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Rockfest
Cadott, Wisconsin
July 19-22, 2007
By
Dan Wall
For
nine years now, I have had the privilege of attending and reviewing the annual
Rockfest, and I fully expect to be back next year for number 10. However, this
year was the first year that I ever left the fest feeling a bit apprehensive
about the future of this venture.
For
those of us who have attended the annual four-day retreat in Cadott, Wisconsin
(110 miles east of Minneapolis/St.Paul), it always felt like we were a part of a
big family-a group of people who merely live out the 51 weeks between shows to
finally arrive at the fest grounds on Thursday, spend four days listening to
great music, partying and renewing relationships, and barely being able to break
away from the thrill of it all on Sunday night. Those four days meant
everything to us.
As you will notice during the thank you’s listed below,
some of the familiar names are missing from the usual list of attendees this
year. More than one regular fest goer told me goodbye this year, and felt more
like goodbye forever, and not just until next July. More than a few others are
on the fence, waiting to see who plays here in 2008, and who plays at the
Moondance Jam and Rocklahoma next year.
Why the change? First, until the bookers of this
festival understand what people want to see and hear each year, the attendance
will continue to go down. You can’t rely on KISS or Tom Petty to draw the entire
crowd every year, and that seems to be the booking philosophy now. Does anyone
really think a bill of KISS, Chicago, Collective Soul, the Tragically Hip and
Cross Canadian Ragweed is a good idea? Even though it drew one of the biggest
crowds in festival history, the crowd only came alive (and out of the
campgrounds in full force) to see KISS. Most of the people I talk to want to see
19 great bands regardless of size, not five great bands, nine good ones and five
that they could care less about.
Go back to Friday, another weird day with Saliva, Fuel
and Godsmack split by the inexplicable addition of the festival’s worst-ever
act, Uncle Kracker, and 70’s rockers Grand Funk Railroad, and ask yourself
this-why was Saliva, easily the best act of the day aside from Godsmack, opening
the show at 2:30 in the afternoon? The place was packed for Saliva, empty for
Kracker, and the flow of the show never recovered from yet another scheduling
gaffe.
And
that’s why this festival is in some trouble, with many questions facing the
operators before next year’s fest. How do we make everyone happy?
Check the bills of 1999 and 2003 and you’ll see how to schedule one of these
things. Do we go modern? That works sometimes, but
to go modern, you have to know who classic rock fans want to see and will
tolerate and who they won’t. Friday was as good of an example as any of bands
that work (Godsmack, Fuel, Saliva) and bands that don’t (Uncle Kracker); and
please, put the classic rock bands with the other classic rock bands. How
do we keep the old-timers happy with their acts and the
kids happy with their favorites? Once again, there is a way to do this,
but it’s far beyond the grasp of the folks in charge of setting up the line-up
now. Maybe Thursday and Friday is for the up-and-comers, while Saturday and
Sunday is for the classic rockers.
Well,
until this is all sorted out in February, let’s get down to the business of
telling you what happened at this year’s fest.
Thursday
The
World Classic Rockers are up first, and are truthfully nothing more than a
glorified tribute band. The band is entertaining, but there is so much wrong
about the WCR that it’s almost laughable. Ansley Dunbar, the great drummer
from Journey, is there, and the band plays Journey songs, but nothing that
Dunbar ever recorded or even played on tour with the group. “Separate Ways,”
which kicks off the set, was written four years after he left the band. Alex
Ligertwood had a lengthy run in Santana, and even sang “Oye Como Va” and “Black
Magic Woman” on the road, but was much more famous for songs like “Winning” and
“Hold On,” which were not played here. Fergie Frederiksen had a cup of tea with
Toto, but sang “Rosanna” like he wrote it-he didn’t. And bandleaders and
founders Nick St. Nicholas and Michael Monarch, the original bassist and
guitarist in Steppenwolf, continue to piss off John Kay by playing up their
membership in the Wolf, which ended three decades ago. So the group is sort of
fun to watch, but does it make much sense to hardcore classic rock fans.
Denis
DeYoung, the former lead vocalist and keyboardist for Styx, is sort of a tribute
act as well, but its okay when you’re doing a tribute to yourself. Forced out of
the reformed version of the band 10 years ago, DeYoung has finally found his
niche with a solo act that features his best Styx compositions and some solo
stuff, played expertly by himself and his five-piece band, which also features
former Styx-member Glen Burtnik on guitar. Aside from the guitar tuning being a
bit different from the original compositions, the old Styx stuff sounded great,
especially buggies like “Light Up,” “Suite Madam Blue” and “Come Sail Away.” And
an acapella version of “Show Me the Way” was downright riveting. One of the
surprises of the festival.
The New Cars were much better than anticipated, due to
Todd Rundgren’s leadership and the talent in this band finally being set free to
rock live. Many missed Ric Ocasek but didn’t miss the band’s onstage mediocrity,
as Rundgren and his assembled cast of characters (original Cars guitarist
Elliott Easton and keyboardist Greg Hawkes, drummer Prairie Prince (The Tubes)
and bassist Atom Ellis, sitting in for Kasim Sulton, who’s on the road with
Meatloaf) proved to be a much better live act than the original act ever was.
All of the big hits were there, and Rundgren added four of his own songs, with
the guitar-driven “Black Maria” being a particular highlight. Amazingly, a Cars
album cut, “All Mixed Up,” was on the best songs of the weekend.
Deep
Purple headlined, and despite sounding brilliant and adding a number of big
songs back into the set, really failed to ignite the Thursday night crowd. The
band has reinstated a lot of its favorites and is playing like a machine onstage
again, but for most of the crowd gathered, it seemed like a “been there, done
that” show, since the band headlined on a Thursday night here just five years
ago. Longtime members Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and Ian Paice are all still
displaying great skill at their advancing age, and the newer guys, keyboardist
Don Airey and guitarist Steve Morse (particularly Morse), give the band a kick
up the backside when needed. But in America, there will always be calls for
guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and “Smoke on the Water,” while the current band is
trying to provide new music and new sounds to stay fresh. It says here that
Europe and Asia are much better options for the band at this time, despite the
group’s legendary status.
Friday
Saliva was the opening act, which was really a joke. You
will not see Uncle Kracker’s name mentioned here again, since he was easily the
worst band to ever “play” at the fest. A much better bill for this day would
have been: Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Fuel, Saliva and Godsmack-that’s
a modern rock bill with some teeth. Despite going on when most of the guys in
this group are used to getting up, Saliva kicked the shit out of the place. The
group’s mix of hard rock thunder, modern rock sensibility and a touch of rap had
the place in an uproar, and the run for home that featured “Click Click Boom,”
“Survival of the Sickest,” “Ladies and Gentlemen,” “Always” and “Your Disease”
might have been the best closing segment of the weekend. Thank God these guys
are back and kicking ass again.
I felt sorry for Grand Funk Railroad. Always one of my
favorite bands back in the 70’s, the group’s act is starting to feel a bit dated
here in 2007. And without lead guitarist/vocalist Mark Farner, there’s a big
chunk of the audience that’s simply not even willing to give the boys a chance.
Any band that can finish up with “Closer to Home” and “We’re An American Band”
will always get a decent hand, and the additions of “Shining On” and
“Heartbreaker” help round out the setlist. But the boys failed to excite the
Friday night crowd; GFR would have been much better on Thursday’s bill.
Fuel was one of the most intriguing bands on the bill
this year. Out of action since 2004, the quartet is back this summer with a new
record, singer and drummer. New vocalist Toryn Green is green onstage but has
the pipes to replace the departed Bet Scallions, while former-Godsmack drummer
Tommy Stewart is more than up to the task of replacing Kevin Miller. Guitarist
Carl Bell and bassist Jeff Abercrombie are the holdovers, making sure the band’s
mix of classic and modern rock is still viable three years since the group’s
last record. The new songs, from Angels and Devils, are good and the band
rocked hard, but not enough people know the back catalog-it took a powerful
“Hemorrhage” to rev the crowd up as Fuel shut things down.
Godsmack was a revelation, it’s live show mixing the
best of Tool and Metallica onstage. The group eschewed its usual pyro-laden
production for one that emphasized songs, lighting and an amazing dueling drum
solo between singer Sully Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin that won over all but
the most stubborn classic rock holdouts in the crowd. The band didn’t play
everything but it didn’t have to-“Speak,” “Keep Away,” “Voodoo,” “Whatever” and
“I Stand Alone” more than made up for some of the missing hits, and vocalist
Erna was spot-on for the duration of the 95-minute show.
Saturday
Amazingly, the fest organizers welcomed back Cross
Canadian Ragweed for the second straight year. It’s no knock on the band, which
is good live and can be entertaining, but did anyone here, outside of a few
die-hards, want to see this group back again? Christ, how many great bands are
out there that have never played here or haven’t been here in years, and they
book an opening act two years in a row? CCR is a country rock band to begin
with; wouldn’t the Country Fest like to see these guys, if they have to come
back again.
The
Tragically Hip? I’m not going to knock the Canadian quintet, because I don’t
think it’s humanly possible to like every band out there. I’ve never followed
this band at all, and hardly remember them as openers for Page/Plant back in
1995. I did try to listen to a few songs, but the band’s quirky sound didn’t
work for me, so I left and went back to the campsites for one of the first times
ever.
Collective Soul headlined here two years ago, but this time went on in daylight
at 6:30 p.m. You can probably figure that with just an hour to perform and no
stage show at all, that this performance paled in comparison to the previous
one. You would be correct in that conclusion. Still a capable live act, with a
bunch of songs you’ve heard but didn’t think were played by Collective Soul, the
band looked like it was just getting back out on the road after recording a new
album, with new songs dotting the setlist. Those songs sounded good, the old
hits sounded great, and everything came together on “Shine,” one of the
alternative era’s best songs. These guys are welcome back anytime, but I think
the boys deserve a better time slot than this one. Maybe the group just wanted
to open for KISS.
Another
booking that hardly anyone could understand (although it ended up working in a
weird way) was the inclusion of Chicago on Saturday night before the headliners.
The band is legendary in classic rock circles and has a slew of hits, but
hearing “You’re the Inspiration” and “Hard Habit to Break” was not exactly what
most festers had in mind when KISS was booked back in February. Luckily, the
group had enough rock in its tank to interest the headbangers with songs like
“Feeling Stronger Everyday,” “Free” and “25 to 6 or 4,” and won over the crowd
at the conclusion of the 80-minute set.
KISS
was the band that everyone came to see (really), and absolutely no one walked
away disappointed. Aside form some minor vocal problems that plagued Paul
Stanley, the band played big, beefy, ballsy version of its hits and a slew of
album cuts. If there was a disappointment on my end, it was that the crowd did
not know a lot of these songs, and seemed to react to only “Detroit Rock City,”
“Shout it Out Loud,” “I Love it Loud” and the set-closing anthem “Rock and Roll
All Night.” That happens at festivals; very few bands get unified, explosive
responses because there are so many different people gathered, all with
different tastes and favorite bands. Just because people wanted to see KISS
didn’t mean they really knew KISS.
The
group did bring its huge, amp-lined stage, all of the pre-requisite pyro, flame
and smoke, and bassist Gene Simons breathed fire during “Firehouse.” He skipped
his usual vampire bit and didn’t puke blood, while Stanley, who had a hip
replacement last year, barely moved and did not fly out over the crowd, as he
usually dies. Replacement players Tommy Thayer (guitar) and Eric Singer (drums)
are more than capable replacements for Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, although it
would be nice to see the original band at a festival like this. Still, it was
fun and probably much bigger and better than most expected.
Sunday
Here we go again-why Corey Stevens? Why a non-descript,
nothing out-of-the-ordinary blues guitarist, as an opening act on Sunday? This
slot has had acts like Eddie Money, Starship, Head East and Warrant over the
years, and it makes no sense to me why an act that has absolutely no national
reputation is put into a spot like this. And opening for Hinder, Third Eye Blind
and 3 Doors Down? Do you understand why folks are starting to doubt the ability
of the bookers here? Does anyone see this booking announced and scream, “wow,
this is why I paid 400 bucks for VIP, to see frickin’ Corey Stevens?”
Gov’t
Mule played next, and once again, can anyone tell me what they have in common
with the bands that followed them? I love Gov’t Mule, and Warren Haynes is one
of rock’s greatest guitarists, but if this band is going to play here, it should
have been on Thursday, with bands like the World Classic Rockers and Deep
Purple. And for the second time (the band played here in 1999), it poured during
the band’s set. Warren and the boys must be feeling jinxed here, since the crowd
basically hid out during the jam-heavy, blues-guitar workouts performed.
Hinder
came out at 6 p.m., and to tell you the truth, after being away from home for 13
days (I went to the Moondance Jam as well), and after seeing over 40 bands, I
was beginning to care less about anything but going home. It was raining, and I
was getting tired of trying to explain why Buck Cherry and Papa Roach, the two
bands currently touring with Hinder, were not at the RockFest. But Hinder kicked
my ass, and it even stopped raining for an hour (it rained so hard after the
band’s set that a number of festers starting building an arc). Hinder’s mix of
Guns N Roses sleaze, Aerosmith swagger and a touch of modern rock mentality won
over the crowd, and had everyone back on the same page, if only for 60 minutes
or so. Lead vocalist Austin Walker must idolize Steven Tyler, he looks and moves
so much like the legendary singer. The rest of the boys play adequately, and the
group has some memorable songs, especially “Lips of an Angel,” a song that’s
been played on the radio at least 50 times while I’ve been writing this.
Third
Eye Blind released one good record back in 1997, and has pretty much been riding
the wave of that release ever since. Nothing these guys have done in the last 10
years has made much of a mark, and the band simply failed to ignite the crowd
here in this slot, even though the quartet tried very hard. Aside from the set
closing mega-smash “Semi-Charmed Life,” nothing, not “Graduate,” not “Losing a
Whole Year,” not even glorious versions of “How’s it Going to Be” and “Jumper”
could win this crowd over. It was a nice try, but it takes more than 1-2
familiar songs in the 8:15 slot on Sunday night to get a crowd that’s wet, drunk
and delirious fired up. These guys would have been better off opening, with Buck
Cherry and Papa Roach taking the place of Sunday’s first two bands-gosh, do you
know how many times I heard that over the weekend?
I
thought 3 Doors Down was good, but most of the crowd had enough after Third Eye
Blind, and 3DD failed to light a fire under the crowd as well. It might have
something to do with the overall flow of this entire bill, or the band’s shoddy
stage presence (could someone buy these young millionaires some clothes), or
perhaps the stage show was a bit of a letdown after KISS the night before, but
the simply truth was just abut everyone looked ready to leave right after the
band shut down the festival with an encore of “Loser.”
So, until the next time, thanks as always to Linda and
Mike, Jim, Kirby, Brad, Phil Collins, James, Rebecca, Hannah, Angie and Mike,
Karen, the Commish and Tammy plus his entire crew, Terry and Deb, Steph, Album
Man and everyone else who makes this event so memorable each year. See ya next
year-I hope! |
