This one was a work party of sorts, with Jerry and Pete joining me for the show. We parked on the hill across the street, got our tailgate on, and wandered on into the venue. We missed As Summer Dies, and most of Hail The Villain on the side stage. We meandered around, checked out the grounds, waded amongst everyone else for New Medicine’s set, which wasn’t that interesting. Once it was time for Hellyeah, I left the guys in the back and drilled my way up to the front, right in front of guitarist Tom Maxwell. That suited me just fine, seeing as I’d worn an old Nothingface shirt on this day, and Tom noticed, even pointing it out to one of the crew! Needless to say, the short set was a lot of fun, Hellyeah ripped into the title/band name track, and then choice cuts from both albums. The crowd seemed into it from where I was at the front, the band was into it, pointing people out in the crowd, looking like they were having a “Hell Of A Time” up there also! I even managed to snag a drum stick from the legendary Vinnie Paul! I was pretty close to the left-side speaker stack, so I have no clue how good it sounded, as all I got was the wall of sound. For this performance, the nuances of the sound weren’t particularly important to me anyway, I was way more concerned with having fun!
Hellyeah setlist: Hellyeah, Goddamn, Matter of Time, Cowboy Way, Hell Of A Time, You Wouldn’t Know, Stampede, Alcohaulin’ Ass.

By the time Hellyeah was over, we hightailed it over to the pavilion, got to our seats in the 200′s, and missed the first couple songs of Halestorm’s set over on the mainstage. Given what got posted on Setlist.fm, it looks like it was largely the same set I saw at KRock a few weeks prior, so no harm no foul. We did manage to catch the end of “Familiar Taste of Poison” through to the end, including the drum solo, and of course “I Get Off”. They sounded excellent, and Lizzy was hitting the notes. Good times.
Halestorm setlist: It’s Not You, What Were You Expecting, Dirty Work, Familiar Taste of Poison, Drum Solo/Circle, Nothing to Do with Love, I Get Off.

At this point, I ran back out to the side stage area, and got in line for the Hellyeah signing, where I got autographs from all the guys in the band (Chad mentioned he saw me down front, Tom said he loved the old-school Nothingface shirt!), and I got Vinnie Paul to sign the drumstick I caught! Worth waiting in the line, for sure! As I got back to the main pavilion, Stone Sour had started, and they sounded great. They played a handful of new tunes (Mission Statement, Say You’ll Haunt Me, Digital) interspersed with the old standards. It’s still weird to see Corey and Jim without the coveralls and masks on! I hope they come back around and headline on the new album, I think its much more fun seeing them in a smaller place, however, no complaints about peformance here at all.
Setlist: Mission Statement, Reborn, Made Of Scars, Say You’ll Haunt Me, Come What(ever) May, Your God, Through Glass, Digital, Hell & Consequences, 30/30-150.

Avenged Sevenfold was next, and although I just saw them at KRock, this time they had their own stage setup, and it was quite impressive. Right before they started, they had a guy jump from the light rig at the top of the stage and “hang” himself, before they launched into “Nightmare”, and he hung there for the whole song! The rest of the set, music-wise, was very similar to KRock, but more running around, no stopping for hurt people in the crowd, and a much more reponsive crowd. There were a ton of A7X fans in attendance, and you could tell. Very cool for them, I don’t think they left disappointed at all.
Avenged Sevenfold setlist: Nightmare, Critical Acclaim, Welcome to the Family, Beast and the Harlot, Buried Alive, So Far Away, Afterlife, God Hates Us, Unholy Confessions, Almost Easy.

Finally, the band I know we all were waiting for took to the stage. Disturbed came out to the instrumental that leads off the new album, and launched into the title track, Asylum. From there, it was a no-nonsense hit parade, with track after track that everyone knew, everyone rocked out to, and everyone sang along with. There was very little talking in-between tracks, and I have a feeling that’s because they had a hard 11pm curfew, and had to get everything in. Visually, the large video screens behind the band were pretty cool, alternately showing video and random patterns of light. The band sounded very good, David Draiman’s voice was in fine shape, and when he did talk to the crowd between songs, it was to appreciate us being there. One cool thing they did this time around that I haven’t seen before was a medley of songs off The Sickness, but only the “cool” parts, ala what Korn did on Family Values with the “Shot Liver Medley”. On this night, Disturbed threw together parts of Fear, Meaning of Life, Numb, and Voices to great effect. Overall, their set was a lot of fun, and we had a great time. And the rain stopped just as it was time to leave, so no drenching for us!
Disturbed setlist: Remnants, Asylum, The Game, Prayer, Liberate, Land of Confusion (Genesis cover), Inside the Fire, Stricken, Fear / Meaning of Life / Numb / Voices, Another Way to Die, Stupify, Ten Thousand Fists, Indestructible. Encore: Down With The Sickness.

Saturday was our road trip day, and we gave Sumner the “Upstate in a nutshell” tour: Breakfast at Tim Horton’s, a stop at the RIT bookstore, then a Seneca Lake Wine Tour! We drove down to Glenora and worked our way back up the lake, and had a blast in the process. Besides the winery, we also stopped at the only Finger Lakes “Weinery”, R.E.D.’s Hots, which was damn good. Not quite a garbage plate, but we got close! After Fox Run, our last stop, we chilled at home for a bit, and then hit our next classic Rochester destination, MacGregors. Same as it ever was, good beers, good food! (Pork Triple Threat Sandwich, thank you! Pulled pork, sliced ham, bacon, and BBQ sauce on a cibatta roll. DAY-UM.) We tooled around the city for a little bit after that, winding through downtown, East End, Park Ave, etc. just to show off the sights. A full day to be sure!

Sunday was an easy morning, and for lunch the last Rochester landmark, DiBella’s. Carlo hadn’t seen the new Italian Market on Jefferson, so we blew his mind with that :) We then sent Carlo and Sumner off on their way back to DC after a full enough weekend, but I wasn’t done yet… Rockstar Uproar Tour at Darien Lake with Pete and Jerry! Disturbed, A7X, Stone Sour, Halestorm, Hellyeah and a couple others. That review will be up shortly, but we did some tailgating, rocked ourselves out, and I got pretty close to the front of the side stage for Hellyeah, and caught a drumstick from the legendary Vinnie Paul! Got some big props from Hellyeah’s Tom Maxwell for sporting an old-school Nothingface shirt also, which made my day.

This morning I got to deconstruct the tournament from yesterday at work, so no workout needed today!

Ryan Star was up next, and apparently was a contestant on Rock Star: Supernova. He and his band put on an entertaining set, and I while I admit we didn’t pay a whole lot of attention, what we did hear sounded pretty good. The whole band was certainly energetic up on stage, and they got a pretty good reception as well. About this time we ran into not only Christine and Katie from the co-op, but also one of my old high school friends Kellee and her crew, who we hung out with the rest of the night. Good times!

We certainly paid attention for the headliner of the evening, Tonic! We had a pretty good idea of what we’d see after seeing them at Turning Stone last year, and we got that and more. They played most of the same songs from the first three albums that we saw last time, but the handful of new tunes from the new album were a welcome addition. Tiff was pleased that we got Precious Little Bird, and I’m actually partial to Daffodil, which we also got. The setlist was pretty evenly distributed among the four albums, and with the exception of Mean To Me, they hit all the singles, much to the chagrin of the drunk guy that kept yelling for it. Emerson repeated several times how much fun they were having up on stage, and it was easy to see he wasn’t just saying it! The guys jammed out on a lot of the songs, and sounded great doing it. Much like Turning Stone, the jam during Casual Affair was epic! The crowd’s response was great, considering this was a freebie, which means anyone and everyone shows up. After the rousing encore of Irish, Kellee took a page out of my book and got the setlist from the soundboard, and found the Tonic guys along the fence behind the stage, and got their autographs and pictures with them! We got to chat with them for a minute, and they were quite gracious to everyone that approached them. A perfect end to a great show, on a night with perfect weather for an outdoor concert!
Tonic setlist: Open Up Your Eyes,Take Me As I Am, Bigger Than Both, Future Says Run, Top Falls Down, You Wanted More, Sugar, I Want It To Be, Daffodil, Mountain, Release Me, Wicked Soldier, Come Rest Your Head, Precious Little Bird
If You Could Only See, Casual Affair. Encore: Irish.

Found a couple videos on YouTube also!

There were a sizeable number of people quite excited for the next band on. SEVENDUST HAS ARRIVED! So did the fans! The place filled in a little more by this point, and the boys got a huge pop as they came out. Sevendust is not a band to see in a seated venue (See Darien Lake a couple years ago), but we try haha. They opened with Splinter, and ripped through the way-too-short set with only Angel’s Son in the middle to calm things down. I had wandered down to the 2nd row for the first part of the set, but naturally people started to show up, and during Angel’s Son I retreated (oh so far) back to my 5th row spot, to my rightful seat, and had a great vantage point. The crowd seemed to have a lot of jump for them, but again, in seats, it kinda hard to tell with 7D. As you can see from the videos, the boys were wandering all over the stage, jumping around like always, and I thought they sounded pretty damn good. Sevendust Setlist: Splinter, Praise, Denial, Angel’s Son, Driven, Unraveling, Face To Face.

Puddle of Mudd was up next, and they were even more boring than they were with Shinedown in February. However, most of the crowd seemed to love them. It was just a truncated version of the set I saw in February, therefore I’d seen it all before. TNT cover and everything. Nothing too notable. Puddle of Mudd setlist: Control, Livin’ on Borrowed Time, Spaceship, Blurry, Stoned, TNT (AC/DC cover), Psycho, She Hates Me.

After Puddle of Mudd’s set, I headed out to the concourse for bathrooms, beer, food, etc. I was checking out the merch booth and just getting in line for some food when who should appear from beyond one of the gated areas, but Lajon from Sevendust! There were a couple of people moving over to meet him, but not a swarm (yet!), and I was lucky enough to time things right to say hi and get a picture with him. So I get the phone set up and give it to some girl to take the pic, and of all things, LJ’s asking me about my iPhone case! (It’s a SwitchEasy Capsule Rebel for those scoring at home.) He’s like “Is that an Otterbox?” “Nope, it’s better!” Gotta love it! Granted, my interaction was all of 45 seconds, but he was super nice, just as he was with every other fan he met and took pics with. A real class act, and just solidifies my love for this band!

After grabbing said beers and food, I got back to my seat just as Chevelle was starting. I was very interested in seeing them again, considering the last time was at Water Street in 2005. They’re still a 3-piece, and while there wasn’t a ton of crowd interaction or moving around (almost the anti-Sevendust in that regard), the set was solid. Just like ’05, nothing from Point #1, and strangely, a couple of singles missing (Vitamin R, Well Enough Alone), but what we did get was high quality. Having said all that, I’m still baffled how they got the direct support slot, and how Sevendust was stuck behind both them and PoM. Makes no sense. Chevelle setlist: The Clincher, Jars, Send The Pain Below, Forfeit, Comfortable Liar, The Red, Sleep Apnea, Closure, Letter From A Thief, I Get It.

So after the requisite set change, the main event came out. Shinedown kicked off with a bang with Sound of Madness, and mixed up the set order a bit this time around, which was nice for people like me who’ve seen them three times on this album cycle already. And b-side city this time! First was the song from The Expendables soundtrack, “Diamond Eyes”, then later on we got “Her Name is Alice”, and like February, “Son of Sam”. (They opened the encore with Simple Man, but that’s not even really a b-side for them anymore.) Band-wise, they were in fine form. Voice-wise, Brent was still selling out notes here and there, but again, the rest of the guys stepped up the backing vocals, and it sounded a lot better / a little harder to tell. Do what ya gotta do I guess. During the encore, they brought out a couple of the dudes in 10 Years and Sevendust and had a dice game right on the stage! Said encore started with Simple Man, then they had an extended jam during Fly From The Inside where Brent ran all the way up to the lawn through the aisles and back down again. They closed the show with Second Chance, and concluded a fairly impressive night of music and spectacle. Hard to argue with a 5th row seat, the majority of the bands putting on rockin’ shows, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my seat neighbors Kirsten and Pete, who hauled in from ‘Cuse and were awesome to chat with!
Shinedown setlist: Sound Of Madness, Devour, I Dare You, Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide, If You Only Knew, Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom), 45, Heroes, The Crow And The Butterfly, Her Name Is Alice, Save Me, Son of Sam, Left Out. Encore: Simple Man, Fly From The Inside, Second Chance.