It’s 2014, and every local person you can imagine is scoffing at the idea of another music festival in Louisville, especially one that is specifically dedicated to rock music. “We already have Forecastle Festival bringing in major acts each year. And let’s not forget HullabaLOU at Churchill Downs in 2010, which was supposed to be an annual festival but failed spectacularly its first year. So how is this company from Los Angeles going to come into our city, which they know nothing about, and create a yearly rock music festival? They’re just wasting money. It’ll be a one-and-done event.” - Me, probably.
Ten years later…
Turns out, I may have slightly underestimated Danny Wimmer Presents back then.
What began in 2014 as a two-day, two-stage, 34-band festival that roughly 36,000 people attended has grown into two separate festivals covering eight-days which, this year, hosted over 200 bands/artists (it would have been over 250 if not for the cancellation of a day), on five separate stages and brought in an estimated 400,000 fans from all over the world to right here - Louisville, KY! In the process shining a spotlight on our city for the whole world to see, and turning our city into something I never dreamed possible: a music mecca!
Bourbon & Beyond was already the largest music and bourbon festival in the world, but with their confirmed 210,000 attendees this year, it now holds the record for the largest music festival in Kentucky history!
The numbers aren’t in as of this writing, but an expected 175,000 - 200,000 person turnout will make this year the largest Louder Than Life ever.
And the numbers don’t lie. According to Louisville Tourism, both Bourbon & Beyond and Louder Than Life are behind only the Kentucky Derby in terms of tourism and local economic impact. So not only does Louisville have the greatest two minutes in sports, but also the greatest eight days in music!
If you’d told me ten years ago that Louisville would be the music capital of the world for even a day, let alone for two weeks, I would have had a mental inquest warrant taken out on you. To this day, I’m still in awe of how DWP made this happen.
Hail to the power of the Loudmouths!
And what a memorable tenth anniversary festival it was, although not entirely for the right reasons. High winds and heavy rain took a day and several great bands away from us. Continued rain brought mud, mud, and more mud. I certainly appreciate DWP’s efforts on Sunday morning to bring in more gravel and mulch to cover up as much of the mud as possible, but it was a losing battle, leaving us with the wettest, muddiest Louder Than Life yet, (2018’s cancelled festival notwithstanding). Speaking of 2018, the Highland Festival Grounds did what Champions Park couldn’t do and held up fairly well in spite of the continued rain throughout Friday and most of Saturday. Wet and muddy, yes, but it did little to dampen the spirits of attendees. With that great of a lineup, I would have stood in ankle-deep mud all weekend if necessary. But thankfully that was not the case. I don’t recall having to wade through any mud deeper than maybe an inch at worse. And it should come as a surprise to no one that DWP had prepared for this in advance with elevated gravel pathways to every stage area, which meant not having to deal with any mud at all if you were careful. These pathways also gave great viewing areas for all stages, although if you wanted to get close to any of the stages, you were going to have to get muddy.
So let’s get to it. In the spirit of saving space, I’m going to skip the bourbons and other places on hand, as they were pretty much all the same as were at Bourbon & Beyond this year, and you can read about them in my review of that festival here.
As far as bands/artists, there is no possible way I could write about them all. I don’t even have enough space to mention all of them that I personally saw. So here are my festival highlights.
Let’s start with my favorite part of every Louder Than Life, which is just walking in for the first time. Although I love Bourbon & Beyond - and at 50 years old, I certainly fit in better there - Louder Than Life has always been my home. And while the layouts of both festivals are the same, the crowds are quite different. It’d be worth the price of the ticket just to people-watch at Louder Than Life, because you will see some of the craziest, funniest, and downright impressive tee shirts, costumes, and clothing in general that you will ever see in your life. Whereas Bourbon & Beyond is a festival, Louder Than Life is an experience!
Thursday started off with my first hard decision of the festival, as a delay caused Jigsaw Youth’s set on the Loudmouth Stage to be pushed back, so I opted for Soul Glo instead. Louder Than Life lived up to its name when Soul Glo kicked off this year’s festival on the Reverb Stage with "Gold Chain Punk (whogonbeatmyass?)". But with only a 20 minute set, by the time the crowd got there and got into them, it was over. Walking back from the stage I heard the distinct sounds of heavy grunge being played on the Loudmouth stage and discovered Jigsaw Youth was on. I hadn’t missed them after all. And if you were lucky enough to catch the all-female three-piece from Staten Island, NY, then you know you were seeing a band that will no doubt be playing a much later time slot next time they play the festival, as they killed it.
Every year there is always at least one band on the festival lineup I’ve never heard before that I end up becoming a big fan of. This year, that was Touché Amoré. Far from being a new band, (they started in 2007), I had heard of them but had never given them a chance until I saw them on the festival lineup. So I’ve been trying to get caught up on 17 years’ worth of their music over the past few weeks. And I have to say their mid-afternoon set on the smaller Decibel Stage was one of my favorite sets of the entire festival. Even though they are from Los Angeles, I thought they had a certain 90’s Louisville post-hardcore sound to them, this was confirmed when, during their set, singer Jeremy Bolm named-checked Coliseum, Metroshifter, By The Grace of God, and a few other Louisville bands as being major influences. And to the shirtless blonde-haired teen next to me that lost his shit when they ended with “Flowers and You” and sang every lyric like it meant the world to him, I felt that. There is nothing like seeing just how much music can affect people.
Being that the Ramones are my favorite band, I have a Pavlovian response whenever I hear “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” being played, as this is what The Ramones used as their intro. No surprise that Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg would also use it as well, but I got goosebumps and butterflies in my stomach all the same. From there, longtime Ramones drummer Marky Ramone and band, which included longtime vocalist Iñaki “Pela” Urbizu, guitarist Tommy Victor (Prong, Danzig) and bassist Craig Ahead (Sick Of It All), went through more Ramones classics during their 40-minute set than I can count, (the setlist on setlist.fm for this show is not entirely correct as there were a few other songs played that aren’t listed). The cover of Joey Ramone’s cover of the Louis Armstrong song “What a Wonderful World” was especially touching. The set coming to an end with the greatest song ever written, “Blitzkrieg Bop”, was obviously the highlight for me.
Not even 20 minutes later, The Offspring were covering that very same song, “Blitzkrieg Bop”, on the main stage. There is always a band or two at Louder Than Life that I’m a passive fan of that end up impressing the hell out of me live. Last year it was Weezer, this year The Offspring. I was half-interested in catching their set as I have never seen them live before. I did not expect them to be that good! Vocalist Dexter Holland sounds just as good now as he did 30 years ago when they hit the public’s radar in 94 with their album Smash. And the between-song dialog from Holland and guitarist Noodles alone was worth staying for their entire set.
I’d like to take this time to thank my wife for sticking with me in the pouring down rain while I geeked out to Slipknot playing literally everything off their debut self-titled album, which they are celebrating the 25th anniversary of, and which has always been my favorite of their discography. Although I wish they would have done some sort of dedication to bassist Paul Gray and drummer Joey Jordison, both of whom played on that record and have since passed away, it was still the highlight of the entire festival to get to hear the deep cut songs that they haven’t played live in many years prior to this tour, many of which we may never get a chance to hear live again.
Friday…well, I guess I have to talk about it. Remnants of Hurricane Helene hit the area with strong winds and heavy rain, ultimately causing the cancellation of the 2nd day of the festival. Organizers Danny Wimmer Presents had earlier in the day pushed the opening back to between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. in hopes the weather would change. Winds picked up again around 6:30 p.m., and with them came a continued bad weather forecast for the remainder of the night, leaving DWP with no other options but to cancel the day out of safety concerns. This meant no Slayer reunion show, which upset more than a few people. DWP did offer anyone with a Friday wristband the option of attending Saturday or Sunday if they wished, and refund options are in the works for those that didn’t. A few bands/artists scheduled for Friday were able to find some small venues in which to play: Tom Morello and Grandson at the Whirling Tiger, Silly Goose and Return To Dust at Mag Bar, Jager Henry at The Fox Den, and Ekoh at Wrong Side 812. But I can’t speak on any of them because my ass was firmly planted on my couch watching a hair metal documentary series on Paramount Plus and recovering from Thursday.
Saturday can be described best as Mudstock 2024. The high winds from Friday had passed leaving no delays in opening the gates. However, continued rain periodically throughout the day and an almost constant drizzle made for a wet, sloppy, muddy festival grounds. But the show must go on, and I have two pairs of mud-caked shoes to prove it. And for the first time ever, Louder Than Life added a sixth stage in the Kroger Big Bourbon Bar to allow for sets from a couple of Friday’s cancelled acts; Jager Henry and Return To Dust. This begs the question; a sixth stage has been possible all along? Open that up for local acts next year! While there were some great acts that played earlier in the day, the continued rain and wearing a poncho pretty much took the whole vibe out of me. But I’d like to thank Fifty-Eleven Media artist Rick Gideons for hanging with me through it all.
Body Count’s set on the smaller Reverb stage was by far the highlight of Saturday for me. Opening with a cover of Slayer’s “Raining Blood” was absolutely beautiful. That song needed to be played, and Body Count was really the only band that could pull it off. And from there, Ice T and company never let up, tearing through a 9-song set that ended with crowd favorite “Cop Killer” followed by their reworked version of Pink Floyd’s classic “Comfortably Numb” to close out the set. My only problem was Ice T’s disrespectful pointing out of a female in the pit with “There’s a bitch in the pit,” then going on a short rant about how men are “pussies” now before launching into “Manslaughter,” a track about that very topic. Men can still be men without disrespecting women. But Ice T is certainly not a man to shy away from causing controversy, (see “Cop Killer”).
If you’re going to have a band follow Body Count, Mastodon is a perfect choice! Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of their breakthrough album Leviathan, Mastodon launched into playing the entire album in track-by-track order on the smaller Decibel Stage, complete with pyros. The sole non-Leviathan track “Steambreather” from 2017’s Emperor of Sand coming as an encore at the end of their set.
Saturday’s headliners Mötley Crüe offered something for everyone. By that I mean if you wanted a good Mötley Crüe show, you got that. If you wanted to laugh at Vince Neil’s attempt at singing, you got that too. The band, (not Vince Neil), sounded damn near perfect as they ripped through a 15-song set covering their entire career. Even if backing tracks were in use, (which they have been accused of using recently), bassist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee are still physically playing the songs. And for Tommy, who turns 62 on October 3rd, that’s no easy task. The man does A LOT while playing live and has a reputation to live up to, and to still be physically playing at the same level he was 20, 30, even 40 years ago is certainly commendable. If he is using backing tracks, he does a perfect job of hiding it because he was on time with every beat, (yes, I was watching for slip-ups). Newcomer to the band, guitarist John 5, proved two things, 1) he doesn’t have a sound or style anywhere close to Mick Mars, and 2) he is far too talented for this current version of Mötley Crüe and is obviously only there for the paycheck, (I’m not faulting him for that). But if ever there was someone who needed to lip sync to pre-recorded backing tracks, its vocalist Vince Neil. Out of all videos I’ve seen of Vince Neil singing live on YouTube, I think Saturday’s performance might have been his worst yet. Off-time mumbled words and cringingly bad high notes made the whole band look like a joke. Although he did seem to pull it together at least slightly better in the second half of their set, if you were there just to laugh at Vince, you got that in spades, and his piss-poor performance completely discounted what was otherwise a great set.
Sunday started off strong with a complete lack of rain and one of my favorites of the festival, stoner metal band Gozu, doing a short five-song, 25 minute set on the small Loudmouth Stage in the back corner. But probably the biggest surprise and definitely a festival highlight was Bangalore, India’s Project MishraM’s set on the Decibel Stage. An extraordinarily talented seven-piece progressive Carnatic fusion band that blends rock, metal and jazz with traditional Indian classical music, Project MishraM absolutely blew everyone away with their all-too-short set. The band was obviously thrilled to be there and playing for what should have been a much larger crowd, with vocalist Shivaraj Natraj concluding the set by saying it was “a dream come true” to be there. I am proud to have picked them for one of my seven under-the-radar bands not to miss at this year’s festival, and I was correct when I said they were “by far the most interesting band you will hear at Louder Than Life this year.”
Later on in the day, Gojira brought the fire, (literally - in the form of pyros), to their set on Main Stage 1, which included their cover of the classic French revolutionary song “Mea culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)” made famous by their performance at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Staind played a flawless set that included most, if not all, of their many hits. Vocalist Aaron Lewis is not exactly the most dynamic performer ever, with most of his time on stage spent looking bored and standing motionless at the mic or wandering back to the drum riser to get the occasional cigarette. But his voice was every bit as on par with his recorded work from the late 90’s/early 2000’s, and no political rantings, so that’s a bonus.
Biohazard, recently reunited with the classic early 90’s lineup, brought the old-school NYHC to the Reverb Stage. The band, now in their mid-to-late 50’s, looked and played as hard as they did back when their Urban Discipline album hit the shelves in 1992, (an album of which they drew a good chunk of their setlist from).
Judas Priest absolutely crushed it during their set to close out Main Stage 2 for the festival. Guitarists Ritchie Faulkner, (who almost died on stage during the 2021 Louder Than Life festival), and Andy Sneap delivered the goods, (pun intended), while longtime Judas Priest drummer Scott Travis proved that he, even at age of 63, is still a beast behind the drums. Meanwhile, sole original member Ian Hill couldn’t be denied on bass. But the star of the show was, is, and always will be vocalist Rob Halford. The now 73 year old Halford may be a little slower and stiffer as far as moving around on stage, but he is still able to belt out the tracks with his legendary, absolutely incredible voice, including hitting those stunning high notes. Although their 70-minute set only allowed for 13 songs, they made the most of it tearing through hits like "You've Got Another Thing Comin'", "Breaking the Law", and "Hell Bent for Leather" (the start of which saw Halford doing his trademark move of riding out on his motorcycle), as well as new tracks like opener "Panic Attack" and "Invincible Shield".
But the night belonged to headliners Korn, whose 17-song set leaned heavily on the first four albums of their now 30-year career. Deep cuts “Ball Tongue” and “Clown” from their 1994 debut self-titled album flowed right along with hits like “Got The Life”, “Make Me Bad”, and “Falling Away From Me”. The crowd became rather unhinged early on during the set and saw the biggest pit, the most jumping, and the most crowdsurfing that I personally saw during the festival. At one point the band was forced to stop for several minutes due to a medical emergency in the crowd, and/or the crush of the crowd on those at the front rail, as the crowd was told to “take five steps back” before the band began playing again. The band ended their set with their biggest hit “Freak on a Leash”, which had pretty much the entire crowd going. The lyrics of which are vocalist Jonathan Davis’ not-so-subtle views on what the music industry has done to him, resonate with the predominately young, alienated crowd that attends Louder Than Life each year, but on a different level: “Feeling like a freak on a leash. Feeling like I have no release. How many times have I felt diseased? Nothing in my life is free.” Certainly a perfect closer for the 2024 edition of Louder Than Life!
Monday morning: my ears are still ringing, my feet are blistered, my legs are stiff, and my whole body hurts. But if Louder Than Life were going on another day, or even another week, I’d be right there in the mud all day every day. And I’m certain I’m not alone in that sentiment. So for now, I’m going to deal with the post-festival blues by washing the mud off two pairs of shoes and doing some much-needed laundry. Until next year Loudmouths, cheers!
