We’re at T-minus 27 hours until the gates open for Day One of Louder Than Life 2024. The car is (mostly) packed, the missus is showering, and I decided to write something, if only to keep myself honest about writing more. I’ve been awake since before 6:00 AM, and I know I’m gonna have to deal with that later, but for now, I’m flyin high on adrenaline (and my fingernails, which Sheila fancied up for me last night).

Part of the fancy-pants package we bought this year is access to an official pre-party this evening, complete with open bar and “light bites”. We’ll hopefully meet at least one or two cool people there, but even if all we meet are duds, we’ll still have some stories to tell, eh?

Speaking of stories, the big story going into this weekend (other than the fact that it’s the 10th anniversary of the fest) is the weather. Every current weather model shows the remnants of Tropical Storm Helene hitting Louisville square in the butthole on Friday at the very least, with chances of rain ranging between 20% and 60% the other days, depending on which weather app or service you look at. The event is rain or shine, and while I’m not stoked about standing in the rain, and I’m really not a fan of being wet for any amount of time longer than a shower or a nice tub soak, I’m determined to rock my soggy ass off no matter what. I’ve got my water-proof Merrells and a proper raincoat, plus I’ll be taking an emergency poncho and an extra pair of socks every day. I’ll come out the other side water-logged as fuck, but it’ll make for a memorable event, and at the very least, I’m off work until next Wednesday, and I can’t be disappointed in that.

I’ll finish up with some songs from a few more of the bands I’m looking forward to. Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check back later for more about my experience at Louder Than Life 2024.

Ho9909 (pronounced “horror”) are wild as fuck. This’ll be our second time seeing them (first was LTL2K22), and we were supposed to see them perform a headlining set this past Sunday in Indianapolis, but that tour got cancelled. It would’ve been amazing to see them play in the dark, but ultimately I don’t care when or where I see them, as long as I get to see them again.

I totally slept on CKY until we started researching this year’s lineup. I was aware of them – I knew that they had toured with Clutch in the past, that they are affiliated with the people responsible for Jackass (their drummer Jess is Bam Margera’s brother), and that Jess plays in The Company Band with Neil from Clutch – but as far as I knew, I’d never heard a note from them. Basically, because I never watched more than 2-3 minutes of Jackass, I never had any kind of real awareness of CKY. I’m still not totally familiar with their musical output, but I know I’m stoked as fuck to hear some of their songs live, especially this one, which I was surprised to learn that I already knew pretty well, but didn’t know it was a CKY song.

I’d never heard of Narrow Head before this lineup was released, but holy smokes, do these guys scratch every single one of my musical itches. If they’d existed in the mid-90’s, I think they would’ve gotten huge. At the very least, my homeboy Travis and I would’ve been super fans.