Here’s Some Advice From a Man Who Never Quite Did It Right: Clockwise Circle Pit’s Guide to Maximizing Your Good Times at Louder Than Life

November 30, 2024August 26, 2025 / Rev. Joel / 5 Comments

NOTE: This post has been updated to add one very important FAQ, which I only realized last night (8/11/25) that I’d overlooked. You can find it immediately following the Simpsons meme. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

I’ve written a lot about Louder Than Life since I started this blog, and I’m gonna write a lot more about it in the future, and surprise, motherfucker, the future is now! I was writing about Day Three recently when it occurred to me that I’ve never seen a comprehensive guide of tips and tricks intended for first-time attendees, so I decided to create the world I wanted to live in, and here we are.

*Thankfully, this future isn’t here yet. It sure feels nigh as fuck sometimes, though.*

I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty fuckin long. WordPress estimates a 35 minute read time. Clockwise Circle Pit cannot accept any responsibility for falls caused by your legs falling asleep if you try to read the entire thing in one toilet-sitting. I can be very long-winded when I’m passionate about the subject, and I will not apologize for that. I understand completely if you don’t wanna proceed any further. Thanks for your time, and feel free to check out some of my other posts, both here at Clockwise Circle Pit, or at my old blog Stay Heavy. I haven’t posted anything there in a little over 5 years, but it still gets more regular traffic than this site. Anyhoo…

Some of these tips may seem obvious to you, and many of them seem obvious to me, but if I’ve learned one thing in my 47 years on this plane of existence, it’s this: you can’t assume anything is obvious to anyone else, even if that same thing is blatantly obviously to you. Being a member of several LTL fan groups on facebook has confirmed that statement to be 100% factual. Many of these tips will apply to any outdoor festival experience, but some of them are specific to Louder Than Life. Without further ado…

Q: What the heck is Louder Than Life?

Louder Than Life is a four-day music festival held in Louisville, Kentucky in late September. It’s put on by a company called Danny Wimmer Presents, and they do a fuckin great job every year. I’ve never attended a multi-day festival put on by any other production company, but I’ve read many times over the years about how festivals put on by other companies pale in comparison to DWP festivals (*cough* Blue Ridge Rock Fest *cough*).

The first iteration was held in 2014 in Champions Park (also in Louisville, KY), and after it was cancelled in 2018 due to flooding, it was moved to its new home at the Highland Festival Grounds in 2019, where it has been ever since. It was cancelled in 2020 for some reason, and the second day was cancelled this year (2024) due to dangerously high winds from Hurricane Helene. Otherwise, it goes on rain or shine, and it’s a blast. The lineup is always a mixed bag, but if you like hard rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hardcore, and/or hip-hop, you’ll almost certainly find at least a few things to enjoy. It gets bigger and better every year. For me personally, 2024’s lineup was the best I’ve seen so far, and I’m still stoked that I got to be there.

Q: Who, exactly, are you, and why should I care what you have to say?

That’s a really good question. I’m just a dude who, when he is not actively attending Louder Than Life, is looking forward to attending the next Louder Than Life so much he can hardly stand it. I do not profess to be an expert, but I have attended every day of the fest for the past four years (plus one day in 2019) so I could certainly call myself a veteran “Loudmouth” at this point, even if I don’t sport the telltale neon lime green that many of the self-professed Loudmouths wear. I’ve made my fair share of mistakes over the years, and I’ve learned a thing or two along the way, so I figured I might as well put together my own comprehensive guide to help answer questions you may have about attending Louder Than Life. You’re welcome.

A quick note: I decided halfway through writing this to present it in the form of a FAQ, because I thought that would be funny, and I think I was right. You might disagree, and that’s okay. There’s still plenty of good advice here.

*I have to assume I would also be this.*

Q: Should I wear earplugs?

Good lord, yes. It’s not called Louder Than Life because things happen at a reasonable volume. I use Loop brand, but there are lots of quality options available that are designed specifically for concert settings, which is to say that they are designed to dampen the volume of the music without muffling it/making it sound shitty, and they allow you to have a conversation without having to remove them or scream absurdly loud to be heard. I didn’t know how they work, exactly, but I assume it’s your standard combination of science and magic.

At the very least, get some cheap foam jobbies from CVS or wherever. I’ve attended hundreds of live concerts over the past 31 years, and I very stupidly only started wearing earplugs on a regular basis about 10 years ago, and I promise you tinnitus is not a fun thing to deal with.

Q: Should I drink plenty of water?

Yes, you should drink plenty of water every day that you’re alive. This should absolutely go without saying, yet every year, people have to go to the medical tent to be treated for dehydration. You can bring an unopened bottle of water inside with you, and they have “hydration stations” located throughout the grounds. There’s no reason to not drink water. If you don’t wanna bother with carrying a water bottle in, I recommend bringing a couple of bottle caps in your pockets, because if/(hopefully)when you buy a bottle of water, they will take the cap off before giving it to you. I’m not 100% sure why they do this, and I’ve read a few different possible explanations, but all that really matters is that they do do it. (Haha, I said “do do”.)

Q: Should I pace myself?

Yes. Don’t get drunk too early. Get plenty of rest. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. This is especially true if you’re in it for the whole weekend, but even if you’re only going for one day, if you plan to be there for more than a couple of bands, it’s a very good idea to pace yourself and make time to rest.

Q: Should I bring a whole bunch of shit with me?

*I don’t even know how I would express myself if the Simpsons didn’t exist.*

I recommend travelling as light as possible. Clear backpacks are allowed, as are fanny packs under a certain size, and lots of people use those. I’ve tried both, but I ended up feeling kinda burdened, so I just wear cargo shorts to carry things I need on my person, including glasses case/sunglasses, beard comb, ink pen, Sharpie®, lip balm, and one or two bandannas. I say if you don’t need it, leave it outside the gates. If you might need it, get a clear backpack or a small fanny pack, or rent a locker on the premises. We did that for the first time this year, and it made things much easier, especially when the rains came.

I asked the missus if she had anything to add, and she recommended tissues, feminine hygiene products, hand sanitizer, deodorant*, and sunscreen. This is where the clear backpack and/or fanny pack and/or locker would come in handy. If you’re using the portajohns in GA, some wipes would probably be a good idea, too. A portable phone charger could potentially come in handy as well. I’ve taken one in before, but I didn’t need it, as I don’t really use my phone that much while I’m inside the gates. If you get a locker, those are equipped with chargers

*Please fucking wear deodorant.

Q: What kind of shoes should I wear?

I highly recommend close-toed shoes or boots, preferably waterproof. I had a pair of Merrells that served me well every year since 2021, but I had to retire them after surviving through this year’s fields of filth. Which reminds me, I’d also recommend a spare pair of socks, especially if rain is the forecast. You will almost certainly regret wearing flip-flops or sandals, especially if you’re attending more than one day.

Q: What will the weather be like?

Every year that I’ve attended (before this year), the temperatures have ranged from very warm to hot-as-balls, with minimal cloud cover. This year, the rain started falling toward the end of Day One, and it didn’t completely stop until well into Day Four. September in the Ohio River Valley tends to be extremely humid.

Speaking of September in the Ohio River Valley, if you have seasonal allergies, plan on suffering. I mean, take your medicine and all, but know that it will likely not be as effective as usual.

Q: What’s the scoop on shade and/or seating?

There’s not much shade available in the General Admission area, aside from the drink tents, and a bunch of selfish dickheads are definitely gonna be camped out in whatever little shade there is pretty much all day, so plan accordingly. You can hang out inside the big drink tents, but good luck finding anywhere to sit or put your drink down for a few minutes. Basically, if you need to sit down and you have GA passes, you’re most likely gonna have to sit on the ground, in the sun (you can bring a towel or a light blanket). There are picnic tables around, and the larger drink tents have tables and seating, but people in general are awful, and they won’t let you sit in the empty seat next to them, because their friend is just over at the main stage for 40 minutes, and that seat is for them when they get back.

There’s a big tent in VIP that provides a lot of shade, but people are even worse about claiming seats in there. I think many of them forget that everyone in VIP paid extra to be there, and I assume the rest are just assholes. Top Shelf has an air-conditioned tent and a double-level elevated seating area that is mostly shaded. We’ve never had a problem scoring a place to sit inside that tent, but seats on the elevated seating area can be harder to come by.

Q: Should I wear a hat?

Yes, you should absolutely wear a hat, or a bandanna, or some damn thing. Just make sure you cover your noggin. It would be wise to keep your ears covered as much as possible, too. Skin cancer likes earlobes. I used to wear a big dumb straw hat with a lanyard, so I could keep the sun completely off my big ol’ John Cougar Melonhead, and when the sun went down, I could just let the hat rest on my back. That sucked for a few reasons:

It’s a pretty dumb-looking hat.
It could pretty easily block the view of people behind me, and I try to be conscious of that.
Having the lanyard tugging on my neck while wearing the hat on my back got uncomfortable very quickly.
It’s too big to do anything with it besides wear it.

I got a new hat this year, and it looks kinda dumb too, but not as dumb. It’s much more practical, comfortable, and convenient. It’s a cooling bucket hat from a company called Mission. I receive no compensation from Mission, but I highly recommend you get a cooling bucket hat from Mission, and here’s why:

They come equipped with UPF 50 sunblock protection.
They come equipped with chemical-free cooling technology. Just get it wet, wring it out, and wave it in the air briefly, and you can experience cooling effects of up to 30° F (-1.1° C) for up to 2 hours.
They’re very lightweight, so the lanyard doesn’t tug on your neck as much when you’re wearing the hat on your back, and you can also fold them up and stuff them in one of your cargo pockets (or your clear backpack and/or fanny pack).
They’re machine washable.
They’re quite affordable, and they also come in handy for yard work, nature walks, outdoor parties, etc.

*Here’s me and the Missus. You see why I say my hat is kinda dumb-looking. Damned if isn’t practical, though, and as comfortable as a hat can be.*

Q: Should I research the lineup and try to learn about some new bands?

Fuck yes you should, bud! After the lineup drops, absolutely take some time to research the bands you’re not familiar with. We’ve discovered some new favorites just by checking out every single band every single year we’ve gone. We’ve also discovered some bands we do not want to be in the vicinity of at all, and that’s good knowledge to have as well. As I mentioned in a previous post, after the lineup gets released, I’ll make a list of all the bands, and on Saturday nights over the next few months, we’ll spend a chunk of time havin some drinks and watchin videos from all the bands. We’ll usually start with either the newest song or the song with the most plays on YouTube, and we’ll work our way through the lineup over the course of a month or two.

When we’ve made it through all four days, we’ll go back through and watch a second video of each band, this time focusing on older songs when possible/as needed. After we’ve finished a second run-through, we’ll go through the whole list once more, this time watching live performances from each band. We each assign a grade to every song, using the standard A-F grading scale used in public schools in the US.

After all three run-throughs, we’ll average out the grades, and anyone who averages a B- or better makes it onto our short list of bands we want to watch. In addition to learning about new bands and helping us make decisions, it also helps maximize our Louder Than Life-related excitement throughout the year.

The real challenge comes much closer to go-time, after the daily schedules get released. That’s when you find out that, for example, two of the bands you wanna see on Friday start at the same time on two different stages, and a third band from the short list starts playing on the other stage halfway through those sets. It can be a gut-wrenching experience. That leads me to my next tip…

Q: Should I brace myself for possible disappointment?

Oh my goodness, yes. You’re almost certainly gonna have to miss at least a couple of bands you wanna see, due to scheduling conflicts. It’s just the nature of the beast. When I have to decide, I take a couple of factors into account:

If I’ve seen one of the bands before, I’m usually gonna go with the one I haven’t seen. There are a few bands that don’t fit that scenario for me (I’ll always watch Clutch when they’re playing), but I cross that bridge when I come to it.
If a band is from another country (especially if they don’t tour the States often), they’ll almost always take precedence.

In addition to schedule-based disappointment, bands cancel every year, sometimes as late as the day of their scheduled performance. As discussed above, there’s also the possibility of weather-based cancellations and delays. All disappointing. All things you have to learn to be okay with.

Q: So how do the stages work?

There are a total of five stages. Main Stage 1 and Main Stage 2 are side-by-side, and while one band is playing, the next band is setting up and sound-checking on the other stage. There’s a five-minute break between bands. No main stage bands will ever play at the same time, and no other band will ever overlap with the main headliner.

What used to be the “second stage” became two side-by-side stages a few years ago. This year, they were the Decibel Stage and the Revolver Stage. They work the same way as the main stages.

The third stage area/fifth stage (known as the Loudmouth Stage this year) is a single stage, so the breaks between bands are a bit longer.

A lot of people like to complain (imagine that) about such-and-such band being on one of the smaller stages because they think it’s not fair to that band. For example, Sum 41 headlined the Decibel Stage this year, and people are still bitching about it (“they did Sum 41 dirty, they should’ve been on the main stage, blah blah blah”). There was a huge crowd watching Sum 41, and I would definitely call their set a rousing success. The thing is, the crowd has to be spread out a bit, and having bigger bands headline the “second stage” while the #3 headliner is on the main stage is a great way to do that.

Speaking of complaining, and headliners, don’t complain about the headliners. It won’t do any good, and it makes you look like baby.

*If you haven’t watched* Wanderlust, you should change that ASAP. But only if you like to laugh.

Q: What about food?

I love food. There’s a lot of awesome food available for purchase inside the gates, and the portion sizes are often very large, but the prices are usually even larger. Think about the beloved brewpub in your town that charges 20 bucks for a sandwich, but that sandwich is big enough for two meals if you don’t gorge yourself. A lot of the vendors are like that, except that you won’t have anywhere to safely store your leftovers until you’re ready to eat them. There was one vendor this year who had a baloney sandwich for something like $25.They can go straight to hell with that nonsense, and frankly, I hope they went out of business.

My advice is to eat a big meal before you enter the gates for the day, so you won’t have to eat as much once you get inside. If you’re anything like me you’ll want to time it out so that you can empty your bowels before you get inside. I live my life trying to not use a toilet outside my home, especially if I’m not getting paid for it.

Q: Speaking of toilets, what’s the deal with toilets?

Easy there, Seinfeld. Portajohns are all you get in GA. They’re in the sun all day, and as you might imagine, they get progressively worse as the day goes on. The VIP area has air conditioned restrooms, and Top Shelf VIP has even nicer air conditioned restrooms, but you’ll still be sitting on a toilet that thousands of other people have sat upon and shat into (and sometimes upon).

Q: How much walking should I plan to do?

You should plan to walk a lot while you’re there. I recommend walking as much as possible every day, just in general, but I’m not your doctor or your father. If you don’t already walk much in your day-to-day life, it’s best to start doing it well before the festival begins so you can build up your strength and stamina. Why not start today? I’m not sure how big the festival grounds actually are, but I personally walked/danced for approximately 34 miles plus over the course of this year’s LTL, and as I mentioned above, one whole day was cancelled due to one of those famous Kentucky hurricanes. If I didn’t already walk 5-8 miles a day at my job, I almost certainly I would’ve been able to manage that.

Q: Where should I plan to sleep?

The City of Louisville is lousy with hotels and motels (it is a city, after all). There are several options located within walking distance of the festival grounds, but we always stay at the Galt House downtown, which is our preferred hotel anytime we’re in Louisville. Be advised that hotels are already filling up fast, and they are also charging a lot of money for that weekend, because capitalism. There are also a lot of hotels across the river in Indiana (New Albany, Jeffersonville, Clarksville, etc.), and I assume they don’t charge quite as much, but will have to drive or use a rideshare (more on that in the next FAQ).

Airbnb is also an option, I guess, but after my single experience booking an Airbnb, I’ll never do that again. I do know that a lot of locals leave town and rent out their houses/apartments for the weekend, so it is technically an option, but I’d rather not pay hotel prices to clean up after myself.

We spring for a suite, which includes a mini fridge and a wet bar. Having the extra space to spread out before we leave for the day and after we return for the evening really makes the weekend more enjoyable.

Camping in the campgrounds adjacent to the fest is also an option, but we’ve never done that, because Sheila doesn’t like to camp, and if I slept on the ground, I wouldn’t be able to stand fully upright. I do know that the campsites sell out very quickly (I think they’re already sold out, in fact), but you can also sign up for a wait-list.

I talked to a guy in 2021 who was sleeping in his car in a parking lot, and I’ve read accounts from others about doing that, but your safety and well-being are important to Clockwise Circle Pit, therefore, Clockwise Circle Pit can neither endorse nor recommend that solution.

Q: What about parking and/or transportation?

Parking is available on the property, and I think it costs 30 or 40 dollars per day. Yes, that is a lot of money to park your car for the day, but know that DWP does not set the prices for parking. I personally can’t imagine driving to and from an event like this, especially not four days in a row, but I’m not here to tell you what to do. Wait, that’s exactly why I’m here.

Other options are walking (if you’re staying close enough), renting one of those terrifying Lime scooters (if you’re staying close enough), or Lyft/Uber/other rideshare (we paid $30 for an Uber to our hotel about 8 miles away in 2019). The best option, in this asshole’s opinion, is getting a shuttle pass.

For the past 3 years, we’ve purchased a shuttle pass through Pegasus Transportation, and they pick up at the Galt House and the downtown Marriott and drop off about 100 yards from the gates. When you’re ready to leave, they pick you up at the dropoff point and take you back to the Galt House and the Marriott. When I was purchasing our package this year, all the hotel options I saw had an option to add a shuttle pass, and Pegasus Transportation was not mentioned in the description, so I’m not sure exactly how it’ll work, but it does seem like a shuttle could be an option for many of the hotels this year.

Q: Will some asshole take advantage of the situation and steal my phone/wallet/other stuff?

There’s a very good possibility of this. Assholes are everywhere, and people ruin everything. Based solely on my experience browsing Reddit and the facebook LTL fan pages, reports of phone thefts were lower this year than in 2023, but I plenty of people still got their phones swiped right out of their pockets (front pockets, even). I personally haven’t had an issue with that yet, but I also don’t generally pack into the deep crowd in front of the main stages, which is where I assume most of the thefts happen (more people = more opportunities to be piece of shit thief).

Q: Should I take advantage of the situation and steal someone’s phone/wallet/other stuff?

Of course not. Don’t be an asshole.

Q: How are the mosh pits?

I can’t answer this one with a lot of experience, because I’m too old for that shit, but I’ve been next to plenty of pits at Louder Than Life (especially at the smaller stages), and from what I’ve seen, people in the pits have generally respectful. Mostly push-pits and classic circle pits, with hardcore karate-style pits when appropriate. People seem to understand the cardinal rule of pits, which of course is if someone falls down, pick them up. Occasionally, a pit can get dangerous with surges and whatnot. This happened during Korn’s set on Day Four this year. The band had to stop playing for a bit, and the crowd was asked to take a few steps back so people would stop getting crushed. That happened after we left, but a lot of people were talking about it.

I was right next to this big ol’ lovefest in 2019. Andrew W.K. puts on one hell of a fun show.

The main things to remember while you’re in the pit also apply to everyday life:

Have fun.
Don’t be an asshole
If someone falls, help them up.
Don’t pull someone in if they don’t wanna be there.
Stay hydrated.
Nazi punks fuck off.

If you are in the pit and need assistance, or see someone who needs assistance, cross your arms in an “X” above your head. The first time I saw Sevendust (LTL2K21), they stopped their show because their singer, Lajon, saw someone making an “X” and told security about it, and they were able to get the person to safety. “X” marks the spot, friends.

Crowd surfing is commonplace and generally accepted, but a lot of people don’t do it right. If you insist on crowd surfing, the safest way to do it is the “Jesus Christ Pose”: arms out to the side, feet crossed. Don’t flail around like you’re having a seizure unless you want to increase the chances of kicking someone in the head, and your chances of getting dropped.

Speaking of “don’t”, don’t assume everyone will help you stay up once you go up. You paid good money to be there, and as long as you’re not hurting or harassing anyone, you should get to have fun in your own way. Likewise, everyone paid good money to be there, and they should also get to have fun in their own way, and if watching the bands they came to see while not getting kicked in the head while helping you crowd surf is their way of having fun, that’s something you need to be okay with.

The other side of that, of course, is not getting bent out of shape over crowd surfers if you plan to ride the rail directly in front of the stage. It’s not like you don’t know there’ll be crowd surfers, I just told you there will be. Some bands even encourage it. When we saw Anti-Flag (RIP) in 2022, they told the crowd they wanted us to make the security guards earn their paychecks, and holy shit, the number of bodies I saw being passed to the front was staggering.

If you’re deep in the pit area and you’re not crowd surfing, and you hear someone near you yell “heads up!”, this means a crowd surfer has been spotted in your area, and you should expect them to pass near you very soon, possibly directly overhead. Act accordingly.

One final thing about crowd surfing and pits (and day-to-day life in general): say you’re deep in the pit area, and you’re not crowd surfing, and you hear someone near you yell “heads up!”, and you look behind you and see a scantily clad lady coming your way, and you think to yourself “I like touchin butts, I think I’ll pass her forward and cop a feel”, fuckin think again, motherfucker.

I cannot believe this is a thing that ever has to be said, but I know it does, and it’s just one more example of, to quote Slipknot, “People = Shit”: DO NOT EVER TOUCH ANOTHER PERSON IN ANYTHING EVEN RESEMBLING AN INTIMATE WAY ON PURPOSE WITHOUT THAT PERSON’S PERMISSION. NOT A CROWD SURFER, NOT A MOSH PITTER, NOT A STRANGER ON THE STREET, NOT EVEN IF YOU’RE THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, NOT ANYONE, NOT ANY TIME, NOT EVER. If you insist on copping a feel on that scantily clad crowd surfer, don’t be surprised if you leave with fewer teeth than you came in with. Speaking of scantily clad crowd surfers…

Q: Should I expect to see people in various states of undress?

You should expect to see pretty much everything short of people having sex, and frankly, I’m a bit surprised I’ve never seen that. I’m absolutely sure it’s happened.

This year, it seemed like butts finally replaced boobs as the preferred skin for purposes of exposure, but unless you (or your child) are blind, you (and your child) will see asses and titties in all shapes and sizes. Don’t be such a prude, it’s just the human body. We all have one. And to reiterate from above: it doesn’t matter how much skin is exposed, and it doesn’t matter how drunk/high you are, and it doesn’t matter how horny you are, and it doesn’t even matter if you’re a former/future president of the United States, DO NOT EVER TOUCH ANOTHER PERSON IN ANYTHING EVEN RESEMBLING AN INTIMATE WAY ON PURPOSE WITHOUT THAT PERSON’S PERMISSION.

Quick side note: you’ll also see t-shirts and flags and banners and other things that may offend you, but no one cares. That’s also good advice for life outside the festival grounds.

Q: Is VIP/Top Shelf worth it?

I see this one asked a lot in the facebook fan groups and on reddit, and since I have experience with GA, VIP, and Top Shelf VIP, I feel like I’m qualified to answer. The “thing” about this question, though, is that phrase “worth it”. No other person can really know how much value you’ll find in something, but I can try to help you make that decision.

I’ve already covered a few of the downsides of General Admission, but all in all, it’s a fuckin great value, especially if you don’t drink alcohol (or don’t drink much alcohol) and you take my advice and eat a big deal before you enter the gates, and especially especially if you’re young and in relatively good shape. When we went for the one day in 2019, we got GA passes and by the end of the day it honestly felt like we might not make it. Temperatures topped out near 100° F (37.8° C), and being the first year on the new grounds, things were very open and exposed to the sun. Dust clouds erupted every time a pit broke out, and every single inch of shade was occupied all day. Also, the hand washing stations outside the portajohns were completely out of water, soap, and paper towels before the sun even went down.

We went the GA route again in 2021, and we both agreed afterward that if we were ever gonna go back, we’d have to upgrade to VIP so we could have access to shade, seats, and cleaner bathrooms.

We did just that in 2022, and I’m here to tell you, the fuckin joke was on us. The only real perk to VIP ended up being the better restroom facilities, because as I mentioned above, people are the worst, and no one would give up their precious chairs to anyone, for any reason, ever. I saw a pregnant woman walking around in the tent looking for a place to sit, for Chrissake, and not one person offered her any of the empty chairs at their tables, because they were saving them. There are a few food vendors inside VIP that are not available anywhere else, but there’s no shortage of food in GA, either. There’s also a dedicated viewing area to the left of Main Stage 1 which can get you some decent views of that stage, but for the most part, people line up along the rail and stay there all day, just like they do in GA.

After our VIP experience, we decided to give Top Shelf VIP a shot. Within minutes of being inside the Top Shelf area, we agreed there was no way we could go back to GA or VIP again. I will say this first: Top Shelf passes are not cheap. The price went up substantially this year, but we still got em within minutes of the Early Bird pre-sale for previous year ticket holders. We know there’s gonna be a ton of bands there we wanna see, and we barely have to travel to get to Louisville, which is a city we love, and were already visiting several times a year before we started going to Louder Than Life. We don’t take traditional vacations because Louder Than Life is our vacation. We are privileged to be able to make it happen again this year, and I’m glad, because there really is no going back. If I ever found myself in a strange hypothetical position where I can’t quite swing Top Shelf, but I could easily snag GA if I delivered pizza for my buddy Jim for a couple of months, I think I’d rather stay home and pretend like there aren’t a ton of bands I wanna see, and Louisville is much to far away for convenient travel, and I never liked that city anyway, and as a matter of fact, I ain’t ever even been there, truth be told, I’ve never even heard of Louisville, than not have the air-conditioned tent and the ability to poop comfortably. Your mileage may vary.

First of all, the very idea of an air-conditioned tent being available if we needed it made it seem worth it, but here are the other perks of Top Shelf:

All alcoholic beverages inside the Top Shelf area are included in the price of admission. Angel’s Envy has been the primary sponsor for Top Shelf every year since they’ve offered it, and as such, Angel’s Envy bourbon and rye are the well whiskies inside Top Shelf. They also have all the other major spirits available, along with Budweiser products. Considering drinks can cost as much as 20 bucks or more at some of the tents in GA, you can see how quickly you could burn through a hefty amount of money in a day. If you don’t enjoy alcoholic beverages, Top Shelf might not be worth it for you.

Renowned local chef Anthony Lamas (who you might know from TV’s Bar Rescue, with that insufferable prick John Taffer) and a crack team of cooks and food runners prepare small bites throughout the day, and those are included in the price of admission. We’re both vegetarian, so we haven’t tried everything they’ve offered, but everything we have tried has ranged in quality from very good to oh-my-fucking-god-that’s-incredible. They alternate cold and hot food, and they always have things like potato chips and trail mix available. We’ve had things like Strawberry Caprese Salads, Cheese Enchiladas, Falafel Balls, Spring Rolls, and French Fries, and some of the omnivore options we’ve seen include meatballs, Salisbury steak, and bratwurst. If I had one complaint about the food, and I do, it’s that sometimes there are no vegetarian options at all. This happened at the last service of Day Four this year. It was disappointing. At any rate, as I mentioned previously, food is expensive inside the festival grounds, and having the option to pop into the tent and have snacks throughout the day saved us a lot of money over the course of the weekend. If you don’t like delicious food, Top Shelf might not be worth it for you.

The restrooms are flushable and air-conditioned, and that’s a real nice perk. If you have no qualms with potentially not being able to wash your hands after using a portajohn that’s been sitting in the sun all day, Top Shelf might not be worth it for you.

That air-conditioned tent is fucking awesome, and it’s outfitted with TVs and a sound system that play whichever band is on the Main Stage at that time, so if you’re outside watching it and you wanna grab a beverage or a snack or even just rest your feet for a few minutes, you don’t really have to miss the action. I would never stay in there all day, because if I was all I wanted to do, I’d just stay home in my own air conditioning and watch YouTube, but it’s a wonderful option to have when you need to get out of the sun (or rain). And outside of feeding times, there is no challenge whatsoever in getting a place to sit. If I had one complaint about the tent, and of course I do, it’s the volume at which they play the Main Stage performances. I know the word “louder” is literally the first word in the name of the festival, but as a dude who can easily suffer from sensory overload, it would be cool if the volume was just a bit lower, so that regular conversation could happen (not to mention how much easier it would be to talk to the bartenders). If you don’t care about chairs, shade, and cooling off, then Top Shelf might not be worth it for you.

Top Shelf wristbands also give you access to the VIP area, and, of course the GA area as well.

Q: Should I talk to strangers?

Yes, absolutely. I know that answer runs counter to everything I’ve said here about people, but I stand by what I said: People (with a capital “P”) are the worst, and they do ruin everything. On the other hand, people can be pretty cool sometimes. I’m a very awkward and introverted person, and the idea of talking to someone I don’t know goes against my very nature, but the answer is still a resounding “YES!” You’ll meet some awesome people from all over the world, and almost everyone you interact with will be friendly, as long as you don’t ask to use one of the empty chairs at their table.

In my day-to-day life, I’ve been known to cross the street to avoid the very possibility of having to talk to another person. At this Louder Than Life this year, I made a bee-line toward a stranger holding a “FREE HUGS” sign and I gave him such a hugging, and it was fuckin awesome.

Q: Is Louder Than Life a cashless event?

Yes, Louder Than Life is a cashless event. I still bring cash in for tipping bartenders, but no place inside the festival grounds accepts cash as payment. They have those newfangled reverse ATMs on the grounds, where you can put in cash and get a prepaid debit card with the amount you put in, so if you don’t have a debit/credit card, or just don’t wanna bring it in with you, that’s an option.

The wristband that gets you inside the gates can also be linked to a card so you can pay with that, but I tried that in 2021 and forgot the PIN I set up for it (plus I accidentally wore the wrong bracelet anyway), so I don’t bother with that myself.

Q: This long-winded thing has been extremely informative and entertaining. Thank you so much for taking the time to put it together. What if I have other questions about things that aren’t covered here?

Thank you, that’s really nice of you to say. It took a very long time to write, and on more than one occasion I almost flung my Chromebook into the sun.

If you have further questions, the official website has a much more comprehensive and less long-winded Info page that covers a lot of the things I mentioned here, and much more. If you have a question about something that you don’t see covered on the links there, there’s a good chance you’re not looking hard enough or reading carefully enough, but in any case, you can email them at info@louderthanlifefestival.com. They’re very friendly, and they will get back to you.

Alright, I have to stop here. Holy shit this is long. If you made it this far, thank you! If you have any cool friends with half an hour to kill, you should tell them about it.

Somehow It’s Already Been a Year: A Thing About Louder Than Life (and Also About Death)

October 1, 2024March 18, 2025 / Rev. Joel / 5 Comments

Howdy. I have many things to say about the Tenth Anniversary of Louder Than Life (September 26-29, 2024), and I’ll get to all of them eventually (likely not as soon as I’d like; we’ll see), but I’m gonna start at the beginning(ish), which is to say, 2019 (well, 1995 if we’re being technical).

*Let this picture of me from the Welcome Party the night before Day One of this year tide you over until I get around to writing about it.*

Sheila (aka Mrs. Circlepit) and I both attended our fair share of one-day festivals in our younger days, back when we were shadows of each other’s lives. My first was X-Fest ’95, followed by Lollapalooza ’96, followed by several iterations of the Van’s Warped Tour (between 1998-2001). She attended Lollapalooza ’94, Ozzfest ’98, and the 2002 Sprite Liquid Mix Tour. More recently, we attended Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival together in 2018, six days before my sweet, sweet mother passed away.

In 2014, my homeboy Dustin scored free tickets to days two and three of Rock on the Range (now known as Sonic Temple – also produced by Danny Wimmer Presents, the folks behind Louder Than Life). That was my first experience with a multi-day festival (even though we only ended up attending one day), and you can read my write-up about that on my old blog here.

I don’t wanna get too much into our first two years at Louder Than Life, because I’ve written about them before as well, but just for some background, Sheila and I attended Day Two of LTL 2019 (the day after the burial of her sweet, sweet paternal grandfather), and all four days of LTL 2021, which, while not directly related to us, had something in the neighborhood of 800,000 US covid-19-related deaths coloring our experience.

We also attended all four days in 2022 (about which I wrote very little, and which I’ll cover directly) and again in 2023 (about which I wrote a little more, but still not a lot, because I got lazy and never got around to finishing the project). I’m gonna cover both of those a bit more before I dive into this year’s fest.

After almost dying in the heat on that one day in 2019, and struggling to find a single sliver of shade that we could both hang out in over the four days of 2021, we decided to upgrade to VIP status in 2022. The promise of a shaded tent, air-conditioned restrooms, and shorter lines for some food vendors was too much for us to resist, but it turned out to be (mostly) a bust. The VIP section seemed to be oversold, and as I mentioned briefly in an old post, many of the dickheads who arrive when the gates open will claim every empty chair, and absolutely refuse to let anyone else use those chairs for any amount of time, even when all 8 of their friends are off wandering around for one reason or another, leaving all 8 of their chairs vacant, except for their backpacks, and the remaining friend’s big fat dumb feet.

Our good friends Mitch and Amanda decided to join us, and we went all out by upgrading to a fancy apartment-suite at the hotel, which is almost certainly the nicest hotel room I’ll ever stay in. It was pretty awesome. Among other things, we were on the 3rd floor, with escalators only steps from our room, so we only had to wait for an elevator when checking in and checking out!

Here’s what was not pretty awesome about Louder Than Life 2022: my dad passed away at 7:42 AM on Day One. In fact, it was the exact opposite of awesome.

Here’s a list of the things that went through my brain upon receiving this news, mostly in order, but not necessarily verbatim:

This fucking sucks. I can’t believe both of my parents are gone.
I have to go home and talk to my brother.
I don’t wanna go home and talk to my brother.
Tough shit, pal. Sometimes we gotta do things we don’t wanna do.
If Sheila goes with me, our friends will have nowhere to stay, because the hotel is in her name.
Shit, the hotel is in her name!
We spent a lot of money on this trip…
If I don’t get the opportunity to let out some of the aggression and angst that have been building up inside me since LTL 2021, I’m not sure I’ll make it another year myself.
Dad is already gone, so it’s not like I can do anything to change the circumstances.
Aside from Dad, the only immediate family I have left is a brother and a sister, and none of us really get along with each other.
Dad would absolutely not have understood the amount of money we spent to attend a music festival, but he would definitely not have wanted us to waste that money.
Maybe I can just go home for a few hours, and return to catch part of Day One, then I’ll play the rest of the weekend by ear.
Yes, that’s what I’ll do.
Here I go, then.

And so off I went, driving 2 hours back home to hang out with my brother for a while, and discuss arrangements. I stopped by our house first, to try and rest a moment, check the mail, and make a few phone calls. I eventually told my brother I was going back to Louisville for the weekend to be with Sheila and our friends (I honestly don’t know what he thought/thinks about my decision, because I’m one of the only men in my entire family who ever shares his feelings with anyone). I also told him that when our sister arrived and they went to the funeral home, I trusted his decisions, and that he could feel free to speak for me. I got back on the road, drove like hell back to Louisville, got to the hotel, changed into my festival clothes, happened to catch a shuttle that was just about to depart, got inside the gates, bought 2 Budweisers, and found my crew in front of the Disruptor Stage with less than five minutes to spare before HO99O9 took the stage and blew my mind. It was a very strange and surreal juxtaposition.

This was recorded from approximately 10 feet in front of us. As you might imagine, it was cooler in person.

Ministry almost made us permanently deaf immediately after, and we tried to watch Tenacious D‘s set after that, but the crowd was too big to really be able to see it, so we headed to the VIP section while Bring Me the Horizon played, so we could rustle up a spot for Day One headliner Nine Inch Nails. They’re one of Sheila’s favorite bands, and I’m not necessarily a huge fan, but I do like plenty of their songs, and I’d never seen them live before, so I was certainly looking forward to it. It ended up being an incredible set, and when they played “Hurt”, I cried for the first time since learning about my dad’s passing, and it felt good, even though I was sad.

I should interject here and mention that my dad and I were never particularly close. He was a very quiet man, raised to keep his feelings and emotions inside, and we didn’t have all that much in common, so we just didn’t talk much. He had a ridiculous sense of humor, which I was lucky to inherit, but aside from that and a love of Clint Eastwood westerns and silly action movies, our common ground was blood, almost entirely. That’s not to say we didn’t love each other; more like we didn’t really understand each other.

He would’ve moved heaven and earth to help me if needed. When I moved to Austin, Texas in 2003, he led the caravan on the 18-ish hour drive and helped unload all of my stuff. And when I split from my ex-wife three years later, he rented a van and drove back down to help me load it all back up and come back home. After my oldest sister died, we started to say “I love you” to each other on a more regular basis, and after my mom passed, we said it every time we talked. I was able to tell him toward the end that I appreciated all the things he’d done for me in my life, and he thanked me for saying so. But the truth of the matter is, I was always closer to Mom, and I had more time to mentally prepare for Dad’s passing, so his death didn’t have the same kind impact on me.

Anyway, the next morning, as I was approaching the front desk to ask for more coffee pods, I got a call from my brother telling me I had to come to the funeral home and sign some insurance papers, as I was the sole beneficiary on his life insurance policy. I went back to the room to share the news, then made the 90-minute drive to Bedford, Indiana, signed the papers, and drove back to Louisville again, arriving just in time to join my crew for lunch at Merle’s Whiskey Kitchen. The lunch was delicious, and we went back to the hotel afterward to catch the shuttle to the festival.

We entered the gates to the sounds of Amigo the Devil, which was the first act of the day that we were hoping to see. We watched In Flames, followed by Clutch, then hauled ass over to the Revolver Stage to catch Helmet, which is always a good time, then watched the beginning of Baroness, headed back to the main stage to the last song from Mastodon, then were treated to an incredible performance from Lamb of God. We went back to the Revolver Stage to watch a little bit of GWAR, and were planning to hang around for Slipknot‘s headlining performance, but all the driving and walking back-and-forth that day and the day before had wiped me completely out, so Sheila and I decided to call it a night, and left the grounds to the sounds of Shinedown (I’m apparently a poet, and didn’t know it).

*I didn’t make this meme, but I like it very much.*

The next morning the four of us had breakfast at Wild Eggs, which we had to reschedule from Day One (and which has been a Day One tradition for Sheila and me since we started attending the full weekend), then we headed to the venue in the early afternoon, arriving in the midst of a pretty electrifying performance from Airbourne on the main stage. We watched them for a few minutes, then headed back to the Revolver Stage to watch what we learned was the first ever US performance of New Delhi, India’s Bloodywood, who were absolutely incredible. They gave very Roots-era Sepultura vibes, and it was powerful.

We rested a bit, then made our way back to the main stages to watch Sevendust, Jerry Cantrell, Ghostmane (which I hated a lot)(the guy seriously kept yelling “MOOOOVE!” at the crowd while fucking beeping noises were coming from the stage), Chevelle, and as much Alice Cooper as we could possibly watch without cutting into Body Count‘s headlining set on the Disruptor Stage, way back on the far end of the grounds (right next to the Revolver Stage).

Sheila and I were fortunate to see an Alice Cooper headlining show in the fall of 2019, otherwise that would’ve been an impossible choice to make. We arrived with a few minutes to spare, secured a primo spot right on the edge of where the pit ended up being, and had our lives changed by Body Count. I was high as a kite by the time their set ended, and it was all adrenaline (plus probably some bourbon and beer). Rob Zombie conflicted with Body Count, back over on the Loudmouth Stage (aka Main Stage 2), so the only thing I got to see from his set was a full-length trailer for The Munsters, which was released 3 days later, and “Dragula”, which, due to issues which seemed to plague that stage all weekend, did not sound good.

KISS was the headliner that day, and I’ve never been a KISS fan, but they’re obviously a legendary organization, so I was still looking forward to screaming along to a bunch of their dumb songs for a while. My anticipation disappeared moments after they started playing “Detroit Rock City”. According to what I wrote in my journal afterward, “Paul Stanley sounded like he was being strangled while yelling for help.” I stand by that, but I would also add that he sounded like a cat being stepped on. I probably could’ve dealt with it and enjoyed myself a little bit, if not for the fact that Body Count had just ruined live music for me for at least the next 12-14 hours.

On the last day, we caught The Native Howl, Oxymorrons, Anti-Flag, Joey Valence & Brae, and about half of Bad Religion (we coincidentally left while they were playing “Walk Away”) before trying to wrangle some quality spots for Alice in Chains. I never got a chance to see them with Layne Staley, but I fucking love their old albums, and everything they’ve released since they re-formed with William Duvall on lead vocals has also been great, so I was pretty pumped about their performance. What I hadn’t anticipated, until it started happening, was the sheer volume of tears that would fall from me when they played “Rooster”. If you don’t know, the song was written by Jerry Cantrell, about his Vietnam veteran father, and my dad was also a Vietnam vet. Seconds into the song, I started crying. By the time it was finished, I was absolutely sobbing for the first time since my mom’s death, and my voice was almost entirely gone from singing along. It was the culmination of the entire roller coaster of a weekend, and it was exactly what I needed.

This kinda sounds like ass, on account of all the people singing along in and out of every possible key known to music, but trust me when I tell you it sounded perfect when it was happening.

Here’s the studio version, if you need a li’l palate cleanser.

Red Hot Chili Peppers finished off the night, and they were even more boring than I thought they’d be.

I’m fully aware that I haven’t talked about this year’s festival yet, but like I said last week, I can’t really write about this year’s fest the way I want to without writing about some things from the past two years that I haven’t written about yet (at least not for public consumption). I’ll get there eventually, and I’ll try to make it as entertaining as possible, but it needs context to really make sense.

To be fair, I’m not sure how much sense any of this has made yet.

As for last year’s LTL, I’m gonna write less here, since I already made two full posts about it, plus a bit of a recap of the remainder of it earlier this year (all linked above), but I need to mention that, like every year since 2019, death was intertwined with the fest, although last year it was an imminent death rather than a recent one.

My mother-in-law Susan passed away in early October last year. Susan was a fantastic human being, and she would’ve given you the shirt off her back if you needed it. Since the day I met her, she was never anything but kind to me, even when I didn’t really deserve it. She loved to feed people, and she had a great sense of humor (even if she did refuse to give Futurama a chance). She was courageous and strong through her struggle, and I never heard her complain once. Her presence in this realm is, and will always be, missed.

She was diagnosed with cancer of the endometrium in January 2019, and doctors were able to remove her uterus, and she was fine and seemingly cancer-free for almost five years, then she started having pains in her hip and leg in late fall 2022. Thanks to the wonderful for-profit medical care in this country, she was getting her pain treated, but no doctor and no amount of botched biopsies could figure out what was wrong with her until she was sent to a hospital in Louisville, where she was given the diagnosis we all knew was coming: her cancer was back, and had basically started filling up the space where her uterus used to be.

A stage four diagnosis came soon enough, she was given a relatively short amount of time to live, and we all began to wait. Every free day we had was spent visiting her, because we expected every visit to be our last. She kept on trucking, even staying alive while Sheila and I did our best to enjoy last year’s Louder Than Life. One of the last semi-coherent things she said to us was “I want you to go and have fun. You spent so much money on drugs. No, wait, you spent money on tickets. I’m on drugs.” Hilarious to the very end.

Her funeral service was beautiful and moving, and I’m sure I won’t be able to listen to Led Zeppelin’s “Tangerine” or Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” without crying ever again.

Having the inevitability of Susan’s death hanging over the festival made us feel weird about enjoying ourselves, but we did our best, assuming every day that we’d get a phone call telling us she was gone. Sheila and I both bawled like babies when Green Day played “Wake Me Up When September Ends” near the end of their phenomenal set that closed out Day Four last year. We drove from the hotel straight back to the in-laws’ house the next day, and every free day afterward. Susan’s body held on for 13 more days until she passed peacefully in her sleep.

During the early days of her diagnosis, an album called Stage Four by a band called Touche Amore came into my awareness. I’d heard of the band before, but I hadn’t really thought about them one way or the other until I happened upon a reddit post that encouraged me to check them out. After a particularly shitty day at work, I decided to listen to Stage Four while I drove across town to get a Culver’s veggie burger basket with cheese curds and a root beer, because I needed to eat my feelings. By the time I got home, I was approximately 3/4 of the way through the album, and I could tell it was on the way to becoming one of my favorite albums of all time.

Released in 2014, Stage Four was written and recorded following the death of singer Jeremy Bolm’s mother, Dorothy. She, too, whipped cancer’s ass once, only to find it back and metastasizing. The album is so fucking catchy and good, and it’s simultaneously heartbreaking and uplifting, and I’ve listened to it well over a hundred times since that drive home by way of Culver’s, easily. In addition to dealing with Susan’s illness, it also helped me deal with all the other recent losses I’d experienced. I’ll write about it more at some point.

All of that is pertinent to this year for a few reasons:

This was our first Louder Than Life without the grim specter of death hanging over it.
Susan found a way to be there with us this year, and it was fuckin rad.
Touche Amore was announced as one of the bands on Day One this year, and I was finally gonna get to sing along with them.

Spoiler alert: I did, and it was amazing, but I’ve written enough for today. I’ll do a full write-up of Day One soon (along with the pre-party that was part of our package)(alliteration!), and unlike last year, I will actually finish writing about the whole weekend. Here’s some footage of a different performance from Touche Amore. I wish I could’ve seen them in a crowd like this one, but at least I got to see them.

It was time this whole time.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks, You Too

March 7, 2024August 17, 2025 / Rev. Joel / 2 Comments

I started writing this thing on November 24 of last year. I’m gonna be completely honest here and say that I’m most likely never gonna get around to writing about the rest of Louder Than Life 2023. Sorry if you were looking forward to that for whatever reason. Speaking of Louder Than Life, this year’s lineup has some real duds, but overall, it’s pretty amazing, and I’ll probably write about something at least adjacent to LTL2024 sometime before we actually attend the festival, but for now, I’m doing something else. I don’t really understand it, either.

*I’m only super stoked on one headliner, but that undercard is* stacked.

Highlights of Days 3 and 4 last year include Run the Jewels, Turnstile, Green Day (those dudes know how to close out a motherfucking festival!), The Bronx, Jehnny Beth, and the delightful couple from Australia who chatted us up before that Pantera thing. That Pantera thing sounded good, by the way, and it was cool to hear those songs live again, as they were part of the soundtrack to my angry youth, but we didn’t stay for the whole thing. Sheila said Viagra Boys were great, and I’m really bummed I missed them, but they were overlapping with both Run the Jewels and Turnstile, and I couldn’t not see all that. They were both transcendent, by the way. Another highlight was talking to a younger dude who traveled from New Zealand just to see Turnstile. He got to experience them from the center of the rail, and I was very happy for him.

Anyhoo, I deleted the part where I mentioned how I don’t write enough, and the part where said I was still gonna write about the last two days of LTL2023, and the part where I promised I would do so before the 2024 lineup dropped, and I updated the first part, and lightly edited the whole thing for clarity, spelling, and grammatical errors. Not that any of it matters.

__________________________________________

My friend Chris and I made a book! He drew comics out of three of my dumb/mostly true/pretty funny stories based on my childhood, and he made them so much funnier. It’s called Speaking of…, and it’s a Certified Hoot.* 50 hardcover copies of were made for No Dice Books, and they’re beautiful, if I do say so myself. They’re also sold out. This is one of the things I had to update. If I’d gotten this post up in a timely fashion, you probably could’ve snagged one. Apologies for my delinquency. I was really unhappy at my job at the time, and I just didn’t feel like doing a final edit.

We had a softcover second edition printed too, and at it’s also beautiful, and with only 50 copies in existence, it’s technically just as rare. Its available over at the website, and I also have a few copies available for purchase directly from me. They cost 10 American smackers, plus an extra 5 bones for shipping (unless you buy one directly from me – duh).

If you bought a copy of Speaking of…, THANK YOU! If you’ve read it and enjoyed it, you should 100% check out Chris’ other stuff. It’s all so fucking good. Witch Shit! is on its own plane. It’s so goddamn funny and silly, and I think about it all the time.

*One of my favorite things in the whole world.*

The nostalgia that has accompanied the publication of Speaking of… has got me thinking about my childhood lately – like more than usual, even. My childhood seems “normal” to me, but what can that really mean? Alls I really know is it’s the only childhood I had, and it’s been on my mind lately. There was an episode of Bob’s Burgers a couple of months ago about bullying, and it’s one of those very sweet episodes of Bob’s Burgers that they do so very well. The result of all this is that I was thinking about bullying, and how fucked up bullying is, and then I realized that I was relatively lucky in that I wasn’t really bullied much as a kid. There were a few exceptions, though…

The first kid that tried to give me the business was staying at his dad’s house across the road for a few days over the summer. One day we were talking in the front yard, and he threw grass in my hair. I’d just had my bath and gotten dressed to go to kindergarten registration, and I did not appreciate his turd-like behavior. I related this information to him, and asked him to stop. He advised me that he intended to continue with the grass-in-the-hair bullshit, and punctuated this statement with more grass in the hair. I asked him again, nicely, to cease with his fool-acting. He once again did the thing with the grass. I indicated one final time, in a more forceful manner, that I would tolerate no more of his nonsense.

Unfortunately (for him), he’d gone too far to turn back now. He picked one more handful of grass and threw it at me, and I completely snapped. I started yelling and slapping and kicking at him, and he tried to fight back, but aspiring bully or no, he was only six years old, so he was not equipped to understand what was happening to him, and he didn’t let it go on for long before he ran back across the road crying. He told me he was gonna tell his dad, and I think I told him to shut up, then my mom made me come back inside. I honestly don’t recall ever seeing that kid again after that summer. I’m not saying he left town because he was scared of me or anything, but if one of my neighbors freaked out on me the way I freaked out on him, I’d do whatever it took to make sure they didn’t see me again. He definitely had no idea how scared I was about the whole thing.

Once I started kindergarten, there was a kid at my table who insisted on having his box of crayons on top of the stack, and he seemed like he might’ve been up to 23 years old, so I let that one go. I have no memories of him after that, so I have to assume it was an isolated incident, but we never came to blows, and I’m fine with that. I’m a lover, not a fighter.

My third experience with an aspiring bully was this kid who lived next door to us for a while when I was in second grade. He had an older sister, and I’m not sure what his parents did for a living, but I have a vague memory of them moving in, and a very distinct memory of the dad pulling in the driveway in his new Chevette, and grinning at me with a comically large overbite as he asked me “does the neighbors like it?” in the most southern Kentucky accent I can imagine (which happens to be one of my favorite accents, by the way). I do remember that the kid was a bit of shithead, and also that I sometimes hung out with him on account of his age and proximity, and because he had this really cool book about The Empire Strikes Back that had some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos. I’m not made of stone.

Basically, he was just kind of a turd to me most of the time in general, and then one day he kept trying to run me off the road while we were riding bikes. I complained about that during supper, and my dad quickly told me I should whip his ass. My mom was not on board with that, but Dad insisted that if I didn’t make a stand now, I’d be dealing with so much worse later. With regards to my aforementioned “lover not a fighter”-ness, my friend Jeff and I decided the element of surprise would favor me, so Jeff called him over to some other dude’s house around the corner and told him I wanted to talk to him.

We started to walk away toward the house, and I grabbed him, made one wild punch that I’m pretty sure didn’t land (I figure I’d remember if it did), then I freaked out and started yelling and slapping and kicking at him until he ran crying toward the house. The only visible physical injury he sustained was a cut next to his eye from running into the tailgate of the truck in the driveway while he was crying. I have no memories of him after that, although I’m positive that they didn’t move away that night.

Apparently there’s something to be said for losing your shit and yelling and slapping and kicking at someone who is bullying you. It’s obviously not gonna work on everyone, and it’ll likely get you severely injured (or worse) if you try it on the wrong person, but I have to imagine it would end a lot of dumb, avoidable fights early. I went 2-0 with it, and retired a champion. And my overall bully average was .666, which, in addition to being metal as fuck, would be an impressive average for any baseball player. Maybe I should make a series of training videos teaching my patented technique. I’ll call it Freakout!: How to Prevent Fights by Making Your Agressor Think You’re Off Your Nut. Order in the next hour and get a free bonus video, Thanks, You Too: How to Make Any Conversation Awkward in 15 Seconds or Less.

That’s all I got for now. Thanks for reading. And seriously, if you haven’t ordered a copy of Speaking of…, or any of Chris’s other stuff, do that now.

* Hoot certification by the Clockwise Circle Pit Hoot Certification Institute of America, est. 2019.

Now I Think I’ve Seen the Light: A Sort of Review of Day Two of Louder Than Life 2023

October 8, 2023August 17, 2025 / Rev. Joel / 2 Comments

Welcome, chums, to the second installment of my long-winded thing about my experiences at this year’s Louder Than Life, which is generally billed as North America’s Largest Music Festival. If you haven’t already, you can read about Day One here.

Day Two was less crucial to us than days One and Four, but there were still a few bands we needed to see, Megadeth being most important to both of us. Tool was the Day Two headliner, and while I do not reside near the neighborhood of capital “F” Tool-Fandom, I do like the Tool songs I know, and I’d never seen them before, so I was looking forward to ticking them off the big list of Bands I Ain’t Seen Live Yet. Godsmack offered direct support, and they’re not really my thing, but they are very good at what they do, and their drummer (Shannon Larkin) is badass, so I wasn’t opposed to hearing at least some of their set. Limp Bizkit was scheduled to go on before Godsmack, and you may have already read or heard about the shitshow that was their set, but suffice to say we were not looking forward to hearing them.

There were some other bands we were interested in checking out if time allowed, namely Gnome, Hanabie., Kittie, and Fever 333, but none of them were dealmakers/breakers. That said, let’s get on with the day.

We made it into the gates just in time to catch the end of Gnome’s first song. We were both unfamiliar with them prior to the lineup announcement, but we always make it a point to check out at least one song from each band/artist on the lineup, because what’s the point of going to four-day music festival with over 100 bands if all you’re gonna do is take up three chairs in the VIP section and watch the headliner? (Y’all know who you are.) Gnome made our shortlist for Friday, and we definitely made the right choice. There was a much larger crowd in front of the Disruptor Stage than we were expecting, but they deserved that crowd and more.

Gnome are a 3-piece (mostly instrumental) band from Antwerp, Belgium, and the members all dress in completely regular clothes, except for the big red pointy gnome hats they wear while they play. They are much heavier than their appearance suggests; they would not be out of place on a bill with Clutch, Red Fang, Baroness, Big Business, or any other big-riffed band with grooves thicker than honey mixed with molasses. They are worth your time. At one point, a very long single-file row pit broke out. I’d never seen one of those before, and it was a hoot. Eventually, it grew too long to sustain itself, and a second line started up right next to the first one. I can find no evidence of this particular row pit on the internet, although it’s apparently a pretty common occurence at shows in Europe, and seems to have been popularized by Amon Amarth fans. (It also happened during Flogging Molly’s set on Sunday, but I’m pretty sure the Gnome rowpit was bigger.)

*This is Gnome. They were awesome.* *And dig those apparent superfans up there.*

Hanbie. was up next over on the Revolver Stage, straight outta Japan, and we didn’t stick around for all of their set, but what we saw was pretty fun. They were kinda like Babymetal (i.e., J-pop + metal), but with harsher vocals, and without the choreography. I’d see them again if I got the chance. I was unable to get any good pictures of them, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that they are indeed a real band.

The sun was hotter than a bastard on Day Two, so we went from the Revolver Stage directly to the Top Shelf VIP tent to cool off for a bit, and we caught some of Wage War‘s set from the Space Zebra Stage on the screens inside the tent. We saw them briefly in 2021, and they sounded just like I remembered them, which is to say, competent. My notes from this year’s Lineup Research simply say “LTL band”, which in my notes means metalcore with the standard screamed vocals, and clean vocals on a big singalong chorus (I’ve heard at least one song each day at LTL from several bands that, while inoffensive and not completely unenjoyable, are pretty interchangable to my middle-aged ears).

There’s a stretch of time I can’t account for, from around 4:00 pm until 4:45 pm, but I’ll assume we were in the tent drinking, eating spring rolls, and soaking up the sweet, sweet A/C. Corey Taylor went on the Space Zebra Stage at 4:45, and I know we were in the tent for at least part of his set, because I distinctly recall these four dumb-looking kids in their early teens, all with real dumb matching haircuts, who were dropping food and trash all over the ground inside the tent, and who told some dude they were excited about seeing Limp Bizkit. Those kids sucked.

We did duck out of there briefly to check out Headbanger’s Hall, which is a big tent near the entrance that has different music playing, plus video games/pinball machines, and sometimes celebrity bartenders (Corey Taylor himself has been a guest bartender two years in a row), but it was smaller, louder, and more crowded than last year, so we just walked back to the TSVIP tent and got some more drinks before we made our way over to the regular VIP section to get closer to Megadeth on the Loudmouth Stage (fitting for Dave Mustaine)(haha).

I’ve written some about Megadeth before (mostly for my old blog), and I stand by pretty much all of it, but I’ll be goddamned if Dave Mustaine isn’t a consummate musician and performer, and I’ll also be goddamned if I’m gonna miss a chance to hear “Tornado of Souls” live.

We made our way into VIP to the sounds of Corey Taylor and his band playing a real tight cover of “Ace of Spades”, and soon discovered that we were too late to get any kind of decent view of the stage. No matter, though, we were close, and I could still see the big screen. They kicked off with “Hangar 18”, and it was amazing, then they played “Dread and the Fugitive Mind”, from 2009’s pretty okay The World Needs a Hero, then they blasted into motherfucking “Hook in Mouth”, and I turned to Sheila and said “holy shit, I can’t believe they’re playing this song!” (turns out that was the first time they’d played it in 13 years!), and by the time I finished screaming “HOOK! IN! MOUTH!” along with Dave and my fellow true believers, the people directly in front of us offered us their spots on the rail (“these are your people”, the guy said, and I wasted no time taking him up on his gracious offer). As with Deafheaven’s set the day before, my headbanging was fierce and mighty, and as I’ve mentioned previously, our drinks were included with our tickets, so having the rail to hold onto gave me the confidence I needed to go all out.

“Sweating Bullets” gave way to “Trust”, which gave way to “We’ll Be Back” (from their most recent album, which I have yet to listen to), which gave way to “Tornado of Souls”. During “Tornado”, I noticed a young longhair (prolly 15-ish years old) hesitantly approach on my left and kinda look my way, as if seeking permission to stand next to me. I looked at him and nodded, and he banged his head along with me, and when “Tornado of Souls” ended, he looked at me and held up his hand for a high five. I reciprocated, and he said “dude, you’re awesome” in a hushed tone, and I probably blushed, and I told him he’s awesome, and we banged our heads to “Symphony of Destruction” and “Peace Sells”, and then Dave took a break to introduce the band, and the kid said “they still have to play ‘Holy Wars’ and ‘Wake Up Dead’!”, and I said “I know, I’m so fuckin stoked!”, and then they played “Holy Wars…the Punishment Due”, and then, just like that, they were done.

The kid said “do you think they’ll play ‘Wake Up Dead’?”, and I had to be the one to break his heart and tell him they were definitely finished. We chatted a little bit about Megadeth, and he sheepishly told me he hadn’t really listened to much of anything past 1994, and I told him that if he stopped listening to Megadeth after Youthanasia, that he was doing just fine, and we bumped fists, and I never saw him again, but I take some pride in knowing that he told his friends about the kick-ass old guy he watched Megadeth with. Never stop rockin, anonymous kid, and I hope I get to bang heads with you again next year.

At one point during “Holy Wars”, I was goin at it so fast and furious that my big dumb sun hat and bandana flew clean off my head. Here’s a picture Sheila secretly took of me – you can tell by the blur on my right leg that I’m unable to stand still

*Headbang stance activated. That’s my young friend’s shoe on the left edge of the frame, there.*

As we headed back out of VIP, I told Sheila that while I wish they would’ve played “Wake Up Dead”, I’m pretty sure my head would’ve fallen right off my shoulders if they had. We parted ways briefly at this point; Sheila needed a pee break and a shade break, and I decided to check out the line at the merch tent, hoping to take advantage of Limp Bizkit’s set time. The line was the shortest I’d seen it so far, so I decided to get all up in it. As an added bonus, I was close enough to the back stages that I got to hear the last 10 minutes of Kittie’s set and the beginning of Fever 333’s set instead of Limp Bizkit.

While I was in line, the dude behind me was tryin to chat me up about bands I had no interest in, so I was relieved when he finally took off toward the Space Zebra Stage, his Bizkit FOMO too strong to ignore. When I finally got to pick out shirts, I asked about a Deafheaven shirt, and the guy told me they were already sold out. I picked out a Turnstile shirt, then I asked about Jesus Piece. The guy said “oh shit, are they playing?!”, and I said “yeah, tomorrow at 6:30 on that li’l stage over there by the portapotties”, and he said “fuuuuuck”, and I said “yeah, I’m real pumped for it”, and he said “we don’t have any of their shirts…maybe check back tomorrow?”, and so I picked out a Run the Jewels shirt instead, and he said “the man has taste”, and I was like

…and then I reluctantly headed back toward the main stage area to meet up with Sheila, because I also needed to sit down. The one positive thing I’ll say about Limp Bizkit is this: their stage backdrop said “Live, Laugh, Limp Bizkit”, and that made me laugh.

I know taste is subjective, but Limp Bizkit was objectively not good. If you didn’t bother to click the link way up at the beginning of this thing, Fred Durst insisted that the cameras be turned off after the second song because “we didn’t come here to be on TV”, and for some reason the camera crew obliged, leaving the vast majority of people unable to see them at all. I still had to hear them, though, and that was less enjoyable than I’d imagined. And between songs, when DJ Lethal (who, along with guitarist Wes Borland, really should know better) was spinning and doin DJ thangs and whatnot, Fred Turdst just talked and talked and talked, and he really seems to think that his whole schitck from the late 90’s is still cute and funny, as if it ever was cute or funny in the first place.

Apparently we missed out on an amazing set from Fever 333, but ultimately that’s okay, because they’ve been at LTL before, and almost certainly will be there again, and we got to rest, and rest is important at a marathon slog like Louder Than Life.

Godsmack were next, over on the Loudmouth Stage, and as I mentioned before, they’re not really my thing, but they are very good at what they do, and they sounded great, and the crowd was into them, and just about anything was preferable to what we’d just experienced. We posted up in the TSVIP viewing tent so we’d have a decent spot for Tool. I took these pictures of the crowd just before Godsmack…

After Godsmack brought the house down with a rousing rendition of “I Stand Alone” (which happens to be the only Godsmack song I know), Sheila struck up a conversation with a lovely couple from New Zealand (!) who were nice enough to let us use some of their table space for our beverages. They’ve been attending Louder Than Life the same number of years we have, and like us, they make it their vacation every year (although theirs is obviously quite a bit more expensive).

Anway, Tool hit the stage promptly at 8:55 PM, and as expected, they sounded great and their visuals were top notch, but the more time passes (thereby allowing me to reflect on it more), the more I realize I found their set to be fairly boring. It might’ve been the festival setting, or it might’ve been my post-Megadeth exhaustion, or it might’ve been a combination of the two, or maybe I just find them boring live. At any rate, after “Forty Six & 2”, I found my mind wandering quite a bit during their set, and I was kinda relieved when it was over, until I realized they stopped playing 10 minutes early and didn’t play “Ænema”, “Sober”, or “Prison Sex”, and since guitarist Adam Jones said in an interview that they “might dig a couple oldies out” on their fall tour, that’s just dumb (especially when you consider the fact that they played “Ænema” at their Aftershock performance last night). Poor form, Tool. Not everybody watching you at a festival is a Tool superfan…some of us wanna hear the “hits”.

*This is the best picture of Tool’s set I could manage.*

After they were finished, we made our way back to the shuttle pickup spot just as a bus was pulling away, and we settled in to wait with a quickly growing crowd. A man and a woman who work for Pegasus Transportation were standing by, and they both assured us that another bus was en route, and would be there “shortly”. After a fair amount of time passed with absolutely no sign of a bus anywhere, the crowd began to express some dissatisfaction with the situation. We were assured that a bus would be there “soon”, and were told that police were re-routing traffic a different way. Long story short, the next bus didn’t arrive for over an hour, well after the last cars were out of the parking lot, and when it did finally arrive, there were enough people waiting behind us to fill up at least another bus-and-a-half.

The man (who we found out was the GM) and the woman (who we found out was their primary customer service liason) did their best to calm the crowd down, but ultimately, the fact that they weren’t just honest with us about our wait time from the outset made us angrier than we would’ve otherwise been. People were resorting to urinating (and probably more) behind bushes next to the Kentucky Exposition Center, and the possibility of a Lord of the Flies-type situation didn’t seem too far-fetched toward the end. They did better the rest of the fest, but if there’d been a repeat of that situation either of the next two nights, I would’ve quit my job to make Bringing Down Pegasus Transportation my life’s work. Luckily that didn’t happen, and I’m able to continue having a job that actually pays me.

That’s all for this installment. Check back soon(ish) for Part Three, a.k.a. the day we finally got back early enough to relax in the hotel room and turn in early. And if you like what you’ve read, why not tell a friend about Clockwise Circle Pit? I know I would, if I had any friends.

Awakens Ancient Feelings: A Sort of Review of Day One of Louder Than Life 2023

October 4, 2023August 17, 2025 / Rev. Joel / 4 Comments

Welcome party people. And if there are any party poopers reading this, welcome to you, too. Maybe you’ll have some fun in spite of yourself. Before we continue, a disclaimer: if you’re looking for a straight-up review of the festival itself, you’ll prolly wanna look elsewhere. This is, as the title indicates, sort of a review of Day One, but it’s also a review of my day. Of course, I’d be thrilled if you decided to read on anyway, but I don’t wanna waste your time. Onward…

I’m here today (finally) to start writing about Louder Than Life 2023. It was the third year in a row that Sheila and I attended, plus we were there for one day in 2019, on Guns ‘n’ Roses Day (which I prefer to think of as Ice Cube/Suicidal Tendencies/Andrew WK/Anti-Flag day, but that’s beside the point), and we already bought our tickets for next year, because despite all the annoyances and the fact that there are always gonna be some real stinkers in the lineup, we always have a good time at the fest, and in the city of Louisville.

Quick side track: I didn’t write about last year’s LTL, but it was a mostly amazing time as well, aside from the fact that my father passed away the morning of the first day, after a long bout with various maladies and a broken heart. I saw some amazing performances, and had a ton of fun with Sheila and a couple of good friends of ours, and the live music helped me process all the feelings I was feeling during the weekend, and singing along with however-many-thousand fans while Alice in Chains played “Rooster” on the last night was one of the most incredible and cathartic experiences of my life. There was also a dark cloud hanging over this year’s fest for us, but I’m not gonna write about that yet, because this thing is already long enough. I did write about LTL2021, and if you’re so inclined, you can check those posts out here and here (Part 1 also includes a little about our one-day experience that first year).

We went all out this year and got Angel’s Envy Top Shelf VIP tickets, because we decided last year that this festival is likely just gonna be our vacation every year from now on. I can say for certain that there is absolutely no going back from Top Shelf VIP (TSVIP). There was a large air-conditioned tent with screens showing the main stage goings on, food catered by an award-winning (apparently celebrity) Louisville chef, no charge for drinks in the tent (or on the large elevated viewing platform in front of the tent), air-conditioned restrooms with flushable toilets/urinals, and just the absolute nicest fucking people working inside the area, from the people picking up trash, wiping off tables, and cleaing the restrooms to the bartenders to the catering folks to the guys at the gate who said “welcome back” everytime we came back into Top Shelf after the first time.

*A kindly stranger took this photo of us inside the Top Shelf VIP area one of the nights (Friday, I think). It’s not a great pic, but it’s a pretty accurate representation of our expereince*.

Our fancy-pants wristbands also got us into regular VIP, which we took advantage of a few of times to get a little closer to the bands on the “Loudmouth” stage (the two main stages are side-by-side, and are called “Loudmouth” and “Space Zebra”; one band plays while the next one sets up, back and forth, throughout the day), and of course we had access to all the General Admission areas, which include most of the food vendors, the merchandise tent, and the other three (!) stages. The “Revolver” and “Disruptor” stages replaced the single second stage last year, and another, smaller stage (“Road Hounds”) was also added last year. The idea is to allow more bands to play, as well as to help keep the crowd a bit spread out throughout the day, which are both great ideas, but the downside is the extra stages also make it completely impossible for people to see all the bands they wanna see.

Anyway, I’m getting ahead of myself. We got into town Wednesday afternoon after stopping for pizza and beer at New Albanian Brewing Company Pizzeria & Public House across the river (excellent pizza and beer, by the way), and after checking in to the hotel, we walked over to Bluegrass Brewing Company for another beer, then crossed the street and visited Down One Bourbon Bar, both of which are worth checking out if you enjoy human alcohol beverages (the food at BBC is great, too, but I can’t speak to the food at Down One). After Down One, we went up three (see what I did there) to Al J’s at the Conservatory (formerly known (to us, anyway) as “Fishbar”), a cool bar in the enclosed walkway between the Galt House East Tower (where we stayed) and the Galt House West Tower, for what was going to be a nightcap. There we struck up conversation with a very nice lady named Ashley who was in town from New Orleans for the festival. After she left, we decided to go down to the second floor for a for-real-this-time nightcap at Jockey Silks, the bourbon bar in the West Tower.

While sitting at the bar there, a lady in a very fancy looking floral-print dress approached Sheila and said “who are you most excited about seeing tomorrow? I know y’all are going to the festival.” There were a couple of different business functions going on at the hotel that weekend, as well, and generally speaking, the two different types of people in the hotel common areas (“business types” and “festival types”) were pretty easy to tell apart, but I have to say, this lady surprised me. We ended up hanging out with her and her two male companions (311 superfans one and all), who were also all from Louisiana (she and the taller guy made it a point to let us know that they were from New Orleans, and the other guy was “just a Cajun”). Turns out they were dressed up because they’d just gone to dinner at Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, and they just wanted to look fancy for their fancy dinner.

While chatting with them at Jockey Silks, one of them asked us if we knew of any “cool underground bars” nearby, to which Sheila replied “as a matter of fact, there is a really cool bar two blocks from here that is literally underground. It’s called Troll Pub, and it’s built into the ground and has secret rooms and everything.” They were immediately on board, and I had to text a buddy of mine from New Orleans for advice on how to hang with his people (his response: “lol Throwing up makes room for more alcohol. Just roll with it. BTW if they are from the wank (westbank), run.” Then he shared a video.)

For the record, our one-night pals were not like Popeye.

Anway, we woke up pretty hungover from partying with those lunatics, and were very nearly late for our breakfast reservation at Wild Eggs (which never disappoints). We made it just in time, though, and everything was delicious and perfect, and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for Day One. Side note: I wore my bitchin Bifocal Media ALL shirt to breakfast, and as we sat down, a lady a few tables over said “I love your shirt! I always see Descendents shirts, and ALL doesn’t get enough respect!” and I told her I agreed.

*It’s this shirt, but in a dark gray. ALL!*

Holy shit, I haven’t even really talked about the festival yet. Onward!

We caught the shuttle from the hotel to the gate and made it inside the grounds while Pinkshift was playing on the Loudmouth Stage. We wanted to try and catch their set, but we only got the last two songs. They sounded good. We checked out the TSVIP area, got some drinks, and went up to the viewing platform to check it out while Call Me Karizma played the Space Zebra stage. They were not for us, but luckily they only played for 30 mintues. The highlight of their set was seeing their frontman (who was trying really hard to look cool) accidentally spit on his own chest. We went over to regular VIP to be closer for Mannequin Pussy, which was the first band from Day One that Sheila was adamant about checking out. They sounded great, and they deserved a bigger audience, but they layed it all out for the crowd that was there.

*My phone camera does not take very good pictures, but this is Mannequin Pussy. They were dope.*

Toward the end of their set we began the long journey to the opposite end of the grounds to hopefelly catch some of Guerilla Warfare over on the Disruptor Stage. They’re a super high energy three-piece from Louisville who blast out a cool mix of hip-hop and metal, with some hardcore-style backing vocals thrown in for good measure. The drummer, Garrett Hood, does most of the vocals (singing drummers always fascinate me), but the bassist and the guitarist get in there and scream a bunch, too. They were tight as hell and super passionate. I’d love to see them in a more intimate setting.

*I’m 99% sure the guitar player is wearing houndstooth chef pants.*

We went back to TSVIP after Guerilla Warfare for a pee break and some more drinks while White Reaper (also from Louisville) played the Loudmouth Stage. They were good, but we were on a mission to get back to the Disruptor Stage in time to see Starcrawler, and we were successful. They’re kinda hard to describe, but they’re dirty and sleazy and fun as fuck, and frontwoman Arrow De Wilde absolutely commanded that crowd while jumping and writhing around, shaking her hips, simulating masturbation, spitting, cursing, and swinging the microphone around like it was her dick. Sheila said that De Wilde reminded her of a female Iggy Pop, and that’s about as good a description as any. It was a wild show (no pun intended).

*It’s a very “First World” thing to complain about, but I envy people who have a good camera on their phone.*

We had some time to kill, so we got some delicious iced coffees with oatmilk, had some more TSVIP snacks, and then I tried to find my friend Maggy, who I just found out that morning was coming for the day. We kept just missing each other, but I wasn’t about to miss Coheed & Cambria on the Loudmouth Stage at 4:40. I told Maggy we’d be in the VIP section watching them, then I’d try to find her. I’m not super familiar with their discography, but I’ve heard them a lot, because I always seem to have at least one co-worker who is really into them. More specifically, I’m very familiar with two of their songs, and they happen to be the band’s biggest “hits”.

Anyway, I wasn’t there to pretend to be a superfan, I just wanted to catch what I’d heard was an impeccable stage show. We secured our spots just in time for the band to kick off their phenomenal (albeit too brief) 10-song set, and the weather was perfect, and the sound was perfect, and for 45 minutes, everything was perfect (except for my shitty phone camera), and they only played one of the two songs I know (“Welcome Home”), but I didn’t even care that I didn’t get to hear “The Suffering”, because I’ll definitely go see them next time they’re anywhere near me on tour, and you should, too.

*This one has some elements of a pretty cool shot, at least.*

After Coheed’s set, I finally found Maggy, and we got to talk for a few minutes, but then as 311 began I had to haul ass back over to the Disruptor Stage for L7, because fuckin duh. I don’t really know any 311 songs, but I probably would’ve watched some of their set if there wasn’t a band I’d rather see going on simultaneously (although the little bit I heard did sound very good, and I hope those maniacs from New Orleans and their Cajun friend had a blast).

Long story short, L7 was fuckin great (duh). They haven’t lost a step, and the crowd was very into them, and I’ll tell you hwat, when they played “Shitlist” and then flowed straight into “Pretend We’re Dead”, I thought I was gonna lose my mind. Like Coheed & Cambria before them, their set was only 10 songs, but it was flawless.

*For some reason, Suzi Gardner is absent from every photo I took of L7, but I swear she was there. She even sang lead on the first song.*

San Francisco, CA “blackgaze” legends Deafheaven immediately followed L7 on the adjacent Revolver Stage, and I was pretty pumped about seeing them. I’ve been aware of Deafheaven since 2013, when they released their divisive second album, Sunbather, but I never really bothered to listen to them until I saw that they were gonna be at LTL this year. I don’t really get into black metal all that much, with a few exceptions, but I still wanted to check them out, as I wasn’t sure when I might get a chance to see them again. I listened to a few songs and I was interested enough. Then a couple of weeks before the fest, the October issue of Decibel Magazine arrived in my mailbox, and featured Sunbather as its (then) newest inductee into their hallowed Hall of Fame. I played the album while I read the HOF piece, then I played it again, and I was officially stoked to see Deafheaven.

Anyway, as soon as L7 finished up, I took about 10 steps the right, secured a spot on the rail, and waited patiently along with what seemed like not nearly enough people. Then I rememberd that it was Thursday, and a lot of people probably still had to work and whatnot, then I remembered that Rancid had started playing on the Space Zebra Stage 10 minutes prior. I wanted to see Rancid, even though Tim Armstrong sounds and purposely looks like brain-damaged hobo (especially when he’s not actively playing his guitar – seriously, I always expect his pants to just fall around his ankles when I see him on stage). Rancid played an important role in my musical development when I was in my late teens-early twenties, and while I haven’t really listened to anything from them since their second self-titled album (from 2000), it would’ve been cool to hear “Ruby Soho” and “Old Friend” and “Olympia WA” and a lot of their other old bangers, but I saw them a couple of times back in the good old days of the Warped Tour, so I opted to stay put for Deafheaven while Sheila went to check out Rancid (but not before snapping some pics of Deafheaven for me, with her superior camera).

Deafheaven came out to the strains of Jimmy Scott singing “Sycamore Trees” from the final episode of the original run of Twin Peaks, which was very fucking cool, and the band started in with some feeback, and frontman George Clarke came out and held his microphone stand up in the air, then the riffs began, and for the next 50 minutes, I was transported away from all my cares and worries and anxieties (although I was very glad I had that rail to hold onto, because I definitely would’ve ended up on the ground from the sheer force of my head bangery). One of the security dudes in front of the stage was lowkey into the sounds that were coming from behind him, and I couldn’t tell whether he was already a fan or if he was becoming one, but either way, it was kinda cool to see.

Fucking beautiful.

After Deafheaven I high-tailed it back over to Top Shelf to meet up with Sheila for Weezer and found her with “My Name is Jonas” already in progress. I have mixed feelings about Weezer, and rightfully so. It’s kind of a cliche at this point to say that they peaked with their first two albums, but it’s also not incorrect. Their second self-titled album has some good songs on it, and I bought Maladroit at K-Mart the day it came out in 2002 and didn’t hate it, although I’m pretty sure I haven’t listened to any of it in about 15 years, and “Dope Nose” is the only song I can remember at all.

Side note: in a fun twist, Sheila was actually the cashier who rang me up that day (before we were married, obviously).We were acquainted on account of her sister worked with me at Burger King, and also because her best friend Chris and I were cool with each other. Our friend Amy once said that we were “shadows of each other’s lives for so long, it only made sense that we’d end up together”, and as is often the case, Amy is not wrong.

Anway, I was talking about Weezer, and how they have no business sounding so goddamn good in 2023. When I found Sheila, she tried to get me to come closer, but I declined, not wanting to get in front of the group of people who were already packed in behind her. Next thing I know, the group had made a path for me, and one of the dudes yelled “Joel! Get the fuck up here, goddamnit!” and who am I to refuse such an enthusiasitc invitation? We got to sing along together to the final refrain of “Jonas”, then we spontaneously began to dance and sing along with “Beverly Hills”, much to my self-disappointment. They followed that up with two songs I didn’t know, but which still had enough of a groove to dance to, then their breakout hit “Undone – The Sweater Song” began, and we temporarily lost our minds, then they flowed directly into “Only in Dreams”, which was just incredible, then another newer song, then “Island in the Sun” from their mostly-okay-but-not-nearly-as-good-as-the-first-two third album, which is also their second self-titled album (out of, if I’m not mistaken, six self-titled albums), and around that point we began to be consumed by the hunger.

“Island in the Sun” faded into another newer song, so I decided to take that opportunity to empty my bladder and go find us some pizza. I got about 50 yards outside of Top Shelf just as “Say It Ain’t So” began, and that was a stone cold bummer. That’s been my favorite Weezer song since the first time I heard it, but at least I could still hear it loud and clear for the entirety of my walkabout, and I got to sing along to it with a bunch of enthusiastic strangers as I walked through the crowd. I got us some pizza from a place long since forgotten and made my way back as the band played another song I didn’t know. We scarfed down our pizza and enjoyed the absolute hell outta “Surf Wax America” and “Buddy Holly”, then got super amped for Foo Fighters.

I saw Foo Fighters once before, when they were touring for 2005’s In Your Honor (Weezer was actually the opening band then, oddly enough), and they were just brilliant. It was the first time I’d been to a show in a venue that big (the former Frank Erwin Center in Austin, TX) in a lot of years, and the sheer volume of the band and the crowd together solidified me as a legit fan. Subsequent less-than albums caused me to walk back a bit of my fandom (I’ll never forget the proufound sense of disappointment we experienced while watching them perform “Shame, Shame” on Saturday Night Live in 2021 – shame, shame, indeed), but I was still pumped to see them again, because while every song may not be a home run (or even a sacrifice bunt), when Foo Fighters play a kickass song, they make that song kick some serious motherfucking ass.

They started off with “All My Life”, and the crowd was real into it. They followed up with two newer songs, but I didn’t know those songs, and I’d had several drinks by that point, therefore I do not remember those songs. “Learn to Fly” was next, and it was glorious, and then there were two more newer songs (including one from their newest album), and then “Times Like These” (which is one of my favorites) then “Generator” and “Breakout”, and then band introductions (and what a band!) coupled with snippets of cover songs, and then “My Hero”, which I have to assume made nearly everyone in attendance cry along with me, and that rolled right into “This is a Call”, which caused to me to lose my mind for approximately the 15th time that day, then another newer song started, and Sheila said “I’m really sad about this, but I have to go.” I responded “but they haven’t played “Best of You” or “Everlong”!”, to which she replied “you can stay if you want, but I have to go. I’m so tired.”

And while I very much wanted to stay, I left with her, because truth be told, I was also tired as fuck, plus I didn’t wanna risk having to sit next to a stranger on the shuttle back to the hotel. By the time we got out of the restrooms and began our walk toward the gates, the band had started to play “Shame, Shame” for some reason, and what seemed like about half the crowd suddenly decided they also had to go. That song really is a turd. So we ended up missing “Monkey Wrench”, “Best of You”, “Everlong”, and a couple of others, but that was okay, because it was only the first day, and while the next two days were overall less exciting for us than the last day, and while we’re pretty well seasoned at the festival thing at this point, we still needed to rest up. A four day music festival is a marathon, goddamnit, not a sprint – especially for a couple of middle-aged goobers like us.

Besides, someone was obviously gonna record the songs we missed and post them on youtube.

That’s all for Day One. Keep an eye out for Part Two, which will hopefully be finished in a day or two, and may end up including Day Two and Day Three together, although knowing me, it might only include half of Day Two (I’m starting to confuse myself), because as you almost certainly know by now, I can be a bit long-winded. Thanks for reading, and if you wanted to tell a friend about my nonsense, that wouldn’t be so bad, would it? I’ll close out with a few pictures from Day One that didn’t really fit anywhere else.

*Those are the main stages in the middle there, “Loudmouth” on the left and “Space Zebra” on the right, and the Top Shelf VIP viewing platform just to the right of the stages.*

*The festival grounds are e*normous. The li’l black box just left of center, to the right of the big tent, is the “Road Hounds” stage, where I found Jesus (Piece).

*If you squint and use your imagination, you can kind of make out the “Disruptor” and “Revolver” stages toward the left side of the frame, way in the back, there.*

*I like how the Running Man in the bottom left corner appeared between this picture and the one before. I’m not sure where he was hurrying off to, but I hope he made it in time.*

A Racing Mind Offers No Peace

September 30, 2023December 2, 2024 / Rev. Joel / 3 Comments

God afton, reader(s). That’s Swedish for “good evening”. I apologize if it’s not evening where you are as you read these words. Either way, howdy.

I haven’t written anything in a long while, and I always bother to mention that every time I do finally write something, so I suppose it’s a meaningless thing to mention, but does anything really have meaning?

Anyway, I’m here to write, and you’re here to read (presumably), so let’s get to it.

If you’ve read more than 3-4 of the things I’ve written for this blog, you should, at the very least, know these two Things About Me:

I love music (live music in particular) more than anything on this planet/simulation other than family and friends. Music is my religion, and live music is my praise and worship service, my tent revival, my communion, my High Holidays, and every other significant religious thing I don’t know anything about rolled into one. Being in a like-minded crowd experiencing a band I love is what saves me. It keeps me from giving up, it keeps me (relatively) sane, and it keeps me from, for example, losing my shit on the kid with the dumb haircut who kept dropping, spilling, and throwing stuff all over the ground, all while flipping his dumb bangs out of his dumb face, even though his dumb hair wasn’t long enough to impede his dumb vision in any kind of way. But that’s a story for later, although its inclusion to the #1 Thing About Me is a perfect transition into the second Thing About Me…
I can be long-winded as shit, especially in my writing, and sometimes the point I reach at the end of a thing is not exactly the point I set out to make, but remember: it’s about the journey, not the destination, or something like that.

I say all that to say this:

Mrs. Circlepit and I recently attended our third full (fourth partial) Louder Than Life weekend in our home-away-from home, Louisville, KY, and it was an overall positive-to-amazing experience peppered with some disappointing-to-really-shitty moments, and I intend to write an in-depth thing (it’ll more likely be multiple things, given the #2 up above)(heh, “#2”) about all that very soon (keep an eye out for the kid with the dumb haircut!), but that’s not why I’m here today.

I’m here today to mention one performance from one band that I haven’t really seen mentioned in any of the reviews I’ve read of the weekend, and that band is metallic hardcore juggernaut and pride of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jesus Piece.

For some reason, Jesus Piece was given the headlining slot on a dinky li’l stage off to the side of the festival grounds (the “Road Hounds” stage, in LTL parlance) rather than an earlier slot on a bigger stage in front of a bigger crowd, which they absolutely deserve. And while I was bummed that it overlapped with Whitechapel on the “Disruptor” stage, I wasn’t gonna miss Jesus Piece for anything once I made it inside that gate. We booked over to the stage, arriving at 6:23 pm and were delighted to be in the shade (shade is hard to come by in the General Admission area of the Highland Festival Grounds). I have to believe the shadow cast at that time of day (at that time of year, in that part of the country, localized entirely in front of that stage) worked in the band’s favor, as there was a sizeable crowd sitting in that shade, which gave the band a larger audience that they likely would’ve otherwise had, going up against Pierce the Veil and Whitechapel as they were.

I digress.

We waited patienly along with 50-or-so other people while the band finished up their soundcheck, then they exited the stage as the crowd steadly grew larger, including the requisite disphits who somehow always manage to find their way in front of me to have a conversation while the band is playing (I recently learned that in concert-goer parlance, those people are known as “chompers”, a term that, when searched, results in far more results including the band Phish than I’m comfortable with), and at 6:30 on the dot, the band came back out, frontman Aaron Heard said something along the lines of “what’s up everyone? Thanks for checking us out”, and then he encouraged everyone to move closer, and then one of the most breath-taking and chaotic things I’ve ever experienced played out over the next 30 minutes, and I am a better person for having been a part of it.

I’ll admit I was wary of getting too close to the stage, as all the footage I’ve watched of Jesus Piece performing live has been…”intense” kinda works, but it’s not really strong enough to capture it properly. People are moshing across the stage and diving off it from the beginning of the first note until the end, and everything happening around those people is fuckin wild, y’all!

To the uninitiated, the pit might resemble a level from the SNES classic beat em up Final Fight.

*This is an actual photo taken at a Jesus Piece show*. (Just kidding, it’s really a screengrab from the arcade version of Final Fight. Please don’t sue me, Capcom.)

*These guys were there, too, sans knife.* *(Thx Capcom.)*

And aside from the number of people involved, that’s a fairly accurate representation. Here’s one of my favorite videos of the band doing what they do best.

There are lots of great live Jesus Piece sets available on youtube. Hate5six has a shitload of them, and they’re all amazing. You should watch more Jesus Piece videos, and more hate5six videos.

So yeah, the idea of being in a crowd like this, while still thrilling, is also intimidating as fuck for a chubby out-of-shape dude in his mid-forties. I’ll admit the karate kicks and wild punches going on in the crowd seem a bit much, but the people partaking in it are all the fuck about it. Everyone involved is a willing participant, and I guarantee you every one of them felt better after this show, even if they couldn’t walk as fast. Plus, according to a statistic I just made up, but which is probably accurate, crowds like this are approximately 80% less likely to erupt into actual violence than any roughly equal-sized segment of the audience at your average bro-country arena concert.

I’ve gotten a bit off track here again. I was trying to talk about how much Jesus Piece fucking ruled. It was a lot. I’m not great with crowd sizes, but I figure the number of people actively watching them at least tripled during their performance. And bonus for me: the chatty Cathys in front of me fucked off somewhere else about halfway into the set, and I finally had an unfettered view of the carnage that is Jesus Piece live. Well, as unfettered as it could be given the small but mighty dust storm whipped up by karate pit.

Mostly clear eyes, completely full heart, can’t lose.

Anywise, I’ll be writing more about Jesus Piece another time as well, but I couldn’t let another moment pass without at least attempting to share the good news.

*This is the third meme I’ve ever made. They’re all pretty excellent, if I do say so myself.*

I told you I could be long-winded. The point is, you should check out Jesus Piece, and you should check back here for more about Louder Than Life 2023, coming as soon as I’m not too tired to start writing about it. Thanks for reading.