{"id":9886,"date":"2016-07-19T11:29:52","date_gmt":"2016-07-19T16:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=9886"},"modified":"2016-07-19T11:32:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-19T16:32:06","slug":"chicago-open-air-festival-2016-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/?p=9886","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Open Air Festival 2016 Recap!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Cesar Glanville<\/span><\/p>\n

Chicago Open Air Festival 7\/15-17, 2016.\u00a0DWP expanded its empire of large scale heavy music festivals to a Chicago outlet, building on its\u00a0<\/span>previous success of ventures such as Rock on the Range and based on the near sellout crowds I think this\u00a0<\/span>may be the first of many.\u00a0<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Once inside the gates this cacophony of music, food and booze ran like a well-oiled machine,\u00a0<\/span>the only real issue was the complete lack of a plan when it came to getting people in and out of\u00a0<\/span>the venue. The Bridgeview police need to call up Rosemont and ask them how to disperse a\u00a0<\/span>crowd as the Bridgeview effort was beyond laughable with cars not moving in lots for nearly an\u00a0<\/span>hour at some points.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

DAY 1!\u00a0<\/span>
\nBut enough about that lets talk about the MUSIC! Day one saw intermittent showers attempt to\u00a0<\/span>spoil a very solid lineup that included, what seemed to be the formula, of old school artists\u00a0<\/span>mixing with emerging\/modern artists. Day one highlights included Hatbreed destroying the\u00a0<\/span>second stage and right before tearing into \u2018Born to Bleed\u2019 encouraging the crowd to cheer so\u00a0<\/span>the \u2018powers that be\u2019 could hear them and give them a mainstage slot next year\u2026 I would say\u00a0<\/span>Hatebreed has earned that, and I wouldn\u2019t be surprised to see that next year. Moving to the\u00a0<\/span>main stage the electronic tinged modern metal of \u2018Of Mice & Men\u2019 was the first band to\u00a0<\/span>capitalize on the energy in the soccer stadium turned concert venue moving the crowd with a\u00a0<\/span>mix of songs that are heavy enough to please the true metal fans and melodic enough to\u00a0<\/span>intrigue a Q101 listener. Next on the mainstage was legendary industrial pioneers \u2018Ministry\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>Noticeably, the band was having sound issues with their monitor mix, and after seeing Marilyn\u00a0<\/span>Manson suffer through similar problems to get started a couple of days later, it made one think\u00a0<\/span>that these sound guys were set up for metal and didn\u2019t understand a keyboard! Sound issues\u00a0<\/span>aside, in a set that saw about a 50\/50 split of old and new material, Uncle Al tore through\u00a0<\/span>newer material and then saw the pit explode when it got to seminal favorite \u2018Thieves\u2019 before\u00a0<\/span>closing with a remix version of \u2018Stigmata\u2019. Chevelle, The Devil Wears Prada and Meshuggah\u00a0<\/span>provided solid sets but all were just filler before the main entr\u00e9e, Rammstein!<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Playing their only U.S. show Rammstein\u00a0<\/span>eased<\/span>\u00a0into their set with a full on 4<\/span>th<\/span>\u00a0of July fireworks\u00a0<\/span>explosion to start before bringing on the fire, explosions and pyro that make a Rammstein show\u00a0<\/span>not just a musical experience but a full on show. They did not disappoint. Tight as pair of skinny\u00a0<\/span>jeans on Jack Black, Rammstein charged through their set offering all of the \u2018hits\u2019 as well as\u00a0<\/span>dipping into some songs not recently heard on tour such as the Depeche Mode cover \u2018Stripped\u2019.\u00a0<\/span>All in all a great way to close the first night.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

DAY 2!\u00a0<\/span>
\nAfter a couple of bands that seemed to still be finding their feet vs. being ready for an event of\u00a0<\/span>this magnitude \u00a0Helmet finally grabbed the stage and showed them how it\u2019s done. Paige and\u00a0<\/span>few young kids he has now enlisted to fill out the touring band ripped their set ending with the\u00a0<\/span>1-2 punch of \u2018Just Another Victim\u2019 and \u2018Meantime\u2019 \u2013 a hard act to follow. Well Pop Evil tried!\u00a0<\/span>Unfortunately the pop rock stylings couldn\u2019t hang with the legendary riffs the preceded them.\u00a0<\/span>Leigh Kakaty is a formidable frontman, controlling the stage and crowd \u2013 at one point he got\u00a0<\/span>about 10 rows out and was held in the air for a whole verse, if his songs had the power that his\u00a0<\/span>voice and actions did it could be a powerful union.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Over on the second stage highlights were a plenty, Carcass blistered through a set that seemed\u00a0<\/span>to just be a promotional tool for a gig they had later at Metro. Deafheaven played a style of\u00a0<\/span>metal that seemed to miss its calling in the early 2000\u2019s but still sounded as fresh as anything at\u00a0<\/span>the fest. Emerging French metal superstars \u2018Gojira\u2019 ended the night on the second stage with a\u00a0<\/span>horns in the air set and staked their claim as heirs to the throne.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Back on the mainstage: after suffering through pop sets from Alter Bridge and Breaking\u00a0<\/span>Benjamin the crowd was ready to explode: enter Korn. \u00a0Showing no sign of aging, except for\u00a0<\/span>maybe a slightly bigger forehead on Jonathan Davis, Korn lit up the night with all of the hits and\u00a0<\/span>a splash of new songs that seemed like a return to the original sound of Korn vs. the alternative\u00a0<\/span>radio heyday of the band. After Korn, Disturbed took the stage and plodded through more pop\u00a0<\/span>metal, never reaching the energy that Korn shook the stage with. It\u2019s hard to deny a band that\u00a0<\/span>has sold tens of millions of records but at a fest like this when you have true metal inter-spliced\u00a0<\/span>with pop bands it makes it awfully tough for the pop bands, but maybe that\u2019s how you sell\u00a0<\/span>30,000 tickets!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

DAY 3!<\/p>\n

Jim Breuer has a metal band? Cool! The crowd seemed to have a couple focuses on this day:\u00a0<\/span>BABYMETAL and the mighty Slipknot. Babymetal gets a lot of flack but Rob Zombie defended them well:\u00a0<\/span>would you rather have kids get into Justin Beiber or Babymetal? I think that\u2019s an easy choice. They may\u00a0<\/span>be a bit prefab but the do what they do very well. Now lets talk highlights: C.O.C. ? how can you go\u00a0<\/span>wrong? Killswitch Engage is straightforward and pure metal. Marilyn Manson? The shock rocker may\u00a0<\/span>have taken longer in between songs than his actual set time but he put on a straightforward racking set\u00a0<\/span>of heavy. He may not slice himself up and bleed all over the stage but he still has a knack for\u00a0<\/span>showmanship.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

And then there was SLIPKNOT! Years do not slow this band down\u2026 Broken necks do not slow this band\u00a0<\/span>down. Corey Taylor, performing with a broken neck, raged through a set that saw this bands return to\u00a0<\/span>Chicago one that was well worth the wait. Sure \u2018Clown\u2019 may tick you off with his pompous speeches and\u00a0<\/span>the long breaks between tours seem like decades but once they hit the stage \u2013 it\u2019s on! Playing all of the\u00a0<\/span>classics Slipknot provided a fitting end to a great 3 days \u2013 I can\u2019t wait until next year!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For more info on Chicago Open Air, click here<\/a><\/p>\n

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For photo recap:<\/p>\n

click here<\/a>\u00a0for Alter Bridge<\/p>\n

click here<\/a> for In This Moment<\/p>\n

\n

(more coming soon)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Cesar Glanville Chicago Open Air Festival 7\/15-17, 2016.\u00a0DWP expanded its empire of large scale heavy music festivals to a Chicago outlet, building on its\u00a0previous success of ventures such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}