This is part four of a multi-part series in which I discuss the sights, sounds, and smells I experienced while attending the 2025 edition of Louder Than Life (“America’s Loudest Rock & Metal Festival”) in beautiful Louisville, Kentucky. Part one is here, part two is here, and part three is here. If you wanna read all kinds of stuff about previous editions of Louder Than Life, you can find it all here.

We woke up to rain on Day Four, and at 10:40 AM, we got a notification in the LTL app that severe weather was approaching, and they were asking people to seek shelter. After last year’s hurricane-related cancellation, I was nervous. A little after noon, they announced that the gates would be reopening soon, and that shuttle service had recommenced for the day. A few early bands were axed from the lineup, and set times began at 1:00. I was bummed that Chained Saint got bumped, but after the exhausting day that was Day Three, there was no chance I was gonna get to see them anyway. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to see them again soon.

While we were walking toward the shuttle, a young fella approached us and said “excuse me. I’m sorry to bother you, but are you two going somewhere?” I told him we were headed to the shuttle pickup spot, and he said “the Louder Than Life shuttles?” I confirmed that to be accurate, then he asked if we minded if he walked with us, because he was from Michigan, and didn’t know where he was going. Once we got settled on the bus, we learned that his name is Brandon, he’d been to three concerts in his life (the only one I remember is They Might Be Giants), Day Four headliner Bring Me the Horizon was his favorite band, and he was gonna be seeing them live for the first time. We got separated at the entry gates and we never saw him again, but I hope he had a great time and made it back home safely. I thought about this scene the whole time we were together:

The later start time meant everything got pushed back a bit, which worked in our favor in some ways, and threw a wrench in other plans. We technically arrived in time to catch part of Accept‘s set on the Reverb Stage, but given how long it would’ve taken to get there from the gates, we would’ve only seen like 10 minutes of it, so we opted for snacks and drinks in Top Shelf to start our day while Crown the Empire played on Main Stage 2. They weren’t really for me, but they were energetic, and they sounded good. They’re far from the worst thing I heard on Day Four of LTL2K25.

While they played, a dude who looked to be a little older than me, carrying two drinks and already quite shitfaced, walked up to me and hollered “WHADJA THINK OF SLEEP TOKEN?!” I told him we left before they played, and he looked at me in disbelief. “We were too tired from Day One, and the crowd was too thick,” I added, not having the heart to tell him I find them mostly boring.

My drunken friend then hollered “WHO’S YOUR BAND TODAY?!” I said “Testament. They’re playin way over on the Reverb Stage later.” He nodded disinterestedly, then shouted “HOW BOUT THREE DAYS GRACE?!” I told him I hadn’t really listened to them. He looked at me like I’d just told him his dog died. “THEY’RE FUCKIN AWESOME!” he hollered, nodding his head for emphasis. “Cool”, I responded. He then yelled “I’M DAVE!” and I said “Joel”, then he went in for a fistbump and I placed my open hand on his fist before realizing he wasn’t going for a handshake. We bumped fists, then shook hands, then he mercifully went to the other end of the table to shout at other strangers.

We started walking over to the Reverb Stage around 2:30 so we could find a good spot for Sebastian Bach at 2:45. We settled into what seemed like a friendly crowd and waited for 10 Years to finish their set on the neighboring Decibel Stage. When the band started to come on stage, a guy in front of me pulled out a full-sized flag and held it up toward the stage, blocking most of my view, and completely blocking the view of dozens of people behind him. After he held it up for the third time in the first minute of the first song, a dude to my right asked him to stop, and he said something about being from the same town as someone in the band. The guy next to him said “yeah, okay” and flipped him off.

By the time the first song ended, he had blocked half of my view no less than 10 times. Finally, about halfway through “Slave to the Grind”, I snapped. “PUT THAT GODDAMN FLAG DOWN!” I shouted. He turned to me and said the same thing he said to the other guy, and I said “I DON’T GIVE A FUCK WHY YOU’RE DOING IT, YOU’RE BLOCKING EVERYONE’S VIEW!” He told me to stand somewhere else, and I told him to go fuck himself, and he kept the flag down for a few songs, then during “Monkey Business”, he tentatively held it up again, saw that I was not going to punch him in the head (I wasn’t tryna get escorted off the premises before Testament played), and then felt emboldened to hold it up a few more times.

During a cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “I Don’t Know”, a spot opened up in front of the flag-waving dickhead, and he turned to me and indicated that I could move up if I wanted to. I stared at him until he turned back around, and I tried my goddamndest to enjoy set closer “I Remember You”, but that twatwaffle really got my beans bakin. If he’d raised the flag up once or twice, I wouldn’t have minded so much (even though flags and banners are not supposed to be allowed inside the gates), but he was bein a world class asshole with that thing.

The shift in set times meant that we were able to head back to the main stage area to catch part of Tech N9ne‘s set, which now started five minutes after Sebastian Bach’s set ended. I’m not overly familiar with Tech N9ne, but I love his rapid-fire rapping style, and I was glad I got to experience some of it live.

We watched from VIP so we could hang with Mitch and Amanda for a bit, then we re-upped our drinks and went back to the Reverb Stage for Queensrÿche‘s set at 3:55. Neither of us had seen them before, but we were pretty stoked. They sounded great, and frontman Todd La Torre was belting out the high notes from the inner depths of his very soul. The only complaint Sheila and I had about their set is that they did not play “Jet City Woman” or “Silent Lucidity”, and that was equal parts silly, disappointing, and befuddling.

I wanted to check out Counterparts on the Loudmouth Stage, but I desperately needed food, shade, and a seat, so we went back to Top Shelf for a bit as Slaughter to Prevail took to Main Stage 1, and they were fine. My respite was brief, as I had to book it back to the Reverb Stage to see Testament at 5:05. I’ve seen them a few times over the years, and in my experience, there’s no such thing as a bad Testament show. This one was no exception. They were on figurative fire, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a band smile so much while they’re playing. I was a little bummed that we only got one song each from The Legacy and The New Order, but they played “Return to Serenity”, which I did not expect, and that was awesome. I also saw some kids on who couldn’t have been more than 16 singing along with every word, and that made me very happy.

The adjusted set times caused Testament to finish halfway through Glassjaw‘s set on the Loudmouth Stage, so I did not bother trying to see the last 10 minutes of Glassjaw, but we did get to watch hometown heroes Knocked Loose on Main Stage 1, and they delivered the motherfucking goods. As with Testament, every Knocked Loose video I could find from LTL sounded like muddy buttholes, so here’s the studio version of the song they opened with.

Three Days Grace followed on Main Stage 2, and I can confirm that my drunk buddy Dave was correct, they were “fuckin awesome”, as in “fuckin awesomely boring”. Apparently they got a new singer one time, then the old singer rejoined last year or something, and now they have two singers, but they both sucked pretty equally. We departed for the Loudmouth Stage to see The Dillinger Escape Plan, and it was good to get away from there. I hadn’t seen TDEP live before, and I don’t know very many of their songs, but I like everything I’ve heard, and I was looking forward to watching them.

The band came out and frontman Dimitri Minakakis stood silent and still at the front of the stage, then held a single finger to his lips to shush the crowd, then they blasted into “Destro’s Secret”, and for the next forty-five minutes, absolute chaos ensued.

They closed with Certified Banger “43% Burnt”, and my body was at least 87% busted, but we still had to go back to Top Shelf to see at least a little bit of $uicideboy$ on Main Stage 2. Our nephew DJ told us about them a few years ago, and we hesitantly listened to a couple of songs and didn’t hate them, but that was pretty much the end of it. When the lineup was announced, we listened to some more of their songs, because that’s what we do when the lineup drops. We both liked them more than we thought we would, but we mostly wanted to check them out so we could tell DJ that we did.

Much to my surprise, I enjoyed the hell outta their set. I doubt I’ll ever listen to them on purpose, and I wouldn’t pay 2025 ticket prices just to see them headline, but I’d definitely watch them again if I could.

They played for an hour, and we left when they were finished, because we saw Bring Me the Horizon in 2022, and they aren’t really our thing, plus, as I’ve mentioned repeatedly over the course of this series, it was hot, and I am old, and the new location is simply too goddamn big. I’m currently planning to write at least one more thing about LTL2K25, in which I’ll discuss some of pros and cons of the new layout in more detail, and I’ll include some pictures that didn’t quite fit the flow of the first four parts.

Thanks for reading. Tell a friend, if you have one. And be excellent to each other.