Day 4. Sadly, the last day of Blue Ridge Rock Festival. After all the bands I had covered over 3 days, I was sad this was the end. Even with the issues, I was truly enjoying myself photographing music again, getting to see my photographer friends, and meeting a whole group of new friends. And just like that, it was coming to a close. After breakfast and a shower, I hopped back in the car and made the drive back to the festival grounds. Today, I was planning to park in the backstage area as they were letting all other media park back there. Multiple media members explained how to reach it so figured I might as well give it a shot. As I approached Carson Lane, I reached the Pittsylvania Police officer blocking the intersection and he explained they weren’t letting anyone go down Carson Lane but buses. Um, OK. I explained what other media members told me and he said I’d have to come back around and go in the back way. I drove up 29 until I could U-turn and made my way back to Carson Lane to speak to the officers directly there. They explained the same thing. When I asked them how to I get in the back way, one explained “Follow the signs up the road for camping.” Um, OK. So I trekked up 29 looking for signs for camping. I followed it as far as I could go, not finding anything remotely close to signs. I decided to give up and head back to the Blue Parking Lot and take the bus. I admit, I was angry and pissed off with the culmination of transportation issues, and this one felt like the icing on the cake.
Fortunately, the lot wasn’t very busy by the time I arrived, and it was immediately on a bus and down to the festival. As with the days before, bag check was easy, and I made my way to the media tent. But, I felt my temper flare a little because I realized I had missed my opportunity to photograph, Aryon Jones, a guitarist I had been pushing in the Blue Ridge Rock Festival Fan Zone for months. I should have decided just to park and bus, but since other members of media had gotten to park, I thought I’d have no issues. When I reached the media tent I asked other members where they had parked that morning and they said backstage getting no issues whatsoever from the police officers. Go figure. I grabbed my gear and headed out to go cover my first artist of the day.
First up was over at the Monster Energy Stage was the band Fame On Fire. I was hearing a lot of their music through a Blue Ridge Rock Festival playlist I was listening to via YouTube Music. I liked what I heard and live they were just the same. Stellar vocals and energic music had the crowd bouncing. Some of the songs they played were “Her Eyes”, “I’m Fine”, and a cover of Linkin Park’s “Numb”. I would have liked it they had a longer set as I was enjoying their music a lot.
From there it was a trek down to the StayLit Stage to see one of my favorite rock bands, Pop Evil! Every time I have seen them, they have always provided an excellent live performance. This is a band that lives for the energy of the fans. As the photographers were waiting for them to come to the stage, our friend and fellow Florida photographer, Mark, stepped out on stage. He was photographing for Pop Evil‘s set, and he came out to get the crowd amped up and get some photos of them. One of the other Florida photographers decided to greet Mark with “the bird” and the rest of our group did the same. And suddenly other photographers who saw us do that did the same! Mark laughed and shook his head as he headed backstage and we just couldn’t stop laughing. When Pop Evil finally hit the stage the crowd noise was deafening. You could feel the energy from the fans sending their love to the band and it literally gave me goosebumps. And as expected, they were fantastic on stage. Leigh is such an amazing vocalist and has such great stage presence. Their song choice had a big selection from their current album Versatile that included “Let The Chaos Reign”, “Survivor”, “Work”, and “Breathe Again”. They closed with one of my favorite songs “Waking Lions”. I strongly recommend catching them if they come you way during this tour. Sadly, I missed their acoustic performance in the VIP tent that day.
Over at the Monster Energy Stage at 3:30 PM was a band I’ve been waiting to see forever. We Came As Romans. I’ve known about them for some time, but they hadn’t come down my way to Florida, or at least not when I was available, to review one of their shows. So I was super excited to finally get to see them. With the tragedy of their former lead singer Kyle Pavone dying at age 28 back in 2018, the band decided to continue on with member Dave Stephens as their vocalist and released new singles in 2020 and 2021. Now, they are out on tour and playing on the main stage at Blue Ridge Rock Festival where they needed to be. They were energetic right out of gate getting the crowd jumping and moshing. As my first time finally getting to see them live, I was thrilled to hear songs such as “Cold Like War”, “We Carry the Weight”, and recent single “Darkbloom”. Excellent performance by the band. They are currently on tour for the anniversary of their album To Plant a Seed.
I was then heading over to the Liquid Death Stage to photo the set for the Rising Talent known as BlackWater. They’re a hard rock from Dayton, OH and a friend of mine highly recommended for me to check them out. Their set was solid and I was extremely impressed with the vocals from Brandon Sites. You can check out their music at their website HERE.
I jaunted back to the media tent for a refreshment before I was off to the URW Stage for a band I was super excited to see, Fit For a King! Ever since being introduced to their music, I was a fan. And as much metalcore as they bring to their music, they also have a devoted Christian following. Strong enough that their recent album The Path hit #1 on the U.S. Top Christian Charts according to Billboard. As soon as they took the stage the energy around the URW Stage was elevated and the moment they started playing, the dust was moving around everywhere from the circle pits. Their live performance was everything I hoped for and more. Great stage presence, awesome music, and jumps! Concert photographers love action on stage and there is no better action than jumps. And bassist Ryan O’Leary was giving us jump shots like crazy. My friend Rob said, “We need to send him a Christmas card for all the jumps today.” Songs they played included “Locked (In My Head)”, “The Path”, and “God of Fire”. They are a must see band whenever they are in your area.
I headed back to the media tent to get something to eat and more water. I realized that the day and festival was slowly coming to a close. I really didn’t want it to end with so many awesome bands I had covered this weekend. I decided to go cover an old favorite band over at the Liquid Death Stage in Drowning Pool. If you’ve never heard of Drowning Pool you’re not as old as me or living under a rock. While their popularity was huge back in the early 2000s, Drowning Pool music stayed out in the forefront. Everyone at some point has heard “Bodies” or a version of it. The last time I had seen them with their current lineup, they had a stellar performance at House of Blues Orlando, so I was looking forward to seeing them again. When I got to the stage there was a huge crowd ready to see them too. They had some sound issues delaying their start, with Drowning Pool‘s guitar tech blaming the stage sound person and they should “check their work”. Once they thought everything was good, Drowning Pool took the stage and got right to it. Unfortunately, they sounded awful. The sound was definitely off at that stage as speakers were squelching and cutting in and out. And lead singer Jasen Moreno was screaming more than singing and not in a good way. This was definitely not the Drowning Pool I remember and hope this was a one-off bad performance. They did play classic songs such as “Sinner”, “Step Up”, and closed their set with “Bodies”.
I quickly zipped over to the URW Stage to finally get to see the Mongolian folk rock and heavy metal band The Hu. Their concept only has intrigued me the moment I started hearing about them and the music absolutely sucked me in. Their cover version of Metallica’s “Sad But True” is just something awesomely unique. They had us waiting outside the photo pit before we were able to go in. When they gave us the all-clear and we made our way in, I looked towards the stage and stood there in awe. 9 (!!!) people on stage, some dressed in traditional Mongolian clothing and a mixture of folk and modern-day instruments just made me stare in amazement. I looked over at one of my friends saying, “What am I looking at?!” But, once they started playing, it was a thing of beauty. The vocals and music combined provided for a unique blend of folk music and metal and I can’t describe it in any other way but awesome. And the fans were eating it up too. The Hu are one of these musical artists you get once in a lifetime and hope they stay around for a while. Some of their songs included “Shoog shoog”, “Yuve Yuve Yu”, and their cover of “Sad But True”. It was so far the most unique performance I got to see at a festival.
Then it was back down the hill to the StayLit Stage to see Papa Roach. This was my first time getting to photograph them and see them perform live. The band was also going to be playing their 2000 album Infest from beginning to end along with some of their greatest hits. The attendance for this set was massive and everyone was waiting in anticipation. When Jacoby Shaddix stepped up front and center it crowd went wild with cheers and screams. Papa Roach‘s performance was as good as expected, filled with high energy, crowd interaction, and great music. I did laugh to myself when they started playing “Last Resort” because in my head I kept hearing the lines from the meme “Cut my life into pizzas, this is my plastic fork”. Some of the songs played from them that night included “Last Resort”, “Broken Home”, “Getting Away With Murder”, and “Scars”. It was a very memorable performance from them that evening.
After heading back up the hill for the last time (thank God!), it was over to the URW Stage to see Falling In Reverse. I like photographing and reviewing their performances because the band is very animated on stage and I like their music. When they came on stage the crowd cheered in approval, but I really hated the setup on stage. Ronnie Radke was front and center, but the rest of the band was set further back. So while the other band members were being very animated while playing, it wasn’t ideal for getting photos of them. At some point during the performance, Ronnie had a verbal altercation with a fan wearing a “Fuck Ronnie Radke” shirt that stopped the show for a few minutes. Outside of the setup on stage, the band had a great performance with songs such as “I’m Not a Vampire”, “The Drug in Me is You”, and “Popular Monster”. I look forward to seeing them back on the road again.
And then, it was back to the Monster Energy Stage for the final performance of the festival. And the choice for the final headliner was a great one because this band is so well-known, has had multiple #1 hits, and puts on phenomenal performances. That band is none other than Shinedown. It’s always a fun time seeing a Shinedown show with the number of hits they have and they’ve always been very friendly to the photographers when we do photograph them. I was expecting some fantastic photos from their set that night. We waited in the pit in anticipation and when we saw figures started to step on stage, the crowd went nuts and we were all ready to go. Shinedown started to play the opening to “Cut the Cord” in darkness on stage and I figured the moment the first guitar riff would hit the lights would pop on. But, they never did. Shinedown performed in the shadows and flickering strobes while the media was in the pit. And while they sounded great, visually it was less than ideal. Fortunately, I was able to grab some decent shots from their set. After our 3 songs were up and we left, suddenly the lighting on stage improved as Shinedown played their set. It was a great performance from them with songs from all different stages of their musical career including “Fly From The Inside”, “45”, “Second Chance”, “Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)”, “Bully”, “State of My Head”, “Devil”, and “Monsters”. And kudos to Shinedown for inviting Jelly Roll to come up on stage to sing “Simple Man” with them. Blue Ridge Rock Festival couldn’t have picked a better artist to close up the festival.
I headed back to media to pack up my stuff and say goodbye to the photographers who were still around. I grabbed a soda for the road and trudged back up to the loop only to find the buses couldn’t make it down the road because a number of campers were trying to leave. And with one road up and back it was a congested mess. So it was the walk back up to Route 29 to catch a bus back to the Blue Parking Lot and then the drive back to the hotel. I was then up early Monday morning to hop in the car to head back home to Orlando, FL.
Outside of the transportation and minor media area issues, it was 4 days filled with old friends, new friends, and much-needed live music. Blue Ridge Rock Festival pulled off a great lineup of artists that delivered, for the most part, fantastic performances.
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