Photos and review by: Alan Ralph @ARPhotoSF
Across the Midwest and Southeast United States, from the last weekend of April through May 31, were seven Monster Energy Drink sponsored rock music festivals dubbed “The World’s Loudest Month”. Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome to Rockville, Fort Rock, RockFest, River City Rockfest, and Rocklahoma collectively entertained hundreds of thousands of hard rock and heavy metal fans in Columbus, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Ft. Myers, Kansas City, San Antonio, and Pryor (OK), respectively. Music fans most certainly traveled long distances to attend these festivals, with their amazing 1-3 day lineups featuring the likes of Rob Zombie, Korn, Five Finger Death Punch, Guns N Roses, Limp Bizkit, Avenged Sevenfold, Kid Rock, Slayer, Deftones, Twisted Sister, Staind, and Godsmack, just to name a few.
A few years ago, Monster Energy Drink and their promoter partners decided that the West Coast needed a hard rock and heavy metal music festival. Discovery Park in Sacramento became the place, and Aftershock was born! While it may be difficult to plan a cross-country trip to attend one of “The World’s Loudest”, it is not as hard to leave one weekend open in mid-September and drive that incredibly long 90 minutes to Sacramento.
It actually IS still tough to plan, because the beginning of September through the end of October is an extremely busy time at the day job, but for the second year in a row, the weekend of Aftershock was work-free! Of course, the time after Aftershock was not, and so there should be no mystery as to why this photo gallery review was posted one month after the show.
Both days of Aftershock consisted of an even split of AOR (album-oriented rock), punk rock, metalcore, alternative, hip-hop, and metal, with Saturday featuring headliners with light stage productions, and Sunday highlighting headliners who play louder, faster, and travel with considerably more stage production.
Saturday, September 13, 2014: Weezer, The Offspring, Limp Bizkit, AWOLNATION, Tech N9ne, Chevelle, Bad Religion, Memphis May Fire, Emmure, Anti-Mortem, Viza, Hellyeah, and Black Label Society.
Sunday, September 14, 2014: Rob Zombie, Five Finger Death Punch, Mastodon, Rise Against, Of Mice & Men, We Came As Romans, Atreyu, Godsmack, Buckcherry, Lacuna Coil, and Otherwise.
Aftershock is growing by leaps and bounds. What started with 2 stages in 2012 increased to 3 the following year, and with the addition of a 4th stage this year, 12 additional bands were able to perform! That alone makes up for the fact that several bands performed at the exact same time as others. Indeed, some bands were missed, and others were photographed due to just being at a stage and not having enough time to walk or run to another. At almost every music festival, there will always be conflicts, but that won’t keep me from taking the annual weekend away from work to attend Aftershock 2015!
See more photos of all of your favorite Heavy Metal musicians at Alan Ralph‘s photo portfolio.
Great Pics bro!
Alan has a real gift for capturing the raw energy of live performances and it translates both beastly and beautifully through his photos!