The summer is heating up outside. Temperatures are settling daily over the 100 degree mark quite nicely and people are dying to hibernate in air-conditioning. Spending all day and night in a sweltering box shed for a few bands may seem like a torture not worth living, but if you love your music alive and loud, then nothing stops you.
There are a number of good festivals out there this summer season; albeit many plant in one certain city for a few days, there are also ones that hit the road and come to you. The Rockstar Energy Drink sponsored UPROAR Festival is just about to launch with a beer bottle smashed across the head of the lead big rig and head to Scranton, Pennsylvania, for August 9, its inaugural show.
Glide will be covering the show when it locks down in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 14, but for our readers across the nation, there are plenty of hot spots to catch it: from Texas to Connecticut, California to Ontario, there is bound to be a destination near you.
Uproar is a young buck on the festival scene, debuting in 2010 with Avenged Sevenfold, Halestorm, Stone Sour and Disturbed. Last year Shinedown and Godsmack headlined. But for all intents and purposes, 2013 has the best line-up so far with Alice In Chains as the big dog main stage attraction.
Releasing their new album, The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here, in late May, the appetite of fans wanting to hear these songs live is overpowering. Starvation for those underworld bass lines and Cantrell’s scary monster guitar licks, has been building since the band’s last release, 2009’s Black Gives Way To Blue. Once called “Kinder-garden” for their worshipful homaging to Seattle brethren Soundgarden, it was their 1992 breakthrough Dirt that finally cemented their independence; although their 1990 debut Facelift was a snarly, hellfire “We Die Young” caged animal step towards individualism. With Layne Staley’s in-pain vocalizations of Jerry Cantrell’s bone-on-bone lyrical atonements, Sean Kinney’s heatstroke drumming and Mike Inez’s down in the grime bass humps, the band tore through the grunge-labeled, flannel-painted box to be a borderline metal/rock/blues band standing on it’s own. EPs, Unplugs and Vietnam flashback videos thorny-crowned them demigods: “Down In A Hole,” “Grunge Factory,” “Rooster,” “Man In The Box,” “No Excuses,” “Would?” “Them Bones,” “Sea Of Sorrow,” “Frogs.” No one could touch them
but the dark corner monsters that crept out when no one was looking. Losing both Starr and Staley, who succumbed in – has it really been that long? – 2002, the band pulled a Zeppelin-esque quiet disappearance, although Cantrell released music on his own. Slowly coming back together like a liquid magnet pulling its parts from the shadows, AIC is back on top with vocalist William DuVall and their iconic hypnotically rock hard zen sound and lyrics. Headlining Uproar is a reaffirmation of their greatness as a band and should not be missed.
Jane’s Addiction will be bringing their peppery Farrell-Navarro fueled psycho rock to the main stage as well. Hitting the height of their popularity with the witty alternative-flavored “Been Caught Stealing” and “Jane Says,” and birthing Lollapalooza before dissolving, reforming, dissolving and reforming again, both men have been busy frolicking in projects other than JA. It will be interesting to see how that chemistry still ignites.
Another band high on the list to be seen at Uproar is former GNR bass player Duff McKagan’s Walking Papers. Featuring a deep British blues base, McKagan’s recognizable bass runs that tinge on the punk, vocalist Jeff Angell’s deep-throated Morrison-humming husk and guitar chords that soar into the unknown without becoming cumbersome, Benjamin Anderson’s psychedelia stroked keys and Barrett Martin’s holding-everything-down drums, they may be THE highlight of the day.
The Dead Daisies also come with some GNR blood: the band features current Guns guitar player Richard Fortus and their recent single “Lock N Load” has a Gibson-playing appearance by Slash. Quickly becoming a fan favorite with their latest recording, they’re not as heavy as the aforementioned Walking Papers but deliver good in-your-gut rock & roll that is in under-abundance nowadays. Bass player Marco Mendoza brings that Thin Lizzy vibe with him while vocalist Jon Stevens has the dusty mid-western attitude of those down-to-earth bands of the 70’s.
Coheed & Cambria, Danko Jones, Beware Of Darkness, Mindset Evolution, Circa Survive, New Politics, Charming Liars, Middle Class Rut and The Chuck Shaffer Picture Show will also be vying for your time on the ticket. Best advice is to check all these bands out at their websites or YouTube and see which ones catch your ear.
Check out the official Uproar website for all dates, tickets and up-to-date news: www.rockstaruproar.com
