that did make it a really good show.

Buddy Guy was on first, and at 75 years old, struts around the stage like a man half his age. And through the crowd, which he did halfway through the set, taking a walk up to the edge of the lawn and still jamming away! I wasn’t really familiar with too many of his songs, but it really didn’t matter. Both Buddy and his backing band were top notch, clearly in tune and in sync with one another. About 2/3 of the way through the set, Buddy brought out 12-year-old guitar prodigy Quinn Sullivan, whom Guy met a few years prior and has nurtured the kid’s career ever since. Quinn played two of his songs with Buddy’s band, before the man himself came out and the two jammed on some standard blues covers to end the show. A very uptempo set, a very appreciative crowd, and a great way to start the night!

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Now it was time for the King. The large band made their way on stage first, played essentially a two-song soundcheck, and then the man himself was helped to his seat at the front of the stage. B.B. is now 85 years old, and while its starting to show physically, he’s still got it mentally, voice-wise and guitar-wise. There’s something about seeing a musical legend playing right in front of you, and B.B. still has that aura. Again, I’m not familiar with a ton of the songs, but again, it didn’t matter. B.B. sounded great, the band behind him sounded even better, and we had a wonderful night of the blues with two absolute legends and one young up-and-comer.

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Setlist:
Wax Ecstatic
Molly
Glue
Party Till We Drop
Have You Seen Mary
Go Speedracer Go
Rotting Piñata
Plowed
Planet Girls
Party Till We Drop (Reprise)

But after all that was the band we came to see! Jeff Martin, Jeff Burrows, and Stuart Chatwood walked out to a thunderous ovation, and ripped into Writing’s On The Wall. Once they followed that up with The Baazar, it was like they’d never left. The band itself sounded fantastic, and even though the set proved to be mostly a re-hash of every show we’d seen since about 2003 onward, after six years away it didn’t really matter. One highlight that I know I hadn’t seen too often was Sun Going Down, so that was pretty cool. It was about that time that Jeff Martin started to lose his voice, which I’m guessing is what led to Correspondences and The River getting axed (they’d been playing those in Canada a couple of days prior). It didn’t *really* matter though, because I think everyone was just happy to have the band back and playing again. The last three songs (Save Me, then the Temptation and Sister Awake encore) were practically sing-a-longs anyway, so it’s not like Jeff’s lack of voice ruined the moment or anything! Save Me was especially nice as we got Jeff Buckley’s Last Goodbye as the insert for a chance (it’s usually Kashmir), and the usual extended Sister Awake was a stellar note to go out on. As I said, just having the band back and playing together again is a treat, and for them to pick Buffalo/Lockport as one of the first stops on the reunion tour (and to draw 10,000 people!) was pretty special.

Sun Going Down

Temptation

Setlist:
Writing’s on the Wall
The Bazaar
Lullaby
Psychopomp
The Messenger
Fire in the Head
Heaven Coming Down
Sun Going Down
Zahira / The Halcyon Days
Save Me / Last Goodbye

Temptation
Winter Solstice / Sister Awake / Paint It Black