ROCKLAHOMA 2018
This year marks the tenth anniversary of Australia’s finest Rock and Metal website’s coverage of America’s best Festival – Rocklahoma. Over the years we’ve seen hundreds of bands stride the stages in Pryor Creek, we’ve seen blistering hot sun, deluges, tornadoes and everything in between. we’ve eaten with the stars, drunk with them, laughed with them and sung with them and this year was no different.
FRIDAY
The opening Day at ROK always sees a good mix of acts and with A Perfect Circle closing Friday’s proceedings there are a great list of must see acts before them – a highlight of most people’s ‘must see’ lists being The Cult and Stone Temple Pilots, but they re ably backed by the likes of Rockpit favorites Sevendust and Trivium.
The rest of the day is rounded out by I Prevail, The Used, Yelawolf, Red Sun Rising, SOiL, Adelita’s Way, Big Story, Everybody Panic, Cimino, Midnight Devils, Chaotic Resemblance, Firstryke, ASKA, Down For Five, Agnozia, Silent Theory, Killset, Dead Horse Trauma, Kirra, City of the Weak, Dirty Soul Revival and Dirty Blvd.
Let’s look at some of our reviewer’s highlights…
Trivium – is a band we’ve never seen play a bad set and one that have finally this year made it onto the main stage opening up this year to a gradually growing crowd. Opening the main though really is a double-edged sword – you gt the big crowd but on the downside the early time-slot and a short 30 minutes set time left virtually everyone wanting more. They opened up with three tracks from 2017’s ‘The Sin and the Sentence’ before adding a touch of ‘Silence in the Snow’ with ‘The Heart from your Hate’ and closing with a glorious rendition of ‘In Waves.’
The Cult – were in danger of stealing the day for many and for me they did just overshadow A Perfect Circle who followed. Taking on a set-list that included all the big hits may not have please die-hard fans but it did show what an important band these guys really are -musically they were great and even though at times Astbury’s vocals were a little thin we’ll put that down to the temperatures that stayed high well into the night.
Stone Temple Pilots – who preceded the Cult seemed to split the crowd with the old-timers bemoaning the loss of Scott Weiland and those with a more open mind really taking to Jeff Gutt who in our opinion dd a great job with the classics and made the newer more unfamiliar material his own. It’s a hard job filling in for such a high profiles singer but seeing them you’d have to say that this guy is the perfect fit. It’s always great to see a band with a shortened festival set backing their new material, though of course it does always divide the crowd with those who maybe don’t get out as often just wanting the ‘comfort food’. Us? We like trying the new.
Sevendust – another native of Florida (as are Trivium) played a great set, they’re another band who never fall short and really put their all into it. It made a great day for fans of heavier fare with plenty to enjoy both on the main and the River Spirit stage – with the new Metal of I Prevail standing out.
Elsewhere ROK veterans and Tulsa locals Firststryke, ASKA from Dallas and The Midnight Devils (who coincidentally started their set at midnight) showed that there is plenty of Rock to love out on the side stages.
Friday Photo Gallery by Jessica Yarbrough
SATURDAY
If you were here last year Saturday was the day that was cancelled after just a few bands had played, this year the weather was perfect, maybe just a touch too hot, but there you go! Saturday saw a great mix and a few wild cards in the mix with the good, the bad and the ugly all getting a look in. Godsmack, Ghost, Vince Neil, Clutch, Pop Evil, Underoath, Diamond Head, Shaman’s Harvest, Butcher Babies, Powerman 5000, Like A Storm, Wayland, LA Velvet, Black Tora, Dead Metal Society, Dead Girls Academy, TROY, Heaven Sent, Wild Planes, Maplerun, Hallow Point, The Maension, Renegades, Duel, Kevlar and Stanley’s Revenge all making it a more than memorable day.
Butcher Babies – are, we have to admit, Rockpit favourites. And today on the River Spirit Casino stage they put on a great show. Indeed it’s enough to convert a few who imagined that little of substance lay behind the image. Shame on them! What we get is a great set by a band who know how to work a stage and it’s a a great way to spend the early evening and warm up for veteran Metallers Diamond Head.
Shaman’s Harvest – though started the day perfectly on the main Bud Lite stage. They are a band that deserved the slot and if you saw them would hope that they get to climb that festival ladder rather soon so that more could enjoy their wonderfully powerful bluesy rock mix. It was the sort of set you wanted to go on all day,but 30 minutes is sadly all we got before a decent and crowd pleasing set by Pop Evil.
Godsmack – closed the day today and aside from a drum solo that really sucked the momentum out of the set they really struck a chord with the crowd. Sully is a great frontman and the band excellent musicians but a headlining slot on the coveted middle day of the festival wasn’t the place to break out the 15 minute skin-tickling solo.
Ghost – is a band I’ve never really appreciated and after their set as first support to Godsmack all I can say is that they shaded Vince Neil (more of his set later). As a band sure they have a good gimmick but musically they still fail to hit the spot for me at least. Plenty here though it seems would disagree with melody in masks rating high under the evening skies.
Vince Neil – For those that rue the demise of Motley Crue fear not as Vince Neil is the latest Motley Crue cover act! Don’t get us wrong we’re big fans of Motley but the end should have been the end and to see Vince trot out the Motley classics with a backing band comprised of most of Slaughter meant the execution was spot on even if the vocals were at times dire. Sure it was hot but Vince didn’t seem to flag in the heat, he just hit the odd questionable note here and there. Te lack of solo material though really does say it all as many around me commented. Worst of all maybe was the mid set break when Vince left the stage for the band to have a stab at Dio’s ‘Heaven and Hell’ – so we got lots of Motley, a dab of Sabbath but absolutely no Vince Neil solo songs… surely he’s not forgotten the words,or how good some of them actually were?
Clutch – One of the highlights for many today was the no-nonsense straight ahead rock of Clutch, a band who surely live it like they play it, no fancy effects just a few lights and street clothes but what a wonderful racket! If you’ve not had the band poke their heads up on the radar before and you like you rock gritty and bluesy then you need this band in your life!
Diamond Head – After being scheduled for Saturday last year and being rained off Diamond Head returned in 2018 to show a few of the younger bands how it should be done. Running late and cut by a few songs due to Vince Neil running late was a travesty – we all know how influential these guys have been to Metal over the years and to see Vince trot out Motley covers without a sniff of a solo song effectively made him a cover band. Gripes aside what we did get was sheer class!
OK so we all know that Metallica ‘made these guys famous’ but to many discerning rock fans there’s a lot more to Diamond Head than the covers of ‘Helpless’ and ended with ‘Am I Evil?’ that Metallica brought to a whole new set of rock fans. As far as crowd interaction goes they had the moves too, and in the end proved that even if you get an early slot people will still be talking about you when the ‘bigger guns’ take to the stage. Honestly catch these guys – they may be far from the original line-up but they played ROK with a vigor of a band fresh out of the traps rather than one resting on any legacy.
Saturday Photo Galleries by Jessica Yarbrough
SUNDAY
Sunday was an odd day with two huge names from the 70’s and 80’s rounding out a fine weekend but the rest of the day a real box of surprises ranging from Sunset Strip Sleaze to modern Metal. It was also ROK’s hottest day of the weekend. The day saw Cheap Trick, Halestorm, Tom Keifer (of Cinderella), Candlebox, Machine Gun Kelly, 10 Years, Andrew W.K., Lynch Mob, New Years Day, Well Hung Heart, Mind Of Fury, Maxx Explosion, A Brilliant Lie, War of Thrones, Davey Suicide, Coda Cutlass, Love N Revenge, Shallow Side, Ten Thousand One, The Grizzly Band, Oddfellas, Jenny Wood all put i their all before Poison brought the weekend to a close and the house down…
Poison – are a band that came back to life in 2017 after a five year break and who have already started their 2018 tour with Cheap Trick and Pop Evil so it comes as no surprise that they are all on the same bill here at ROK 2018. Whatever you think of the band musically you do have to admit that they put a lot into their show and the crowd certainly take to their performance to close the festival which is chock full of hits and has plenty of sizzle. Interestingly the set contains two covers rather than just ‘You’re Mama Don’t Dance’ we close with Kiss’ ‘Rock and Roll all Nite’ which is a great sentiment to wrap it up for 2018.
Earlier Cheap Trick – had put on a great show even if the set-list might have been considered a little weak by some in the crowd – eschewing as it did bolted on hits for a smattering of what you might call minor songs (read newer songs). Any band that closes their set with the likes of ‘Dream Police’ and ‘Surrender’ though can even get away with the mid-set morass that most fans felt as a Velvet Underground cover raised it’s head – me? I loved it!
Halestorm – I feel are one of those bands that offers so much, has so much talent and yet somehow inexplicably has not managed to hit the great heights predicted of them. We all know that whenever you see a review it always focuses on Lzzy’s voice and that’s all fine and dandy but an early evening Festival set does show up a few pointers. One of those is that the band does like to indulge itself – a lot of banter, a sing-along and a drum solo might well make a headlining set memorable but when you’ve got less tan an hour to impress I’d take more music any day of the week.
Earlier in the day Tom Keifer – had treated us to a nine song set that included a Beatles cover but only one of his own songs (albeit the outstanding ‘Solid Ground’) the rest being made up of Cinderella classics, that even saw Lzzy Hale come out to duet on ‘Nobody’s Fool’ mid set.
We have to, of course, mention Lynch Mob – who shone on the River Spirit Casino stage earlier in the evening and played a set of Lynch Mob greats as well as a couple of Dokken tunes which I hadn’t been expecting. It’s always great to see George but today it seemed like the heat was really getting to him , the music of course was wonderful and the closer ‘Wicked sensation’ would have raised the roof of any theatre.
Sunday Photo Gallery by Jessica Yarbrough
All in all ROK 2018 proved to be one of the finest in years getting the mix of band just about right for everyone. See you all next year! Thanks to everyone at AEG Live as always for their wonderful hospitality.
