Note: this is Part Four of a multi-part series about Louder Than Life 2024. I’m not sure how many parts there’ll be, but it seems like it’ll be five at least. Here are the first two. There are supplemental parts also.

By the time we woke on Saturday morning, the wind had diminished significantly, but we were still concerned about the rain. There was a 100% chance of rain the entire day, and the chance of the rain continuing on Sunday was still quite high, though by then it had dropped to a much less intimidating 60%.

We were soon greeted by some good news: the day was set to go on as scheduled, albeit with a couple-few changes…

• First, and least important to us: two of the smaller acts from Day Two were rescheduled for Day Three (no disrespect intended two whoever those two bands were, but as neither band was on our short list, this news had no impact on us).
• Another change, this one much more significant to us: “due to weather and travel issues”, Falling In Reverse would no longer be performing.
• If you’ll recall from Day Zero, we do not like Falling in Reverse.
• Their music is like razor blades all over my face, and not in a good way.

But anyway.

• The final change, this one much more exciting for us: Till Lindemann decided to stay in town for whatever reason (maybe it was just in case someone else had to cancel, maybe it was so he could get into some weird shit, I don’t know and I don’t wanna know), and he was going to fill the turd-shaped hole left by Falling in Reverse. I suppose if anyone is gonna fill a turd-shaped hole, it might as well be Till Lindemann. And, forgive my crudeness, but fill that turd-shaped hole he did, my friends.

I’ll talk more about Till Lindemann’s turd hole later, though.

One hour after that announcement, I received the following email:

Not to get too far ahead of myself, but one thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post, where I talk about the passing of my mother-in-law Susan: Susan was born in Louisville, and was Louisville through and through, but both sides of her family were from The Old Country (Bavaria). If Susan had been any more German, she would’ve been terrifying. One of the most-German things she loved was Rammstein. She used to blast them on the stereo while she worked out, and/or worked in her sewing room.

What this means for our purposes is that when we found out we’d get to watch Rammstein’s frontman and his solo band perform one of only thirteen US shows in 2024 from a (relatively) exclusive location within the festival grounds, it seemed pretty obvious that we were gonna be experiencing that with Susan.

But again, this hasn’t happened yet. In fact, we haven’t even left the hotel room yet…

I quickly confirmed our receipt of the notice, and asked whether we’d be allowed to leave the area early in order to get over to the Revolver Stage to catch Body Count’s set. I was assured that we could leave the area whenever we were ready, and with that newfound peace of mind, we proceeded to get ready to head out for the day.

We’d already missed every chance of seeing Local H, which was a bummer, but with a 100% chance of rain, we knew the day was gonna be a slog, so we weren’t in a major hurry to get out in it anyway. I did wanna see CKY, but they also weren’t crucial for me, and Sheila wasn’t as into it, and didn’t really care one way or the other.

After a frustratingly slow shuttle ride to the festival grounds, we approached the gate as CKY started to play “Sporadic Movement”. As we passed through, Sheila headed straight for the restroom, then made her way to the Top Shelf tent in an attempt to stay out of the rain. I jogged as gingerly as possible, hopping around puddles, banging my head, and kind of skip-moshing, Scott Ian-style, across the middle of the mostly-empty area in front of Main Stage 2 toward the barricade that divided us from the area in front of Main Stage 1, where they were playing.

They came to a stop at almost the same time I did, and then they tore into a kick-ass rendition of their best-known song, “96 Quite Bitter Beings” just as I was beginning to realize how much I was already sweating, due to the high humidity, and also the raincoat, plus the light exercise, as well as the fact that I sweat more than almost everyone I’ve ever met.

They finished their set with a cover of “All My Friends Are Dead” by Turbonegro (with members of Crobot), and it sounded great, even though I don’t know the song.

Also, just wanna mention that I really wanted to see Damnage, but their set was at the same time as CKY’s, so it really wasn’t feasible. Once again, those are the breaks.

I very much wanted to check out Unity TX on the Decibel Stage next, but I was already dripping with sweat, so instead I met Sheila in the tent to try and dry off a bit, then we headed way, way back to the Loudmouth Stage to watch San Francisco, CA thrashers Hemorage play what I’m pretty sure was their first ever festival show. They were fuckin awesome.

They self-record and release their own music, they make their own merchandise, and for a stretch of time, they just drove around the country, parking and setting up their custom-built, DIY van/mobile stage, playing shows wherever the fuck they decided they wanted to play a show. And people started showing the fuck up.

They also played Aftershock this year (another Danny Wimmer Presents event, and the one that usually competes with LTL with regards to overall lineup I like most), and they deserve every bit of exposure and recognition they’ve been getting.

Here’s a short (9-10 minute) documentary about the band. You should watch it. Even if you don’t like the music, surely you can get behind the positive message. I think a lot of us could stand to receive a positive message right about now.

Anyways, Hemorage were fuckin rad, and they were so unbelievably gracious and hyped to be on that stage. I sincerely hope I get to see them again as soon as possible, and I hope that you get to see them as soon as possible, too.

At some point during their set, I realized that my rain coat was useless; I was already completely soaked, and it was really only making me sweat more. I walked back to Top Shelf while P.O.D. kicked off their set on Main Stage 2, put my raincoat in our locker, and met Sheila inside the tent to take a load off and stop getting rained on for a few minutes. We enjoyed some snacks and drinks, chatted with some friendly strangers, did some people-watchin, and watched P.O.D. absolutely own that stage.

Regarding P.O.D.: I liked their song “Alive”, from their breakthrough album Satellite when I first heard it, back in late summer 2001. I was working at a corporate music store in the mall at the time, and it was on one of the mix CDs we were approved to play in store. The song ticks a lot of boxes for me, and it was a right place, right time kinda situation. One time I heard it when I was high on the pot and I experienced pure bliss. I was also familiar with “Youth of the Nation”, the single they released after “Alive”, and I’ve been known to enjoy it as well, although not as much as “Alive”.

My point is, I don’t dislike P.O.D., but I also had no intention of going out of my way to watch them perform. I was an idiot, frankly. They put on an amazing show, and while they might’ve played from 2:05-2:35, they had that crowd moving like they were a Six-o-Clock Band. (a “Six-o-Clock Band” is a band that plays the main stage starting at or around 6:00 PM., which also happens to be the fourth band from the top of the billing – the president pro tempore to the presidency of the main headliner, if you will. Examples of past 6:00 bands include Run the Jewels, Ice Cube, Megadeth, and Chevelle, who we’ll get to shortly).

One of the perks of the Angel’s Envy Top Shelf VIP tent, along with delicious food and drinks and not getting rained on, is that is has TVs spaced all around playing a live feed of the main stages, which comes in especially handy when you want to be present for a performance, but you don’t want to get rained on.

What I’m saying to you is that we stayed in the tent while Filter played over on Main Stage 1.

Filter sounded great, and I really would’ve rather been watching them from outside on a slightly overcast day instead of on a TV inside a tent, but break it up, break it up, break it up, because those are the breaks.

We also wanted to watch The Armed over on the Decibel Stage, but the rain was picking up, and we still had miles to go before we slept, so instead we went up to the Upper Decker, which is what I like to call the new Top Shelf Skybox, just for a change of scenery (and also because it was kinda cold inside the tent, what with the air-conditioning and the wet clothes). We ended up hanging out up there for most of Sleeping With Sirens‘ set. I knew absolutely nothing about Sleeping With Sirens prior to our pre-fest research, but their name, along with the time period when I first became aware of them, made me assume they were a metalcore-ish, emo-esque band. Turns out I was pretty much right. I liked them more than I thought I would, even if I didn’t know any of their songs.

I didn’t take any pictures of Sleeping With Sirens, but I did take a couple of pictures of the crowd from the Upper Decker.

I found out later that The Armed brought Frank Turner out for a song, and I really would’ve rather watched that on a slightly overcast day, instead of not at all, but here we are.

I wasn’t gonna let rain keep me away from everything, and Better Lovers on the Revolver Stage at 4:10 was one of those (not every) things. I got a spot on the rail pretty much right in the center of the space between the Revolver and Decibel stages, and witnessed an unbelievably good and tight 30-minute set from the relatively new post-hardcore “supergroup”.

When Better Lovers finished, I moved back and found a tiny bit of real estate along the side edge of the ADA-platform that was both not occupied and not 100% mud so I could watch Joey Valence & Brae on the Decibel Stage. We caught their set at Louder Than Life 2022, and they were a lot of fun, so we were definitely looking forward to seeing them again. They did not disappoint, but the rain very much fucking did, and even though we were both reeeaaally looking forward to Three 6 Mafia after them, we had to retreat to the tent before JV&B were finished.

We ended up sitting in the tent while Dropkick Murphys played on the Main Stage 1, and they were fine.

And listen: I was a full-on, 100% bonafide Dropkick Murphys Super Fan (DKMSF) back in the day. I first heard “Bar Room Hero” on the Hellcat Records compilation Give ’em the Boot, and if you’re ever gonna know a single thing about me, you should know that I’m a sucker for gang vocals and singalongs. “Bar Room Hero” has em both by the truckload.

Do or Die, their Hellcat debut, was easily one of my most listened-to CDs from 1998 until around the spring of 2001.

Fuck, I even bought a DKM windbreaker when I saw them live in Cincinnati, for cryin out loud! I can’t imagine how much I paid for that thing, adjusted for inflation. Certainly more than I could afford at the time.

What I’m saying is: there was a significant stretch of time in my life where, if I wasn’t sad, I was listening to Dropkick Murphys. They were one of my absolute jams when I was 22 years old.

Here’s the facts, though: Dropkick Murphys doesn’t sound like Dropkick Murphys anymore. I mean they don’t sound a n y thing like they used to.

And don’t misunderstand: I don’t think they’re a bad band by any means. Like, I enjoy “Shipping Up to Boston” well enough, and “Rose Tattoo” is a good song and all, but how does a band with a back catalog like theirs not play a single song from prior to the year 2000? Are we really meant to pretend that “Road of the Righteous” and “Caps and Bottles” don’t exist?

And frankly, having seen both Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys in the past year, there really is very little difference at all between the two anymore, and that difference seems to get smaller all the time.

Anyway, the whole time DKM was playing, I kept thinking about Three 6 Mafia, but I didn’t go watch Three 6 Mafia because I was too tired, and that’s a lame ending to that story, but sometimes stories have lame endings.

Chevelle played Main Stage 2 next, and we remained in the tent, and they sounded great, and that’s that. I hope you weren’t expecting more.

L.S. Dunes played over on the Decibel Stage at pretty much the same time, and I wanted to watch them, but there was still the whole non-stop rain thing, plus the Soundboard Experience that I mentioned earlier was pretty much nigh at this point, so we didn’t wanna venture too far from our base.

Speaking of the Soundboard Experience: we arrived outside the Top Shelf gates at approximately 6:48 PM, in anticipation of meeting our DWP rep at 6:50 for our Till Lindemann Soundboard Experience (In Memory of/In Conjunction with Susan). We stood aimlessly for a couple of minutes until eventually, there appeared a couple of people in DWP gear. I approached them and asked if they were our Soundboard Experience liaisons, and it turned out they were not at all; they were just a couple of schmoes who did not work for DWP, but were sporting DWP gear for whatever reason. A wrong place, wrong time kinda situation.

A minute or so later, another couple started hanging around near us, and I asked if they were there for the Soundboard Experience. They were, and we stood, couple-to-couple, not talking amongst ourselves, for another couple of minutes, until our for-real designated DWP rep showed up, almost 10 minutes late.

I’m just gonna add this: I’ve never worked in the entertainment business in any real capacity, but I’ve been in the service industry for over 30 years now, and no matter how mad I might wanna be about their tardiness, I can only imagine the kind of delays and hold-ups they must’ve experienced trying make time across those wet-ass festival grounds to meet us. She was a pro.

Our liaison led us around the front of the GA area on the Top Shelf side, along the same route that crowd surfers are ushered back out, and eventually we broke off in a different direction, toward the middle of the GA crowd, between Main Stage 1 and Main Stage 2, until we came to a stop directly in front of the sound mixing tent at precisely the same time that Till Lindemann himself took the stage. It was pretty wild.

It got wilder. The videos on the screen in back of the stage ranged from super close-up footage of vaginal lips flapping in a breeze to super close-up footage of pills shooting out of buttholes to footage of Till himself getting his mouth sewn shut, and it was so fuckin weird and perfect and German, and so many people didn’t even almost start to appreciate it, and all I could think about – other than the fact that Susan was both stoked and horrified for us – was how fuckin pumped I was that Falling In Reverse cancelled.

Suddenly, I remembered Body Count, and at pretty much the same time, Sheila had to pee. It was a total coincidence that this happened during the song “Golden Showers”. We were ushered back to the Top Shelf tent, and Sheila visited the terlit, and then we hauled ass over to the Revolver Stage to find Body Count halfway into “There Goes the Neighborhood”, and things only got better from there. Their set was a bit shorter than in 2022, on account of they weren’t headlining the second stage, but it was still goddamn amazing.

We stayed in the vicinity for the beginning of Mastodon‘s set on the Decibel Stage. They kicked off with “Blood and Thunder”, the first song from their 2004 slobberknocker of an album, Leviathan, which they were performing in its entirety.

They sounded great, but the rain was once again being a bit of a dick, plus we needed to sing Mötley Crüe songs in each other’s faces, so we started the long journey back toward the main stage area while Disturbed played on Main Stage 2. They’re good at what they do, but they’re not for us.

Mötley Crüe  performed as expected. Vince was out of breath before “Primal Scream” was over, and then they played “Too Fast for Love”, and things only got worse for Vince from there, but then they played “Wild Side” and “Shout at the Devil”, and we had a great time singing in each other’s faces, and then I did a high kick during “Live Wire”, and suddenly the only thing I could think about was going back to the hotel. In an effort to maintain decorum, I won’t say why the hotel suddenly became so crucial to me, but I will say that I am a 47-year-old man who’d been drinking whiskey and eating cheese and fried food in the rain all day, and my high kick made getting to a toilet quite an urgent matter indeed, and by this point in the day even the fancy-pants Top Shelf VIP bathrooms were so lousy with mud (and worse) that I simply could not bear the thought of letting my shorts touch my body again after dropping them on that floor.

What I’m saying to you is that I didn’t get to sing “Home Sweet Home” or “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S)” or “Kickstart My Heart” in Sheila’s face because I almost pooped my pants that night.

We missed most of the Crüe’s best songs, but that’s alright, that’s okay, let’s turn the page. We were gonna live to rock another day, and what a day it would prove to be.

I hope you’ll check back soon to read more about it, because it was a real humdinger.

Thanks for reading.