LouderThanLife Friday night summary

Just a little summary of Friday night at LouderThanLoud.

Performance: Rise was amazing live. Probably not a surprise to anyone, but this is my first time seeing them and only second concert so I didn't expect Tim to bring such great energy and sound as good live as in recordings. He kept his blurbs between songs simple and positive and they led okay into the next song. The rest of the band was very solid, drums probably stood out the most bc of the lower quality of the sound setup. They started late and cut it short though, going down to a less than 40 minute runtime when they had an hour slot.

Atmosphere: He tried to get the crowd into it, but the crowd was wack. People weren't vibing, but they kept pushing forward and supposedly a good amount had seen Rise years prior at the festival. The standing area was a rocky/muddy field and people were total assholes constantly ramming through everyone and pushing lines of people around. I was trying to get into it but having people stomping on your feet and touching you constantly kinda killed the vibe a lot, especially for an anxious person like me who went alone. Weather was clear and cooling down though, so it wasn't blistering even if it was somewhat sweaty. I got kicked in the head twice; once my glasses fell to the ground and luckily didn't get stepped on in the dark, just frame bent out. The other time I caught my glasses before they fell but my head hurt and am kinda bruised and muddy. People were crowd surfing like crazy and fuckers would just not give notice and I had multiple people fall and me and got shoved around the whole area. A few people got dropped hard and lost some things, but outside of some bloody noses, cuts, and bruises I don't think there was major injury.

Venue: The sound on the stage they were on was off so they started late and it was kinda muffled most the whole time from the mics over there, the next stage over proved it wasn't the speaker for the next group. Getting into the event was ludacris. Parking was nonexistent with the main lots constantly being opened and closed when they were full and the roads around blocked off or in grid lock. Once I found a spot to park I had to walk like 2 miles to the entrance. The health/covid checks were whatever and the

Songs: The mix was pretty good and they switched tones or volume for added effect and interest. About half was off of Nowhere Generation and half popular songs. If I recall the show went The Numbers (with some video & audio intro), Monarch, Prayer of the Refugee, Broken Dreams Inc., Satellite, Nowhere Generation, Re-Education Through Labor, Ready to Fall, and Savior. I wish they did Forfeit and Hero of War as a slower song, and Sudden Urge or Kotov Syndrome but no complaints.

Merch: I am so pissed it took years to park, get into the venue, go on and off the highway for an open place w/ a restroom, and get through a ton of construction (from MI to KY) because I missed Starset and Killswitch Engaged. Starset is probably my favorite band right now with Rise in second, but the merch was picked kinda hard with Starset taking their stuff when they left. I got a dope Rise hoodie that was expensive (of course at a show), but probably the only piece I can buy this weekend. All the Breaking Benjamin and Falling in Reverse stuff was gone as well.

Other artist: I was kind of annoyed when I found out Asking Alexandria wax moved from Friday to Saturday, Breaking was added to Sunday, as I had planned to only go Friday but decided to do Saturday as well and couldn't be here for Thursday or Sunday sadly. Gorija preceeded Rise and from a distance they sounded ok, haven't really listened to them. Jane's Addiction followed and the singer was so tacky, but flashy. He entered with a wine bottle that he took swigs off and had a whiskey cup for a song, was kinda just rambling between songs, cannot sing well anymore, and did a lot of odd seizure moves/dancing with a lot of ad-libs/onomonopeias. Their guitarists and bassists were absolutely killer though. Lastly, they had a girl hooked through the skin on her back swinging, pretty gross to me but I guess that's a main part of their show with the Sex and Murder track. Metallica followed and were better than I could've imagined. They got 2 hours and did all their big songs and everyone was into it. It was a pain in the ass constantly holding people up and having them hit me while crowd surfing often without warning, when I wanted to watch the show. Their effects, movie clips, backgrounds and setup was amazing across the board. Everything sounded crisp live and were very engaging.

Overall I'm upset I missed a good chunk of stuff and that people hit me so much, but look forward to today's event even if it probably wasn't worth me spending so much time and money to come by myself.