Fri Jul 1st - The annual Milwaukee Summerfest, is in full swing at the Henry Maier Festival Park, home to the American Family Insurance Amphitheater along the beautiful Lake Michigan lakefront. Given the title "The Worlds Largest Music Festival" in 1999 by the Guinness Book of World Records, the festival spans across multiple weeks in Jun - July and includes over 1,000 performances between 12 stages. Each year they tend to build a lineup consisting of bands across all different genres of music, with typically at least one night for us metalheads to come rock out by Lake Michigan. This year, that night's lineup would consist of Chevelle, Lamb of God & Disturbed.
After a short performance from the opening act, New Medicine, who got the crowd warmed up, it was time to rock. Things got started off with Illinois natives, Chevelle, who opened their set with their song "An Island" off their 2014 album "La Gargola" before following up with their hit "Door To Door Cannibals" off their 2016 album release "The North Corridor". Being a long-time fan of the band for over 2 decades, it was a treat to finally experience them live after all these years. Hailing from Grayslake, IL, just a few miles north from my hometown, it was always a joy to see them go from a local band over the years to a rock powerhouse playing festivals across the US. The 3-piece made the most of their time on stage as they ripped through the likes of "Self Destructor", "Young Wicked" & "Joyride" before moving into the classics with "Face To The Floor", "The Clincher", "Send The Pain Below", "The Red" and closing their set with "Mars Simula". The band sounded absolutely crisp on all fronts, with Pete Loeffler making his signature screams look absolutely effortless with the amount of power he was putting behind them.
Next up were none other than heavy metal heavyweights Lamb of God. They are one of the first bands I have ever seen perform live and, from that day on, became one of my favorites. It's been 17 years since that first time I've seen them and they sound just as good today as they did back then, and Randy can definitely still jump with the best of them. Kicking off their set with "Memento Mori" off their 2020 self-titled album, they showed they came to get the crowd fired up as the song kicked in and Randy began his set long high flying acrobatic jumps from the stage risers. They kept the pace going by shortly following up with the classic "Ruin" before setting the stage ablaze (literally) with "Walk Me In Hell". There never seems to be a flame shortage at a Lamb Of God show, which makes for one of the more visually exciting stage performances. They also blessed the crowd with their very first live performance of their newest single "Nevermore", which is the opening track on their 9th upcoming album "Omens", due out Oct 7th. They filled out the remainder of their performance with "Now You've Got Something To Die For", "Omerta", "11th Hour", "512" & "Vigil" before closing out with their classics "Laid To Rest" & "Redneck".
Once the flames had settled, it was time for the main event: Disturbed. The Chicago legends wasted little time by kicking off the set with a crowd favorite, "10,000 Fists", before transitioning into "Inside The Fire" & "Stupify". It has been some time since I have seen Disturbed live and I can say I was more than impressed with how they have remained true to their sound all these years, as well as the quality of their performance. Dave's timeless voice sounds arguably as good today as it did when the band was formed. Master riffer Dan Donegan was shredding classic lick after lick while playing to the crowd, getting them more and more amped up as they tore through their classics "Are You Ready", "The Vengeful One", "Stricken", "Voices", "Prayer", before breaking into their first cover of the night "Land Of Confusion". The second cover was, of course, their infamous performance of "The Sound Of Silence", which has racked up almost 1 BILLION views on YouTube. The performance was also a special one as drummer Mike Wengren's daughter, Ava Wengren, played the strings portion on stage next to her father throughout the cover. After the awesome family moment on stage, the band followed up with their hit "Indestructible" before rounding the night out with "The Light", in which the entire amphitheater was lit with either cell phone lights or lighters at the request of the band, before causing chaos one final time with "The Sickness".
This was my second time attending a night of Summerfest and can say I thoroughly enjoy the time I have spent on the festival grounds. It is in a beautiful wide open venue next to Lake Michigan with tons of booths and stages to explore, and since each ticket to the amphitheater includes all day access to Summerfest, if you arrive early enough before the heading acts you have plenty of time to check everything out. I would love to see the festival incorporate more rock & metal acts in future events, as well as would like to see the rock & metal community show up more for these events. Taking a look around the half - 3/4 full amphitheater, it was clear the support for heavier music remains to dwindle as pop & rap music continue their unfortunate stranglehold on today's music popularity charts, with the likes of Lil Wayne selling out the venue days prior.
- Nick B.
Big thank you to Disturbed for allowing me to capture their set!*
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