Danny Wimmer Presents Louder Than Life 2017
Champions Park
Louisville, KY
September 30 to October 1, 2017
To say I was looking forward to Louder Than Life would have been an understatement! I have covered festivals in the past but nothing of Louder Than Life’s scale. The sheer number and quality of bands on this year’s bill is mind boggling, well at least for me it is. From Palisades to Ozzy on Saturday and Black Map to Prophets of Rage on Sunday there was enough music to keep anyone and everyone going!
Covering three (yes three) stages it would be impossible for a single photographer to cover every band, so a plan was laid out and pretty much followed. Several of the early bands I wasn’t familiar with, that was about to change. New Years Day, Sleeping with Sirens and Starset on Saturday. Beartooth and Nothing More on Sunday were definitely part of my plan. If you missed any of the early bands, shame on you! All these bands are the future of rock and metal, I was glad to be there to see, hear and photograph them!
Greta Van Fleet held one of those early afternoon slots on Sunday. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or something along those lines, you’ve probably heard of this quartet from Michigan. Their debut EP Black Smoke Rising has already produced a #1 charting song with Highway Tune. They are so young and that shows a little on stage, but that won’t last with the amount of tour dates scheduled! These guys have a bright future!
Eagles of Death Metal and The Pretty Reckless both held midafternoon/ early evening spots on Saturday and Sunday. Both were on my must photograph list! Neither disappointed!
Closing out the Zorn Stage on Saturday was Steel Panther and on Sunday was In This Moment. Both are not to be missed, if you’ve haven’t seen them live. Now if you are not familiar with Steel Panther you might be in for a bit of a shock. They are all kinds of fun on stage but their on stage humor and songs are… not politically correct and some would say down right raunchy. With songs like Asian Hooker and Community Property Steel Panther isn’t your mom’s music!
In This Moment put on one of if not the best stage show of the festival. Without a doubt true to largest crowd at the Zorn stage of the weekend. Also one of the few bands that allowed photographers to shoot the entire set, that entire set needs to be seen and heard! Performing their songs Blood, River of Fire and Whore with multiple wardrobe changes to go with each song, you need to see this band live!
Gojira and Stone Sour took over the five o’clock slots on the Loudmouth Stage Saturday and Sunday. Gojira, this French foursome brought it to the Louisville, KY crowd. They opened their set with Only Pain from their latest release Magma. Then came The Heaviest Matter of The Universe followed by Silvera closing out with Vacuity. A heavy set of songs!
Stone Sour took the same stage the following day. Opening with Taipei Person/Allah Tea followed by Knievel Has Landed both tracks from their latest release Hydrograd. Rounding out the set with Through Glass, Absolute Zero and one more track from Hydrograd, Fabuless, complete with air dancers! Corey Taylor worked from one side of the stage to the other, throwing water on the crowd, even got the photographers with one bottle. Stone Sour is not to be missed!
As Saturday evening gave way to night Halestorm took the Monster stage for a ride! Love Bites and Apocalyptic started off the set with Lizzy Hale playing to the crowd throughout every song! They (Lizzy, Arejay, Joe and Josh) buzzed through a great set finishing it off with Mayhem and I Miss the Misery.
Darkness was quickly closing in Saturday night when Mastodon appeared on the Loudmouth stage. First up for this Atlanta, Georgia group was Sultan’s Curse followed by Divinations. They performed one of their three Grammy nominated songs toward the end of the set Colony of Birchmen finishing off the set with Andromeda. The first and last songs of their set are off their 2017 release Emperor of Sand.
Rob Zombie – I’m just going to leave his name there and let you imagine what a show he and his band put on! … Okay, maybe I’ll tell you a little! For 60 minutes Rob Zombie, John 5, Piggy D and Ginger Fish brought the party to the Louder Than Life festival field. I don’t think there was an inch of stage that wasn’t illuminated by some kind of light, even John 5’s guitar and teeth were lit up. Zombie’s stage show is incredible and it’s backed up with killer music! Starting his set with Dead City Radio and The New Gods of Supertown,Superbeast, Living Dead Girl throw in two White Zombie songs (are they covers when Zombie sings them?) More Human Than Human and Thunder Kiss ‘65. The set also included two covers: Ramones‘ Blitzkrieg Bop and School’s Out by Alice Cooper. 14 songs total, finishing with Dragula.
Incubus played almost the exact time slot as Rob Zombie the next night. While not as cinematic as Zombie’s the night before the light show for Incubus was impressive! As was every song they played for the next hour, 13 total. With two of the first three tracks off of 2017’s release 8 Glitterbomb and Nimble Bastard. They also performed three of their number one singles Drive, Megalomaniac and Anna Molly. Throw in Wish You Were Here and Nice To Know You finishing the night with Warning and you’ve had a great Incubus show!
Saturday night, under the lights, Louisville, KY, Five Finger Death Punch – what more could you ask for? Not much if you ask me!!I Ivan, Jeremy, Zoltan, Jason and Kentucky’s own Chris Kael started their set with Lift Me Up and Never Enough perfect songs to get the HUGE (did I say HUGE?) crowd fired up. I talked with several people that wondered how Ivan Moody would sound; well he looked good and sounded even better! The set was full of the bands hit songs including Bad Company, Jekyll and Hyde, Burn MF and even a couple of acoustic songs, Wrong Side of Heaven and Remember Everything. They finished off the evening with Under and Over It and The Bleeding. I am a Five Finger Death Punch fan and it was great to see them firing on all cylinders!
Let’s see, who could you get to headline a Saturday that included New Years Day, Eagles Of Death Metal, Gojira, Halestorm, Mastodon, Rob Zombie and Five Finger Death Punch with many, many more? Well it would have to be Ozzy! Ozzy with Zakk Wylde on guitar put together a set list that pulled songs from everywhere in his storied career. The set started with a huge hit and fan favorite Bark At the Moon next was Mr. Crowley and that’s when Ozzy’s voice started giving him problems. Not sure if he was sick or what was going on but he struggled with the next few songs but he had recovered somewhat when it was time for Shot in The Dark. To quote Jonathan Newsome of Capture Kentucky, “Ozzy pushed through and showed everyone why and how to always be a professional” and indeed he did! Ozzy finished off his set with one of the four Black Sabbath covers of the night, Paranoid. If you haven’t seen Ozzy, get out and fix that. With Black Sabbath calling it quits earlier this year it’s hard to say how much longer Ozzy will be out touring, go see him!
Sunday night headliners and bringing Louder Than Life 2017 to a close was Prophets of Rage. Prophets of Rage are members of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave (Tim Commerford, Tom Morello and Brad Wilk), Public Enemy (DJ Lord and Chuck D) and Cypress Hill (B-Real). Together, they form a powerful group. Now I’ve read what others have said about their performance at LTL some have loved it and others were left wanting more or down right didn’t like it. Prophets of Rage isn’t going to appeal to everyone and I think they are okay with that, they (Prophets of Rage) want to get their message across and judging for the reaction of the Louder Than Life crowd, it got across! Their debut album came out earlier this year and the set included a couple original tracks Living on the 110 and Hail to the Chief but the majority of the songs were Rage Against the Machine covers: Take The Power Back, Bullet in the Head, Bulls on Parade and several more. A very touching moment when they played the Audioslave song Like A Stone in honor of the late Chris Cornell. Just a spotlight on a mic stand, no one sang on stage but the crowd sang every word, it was a powerful moment. They close out their set with Killing in the Name.
With that Louder Than Life 2017 came to an end. By all accounts it was a great festival with big, big crowds and killer music all around! Personally, I enjoyed everything I was a part of. They took great care of us in the media tent! I hope to be back again next year!
4th Annual Louder Than Life Festival wraps with record breaking attendance
All photos by Tom Biggs at TRB Photography LLC
©2017. Please DO NOT copy or use without permission.
