I’m still sore. True Story.
Before I dive into my most memorable moments at this year’s Rockfest I just want to thank all of you who made it out, braved the slight chill and still had a knockdown-drag out-good-goddamn-time! Thank you! Can’t wait till next year!
My day started off with F’Em Up Chuck, who crashed at my house Friday night, waking me around 8:15 to inform me he was heading to Liberty Memorial to begin his long day working behind the scenes driving the golf carts. Here’s a cat who’s no longer in KC, nor at Entercom or the Rock but rather working in radio in NYC, and he comes back in town to work Rockfest. Think he likes being there? As I was saying, he woke me up early to inform me he was heading off to the venue and my head was a little sore from the fact we were up a little later than anticipated drinking, listening to music and in essence being punks. It was great.
My adoptive mom came down as did one of my biological brothers with one of his friends. It was a pretty cool experience having breakfast in the Westside at Los Alamos with them and their meeting of each other for the first time. Once we finished loading our stomachs with a little substance it was time for us to head over to Rockfest. We parked, took Ma’s car so she’d have it when she was ready to leave, and headed towards the check in spot for my guests. Mind you this was about 15 minutes before the gates opened and there was a beautiful, long, line from Wyandotte Street east to Main Street. Wow! What an amazing site to see.
Gates opened, crowd headed in and the first dope picture I got (minus the crowd shots) was a dude setting up his hammock in one of the trees. Not really sure how he climbed the tree, but he got it up and was presumably posted there the entire day. After we strolled around for a bit and caught some of Evalyn Awake we headed back to the VIP tent to grab a beer, some food, water and Monster Energy drinks. I then had to head over to the broadcast booth to meet A-Hole Bob and do my first stage announcement for New Medicine. It’s truly amazing to see how many people are already in attendance even before one in the afternoon.
I had a couple hours to spend bouncing around and catching Zakk’s performance as well as Halestorm before I had to do my other two stage announcements pretty much back to back from the second stage and the first stage. On stage two I had the pleasure of introducing Crossfade. It’s clear they’re loved here by how quickly the crowd filled up for them. After catching the first song I headed back to the main stage with Bob to do my introduction for Sevendust. I don’t know if there’s any words to really personify what they bring to an event like Rockfest but it’s nothing short of amazing!
After introducing Sevendust it was time for me to go on air and hold down the interviews from four to eight. First one was with Disturbed front man Dave Draiman. I’d met Dave before when we did that big radio takeover interview with Disturbed before the release of “Asylum” and from what I could gather our chat went well on air and he, as well as I, enjoyed ourselves. Corey Taylor, do I really need to say where he’s from???, probably gave the best interview of everyone. He was revved up, excited, happy and just an absolute blast to interview. Of course I’d be remissed if I didn’t mention that the lads from Red Line Chemistry, Bert-Randy-Todd-Dale and Mick, gave me one hell of an interview and we all had a blast chatting with each other especially because they came up after their set and by all accounts just killed it. My interview with Black Label Society was solid and what made it most memorable for me was watching Folkers, our web-monkey, completely freak out like a little girl meeting Justin Bieber for the first time. He was bright red, sweaty, and had the goofiest smile from ear to ear after he came out of the group photo I had to thrust him in to!
Once my broadcast was over I was off to find my friends and brother and have a smoke and a drink. It’s a full speed ahead kind of a day and I very much needed it. Myself and my party departed about halfway thru Disturbed’s set and walked back to my house. The trek isn’t all that far, as I live downtown and made it back to my house with ample time to spare before we watched the fireworks from my front deck. It was an awesome experience and one that I can’t wait to do all over again…. in about a year from now!
Thanks again everyone who came out. You make this station what we are and I’m so proud to say I get to work here!
Other notes I just remembered:
**Being in the broadcast booth while the Bunny Ranch girls were flashing the crowd from five feet away from me and all the beads that kept flying up at them, and thus at me.
**Chick Fight in the VIP
**Having a police officer stop me… to thank me for the work we do. It was surreal but much appreciated. As soon as we were done chatting I hauled ass out of there before he needed a good reason to haul me in! Guilty conscious? Yeah, a little!
**Seeing the dude in the purple suit floating around.
**Shrek
**Foo Fighters Sprint Center show announced on Post Rockfest Monday!
Feel free to comment and add your own memories!
