Woodshock 2006

What a show it was, speaking of "the shock", Woodshock 2006. I'm going to cut straight to the chase. It has been about a week since the festival ended, and I am just now getting to write about it. I am not going to write about all the bands that performed, or about everything that happened that was important there at Zanes Caverns, in Bellefontaine, Ohio. I will give my top 5 bands of the festival, based solely on their performance at Woodshock, not based on reputation. Then I will finish up with the 2 most overrated bands, or worst there, based on hype and lack of performance.

1st, we show up, and park our cars. The passes show manager Tim Buchenroth provided for us came in very handy there. This time being around 4PM that Friday evening. The beer was only a buck, but was Coors Light (booo!), and the more expensive 2 dollar beer was Blue Moon, which I had never had prior to last weekend, but enjoy now. The show was separated into 2 areas, the main stage (which obviously hosted the bigger bands), and the fringe stage (which hosted smaller and local bands). Basically throughout the day and night, they would go from stage to stage to keep the show rollin, back and worth, and it's sorta funny to see the mass of people moving from one to the other...........almost like the swarm of media that stampedes from sideline to sideline at the Orange Bowl, depending on where the location of the ball is.

There were many people there that I knew from my time spent at The Blue Cat, the best bar & concert venue in Logan County (shameless plug), and it wasn't hard to locate our backstage passes from Tim ( thanks again)............so here we go:

#5. Legbone - Fringe Stage - a fairly local band that is known for it's 30 songs in 30 minutes routine, where they litertally just fly from song to song, like it's one big medley. They played basically a flawless show, and Tim Buchenroth even joined them for an encore as their bass player for a song.

#4. Citizen 18 - Fringe Stage - this one was a big suprise to me, hearing they haven't been playing too long with each other, and absolutely stealing the show from the rest of the fringe stage on friday, these guys are from Marion, Ohio, and will be going very far........they have that thing about them, that says "awesome"....if you can, download some of there stuff.....

#3. NYN - Main Stage - there is just something about a band with 2 lead singers, and one of them mostly screaming into a megaphone that kicks my "fuck yeah" mentality into high gear. These guys were very good, and for my first time seeing them, and hearing about them, I was not disappointed. They are from Lima, Ohio, and if you have a chance, pick the new CD up........it's good.

#2. Thoughts Kill - Main Stage - I have seen these guys before at the Blue Cat on Saint Patty's Day, and they were completely overshadowed that night by Silk Abrasion, Bobaflex, and Lumberjack Death Squad, but on Saturday afternoon, they took control of the crowd, and rocked the house for 35 minutes.........much much better than they were before.....and the second best band of the festival...........GET THEIR CD!!

#1. Nonpoint - Main Stage - The festivals main act did not disappoint, being greeted on stage by Ryan Dunn from Viva La Bam & Jacksass (Dunn also greeted the Lumberjack Death Squad, but that was earlier in the day, when the crowd was still waking up). If you know rock music, then you know Nonpoint, I don't have to build them up for you........get their CD.

That's your top 5 festival bands, with props also to: Lumberjack Death Squad, Anew Revolution, Nailbinder, Grip Shifter, and Race 101. Watch out for these guys next year. Now, I get to the worst..........and ok, maybe they just had a bad day, but why did it have to be at the SuperBowl of your genre of music? No excuses, here it is:

#2 Dope - Main Stage - the headliner on Friday was supposed to be the best rockin band in the show............but fell a few notes flat or songs, or whatever.......they didn't perform well, they did WAYYYYYYY too much talking and jibberjabberin, and the music just didn't sound "dope".

#1. Odious - Main Stage - 1st of all they stated their show just as upstart Citizen 18 was getting ready to start their encore........when 2 bands bump heads, the Main Stage carries the throw switch to the PA's and they switched over and started performing. Alot of people were angry by that disrespectful gesture, and booed right away. I was one of them, because looking back Citizen 18 blew Odious out of the water! As Odious was into their 2nd song, the members of Citizen 18 went to the VIP Area along side the main stage, and started launching hundreds of their demo CD's out into the crowd below......the Odious lead said "i hope those are our demos being thrown out there", boy was he wrong. Anyway, like Dope, Odious was was to cocky to be performing that shitty, and they are officially crowned the SSE Woodshock 2006 Worst Band in Show.

All in all, the festival was loads of fun. Myself and friend Jon Burleson of Wapak received "all access" passes and were backstage through alot of the show, and even hung with Ryan Dunn back at his camp area. The 45 minutes we spent with him will be remembered for a long time.

Watch out for Woodshock 2007 next year. There will be a few things going down there like: Kamp Kravitz will be formed in conjunction with the SSE and the Kravitz Stock Annex. There will be massive parties during those 2 days of fun. Peace.