Chicago Open Air Festival 2016 Recap!

Jul 19, 2016 James Currie Features, Music News, Reviews 0

By Cesar Glanville

Chicago Open Air Festival 7/15-17, 2016. DWP expanded its empire of large scale heavy music festivals to a Chicago outlet, building on its previous success of ventures such as Rock on the Range and based on the near sellout crowds I think this may be the first of many.

Once inside the gates this cacophony of music, food and booze ran like a well-oiled machine, the only real issue was the complete lack of a plan when it came to getting people in and out of the venue. The Bridgeview police need to call up Rosemont and ask them how to disperse a crowd as the Bridgeview effort was beyond laughable with cars not moving in lots for nearly an hour at some points.

DAY 1!
But enough about that lets talk about the MUSIC! Day one saw intermittent showers attempt to spoil a very solid lineup that included, what seemed to be the formula, of old school artists mixing with emerging/modern artists. Day one highlights included Hatbreed destroying the second stage and right before tearing into ‘Born to Bleed’ encouraging the crowd to cheer so the ‘powers that be’ could hear them and give them a mainstage slot next year… I would say Hatebreed has earned that, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that next year. Moving to the main stage the electronic tinged modern metal of ‘Of Mice & Men’ was the first band to capitalize on the energy in the soccer stadium turned concert venue moving the crowd with a mix of songs that are heavy enough to please the true metal fans and melodic enough to intrigue a Q101 listener. Next on the mainstage was legendary industrial pioneers ‘Ministry’. Noticeably, the band was having sound issues with their monitor mix, and after seeing Marilyn Manson suffer through similar problems to get started a couple of days later, it made one think that these sound guys were set up for metal and didn’t understand a keyboard! Sound issues aside, in a set that saw about a 50/50 split of old and new material, Uncle Al tore through newer material and then saw the pit explode when it got to seminal favorite ‘Thieves’ before closing with a remix version of ‘Stigmata’. Chevelle, The Devil Wears Prada and Meshuggah provided solid sets but all were just filler before the main entrée, Rammstein!

Playing their only U.S. show Rammstein eased into their set with a full on 4th of July fireworks explosion to start before bringing on the fire, explosions and pyro that make a Rammstein show not just a musical experience but a full on show. They did not disappoint. Tight as pair of skinny jeans on Jack Black, Rammstein charged through their set offering all of the ‘hits’ as well as dipping into some songs not recently heard on tour such as the Depeche Mode cover ‘Stripped’. All in all a great way to close the first night.

DAY 2!
After a couple of bands that seemed to still be finding their feet vs. being ready for an event of this magnitude Helmet finally grabbed the stage and showed them how it’s done. Paige and few young kids he has now enlisted to fill out the touring band ripped their set ending with the 1-2 punch of ‘Just Another Victim’ and ‘Meantime’ – a hard act to follow. Well Pop Evil tried! Unfortunately the pop rock stylings couldn’t hang with the legendary riffs the preceded them. Leigh Kakaty is a formidable frontman, controlling the stage and crowd – at one point he got about 10 rows out and was held in the air for a whole verse, if his songs had the power that his voice and actions did it could be a powerful union.

Over on the second stage highlights were a plenty, Carcass blistered through a set that seemed to just be a promotional tool for a gig they had later at Metro. Deafheaven played a style of metal that seemed to miss its calling in the early 2000’s but still sounded as fresh as anything at the fest. Emerging French metal superstars ‘Gojira’ ended the night on the second stage with a horns in the air set and staked their claim as heirs to the throne.

Back on the mainstage: after suffering through pop sets from Alter Bridge and Breaking Benjamin the crowd was ready to explode: enter Korn. Showing no sign of aging, except for maybe a slightly bigger forehead on Jonathan Davis, Korn lit up the night with all of the hits and a splash of new songs that seemed like a return to the original sound of Korn vs. the alternative radio heyday of the band. After Korn, Disturbed took the stage and plodded through more pop metal, never reaching the energy that Korn shook the stage with. It’s hard to deny a band that has sold tens of millions of records but at a fest like this when you have true metal inter-spliced with pop bands it makes it awfully tough for the pop bands, but maybe that’s how you sell 30,000 tickets!

DAY 3!

Jim Breuer has a metal band? Cool! The crowd seemed to have a couple focuses on this day: BABYMETAL and the mighty Slipknot. Babymetal gets a lot of flack but Rob Zombie defended them well: would you rather have kids get into Justin Beiber or Babymetal? I think that’s an easy choice. They may be a bit prefab but the do what they do very well. Now lets talk highlights: C.O.C. ? how can you go wrong? Killswitch Engage is straightforward and pure metal. Marilyn Manson? The shock rocker may have taken longer in between songs than his actual set time but he put on a straightforward racking set of heavy. He may not slice himself up and bleed all over the stage but he still has a knack for showmanship.

And then there was SLIPKNOT! Years do not slow this band down… Broken necks do not slow this band down. Corey Taylor, performing with a broken neck, raged through a set that saw this bands return to Chicago one that was well worth the wait. Sure ‘Clown’ may tick you off with his pompous speeches and the long breaks between tours seem like decades but once they hit the stage – it’s on! Playing all of the classics Slipknot provided a fitting end to a great 3 days – I can’t wait until next year!

For more info on Chicago Open Air, click here

For photo recap:

click here for Alter Bridge

click here for In This Moment

(more coming soon)