Three big names, Hellyeah, Stone Sour and Avenged Sevenfold , played frequently on WQLZ, were in town to blow the cobwebs off the convention center and that’s just what they did. In fact we are lucky the roof didn’t blow off.

Hellyeah was the first of the three bands to hit the stage. What better place to play than 38 miles due west of the town where lead singer Chad Gray grew up, Decatur, IL. Chad did make reference to this on stage and really was appreciative of the midwest crowd; pointing out how, like himself and his bandmates, you people from the midwest love to have a good time. This was precisely what Hellyeah gave us, a helluva good time!

Showcasing hits from their first album HELLYEAH and new tunes from Stampede, Springfield was treated to quite a rock show. In your face hard rockin, country blues metal, is what I call it. The midwest loves Hellyeah which was very evident from the crowd singing all the hits like “Hellyeah“, “Cowboy Way“, “Goddamn“, “You Wouldn’t Know“ and “Hell of a Time“. In the midst of all this hard rockin debauchery, Chad talked about all the people they wanted to thank for various reasons like the fans, roadies, people working the arena and most of all our service men and women of the armed forces; without all of them these kinds of shows wouldn’t be possible. This provided a perfect sequel to the song “Thank You” which showed us just a glimpse of the soft side of these rebels.

Lastly Chad pointed out there are three things at any rock show, music of course, alcohol and ass. That gave us the last song “Alcohaulin Ass“. He stated as long as we keep showing up they will keep showing up. I know I will. This was an awesome show.

Next up was Stone Sour, a side project from Corey Taylor, lead singer of Slipknot. I thought the band put forth a good effort but I questioned the order in which they were booked. In my opinion, Hellyeah has been played on the radio much more and is alot more popular which was very obvious based on the crowds reaction. Maybe these guys should have played first. The crowd seemed to pickup momentum during the sing-a-long to Stone Sour’s big hit “Through the Glass” and it carried through to their last tune of the evening 30/30/150 which is a hard rockin tune to close the show nicely.

A few songs from the new album Audio Secrecy which comes out September 7 were played: “Say You’ll Haunt Me”, “Unfinished” and “The Bitter End”. They sounded okay but didn’t spark much of a crowd reaction. I think some musicians should rethink the side project idea. I guarantee this rowdy midwestern crowd in Springfield, IL would have much rather seen Slipknot on this night than Stone Sour. They probably would’ve had to beef up security.

Avenged Sevenfold was the headliner on this big night of rock. I knew right away this was going to be an exciting show when I saw the curtain around the stage hiding the contents behind. For me, the anticipation is almost too much to bear. When a band has a curtain up, it usually means something big and elaborate is behind it! As the curtain dropped we heard this loud commotion and the lights pointed up to the scaffolding above the stage. The scaffolding proceeded to break as a dummy was hanging there swinging by it’s neck. Pretty awesome way to start the show as the band ripped into their latest hit “Nightmare“, how fitting.

I have to give a big Hell Yeah (pun intended) to the designer of the stage. It was one of the coolest set ups I’ve seen in a long time. It looked like the gates of a castle with brick pillars and on top of them were golden bowls with fire shooting out of them. The actual top of the gates lit up with fire and there was more fire behind the gates which lit up the arena frequently during the course of the show. Behind the stage were extremely large tapestries with various images like castles, skulls and even their late drummer “The Rev” Sullivan being hugged by fellow bandmates in tribute to their fallen lifelong friend.

I have personally never seen that much fire used in a rock show not even by the likes of rock gods such as Metallica. Nor have I seen that much moshing at one show as at least two mosh pits were going at all times. Guess the concert goers didn’t see the sign outside the arena that stated, “No Moshing!”

This was the type of rock show that people come to see. Not only was the stage show visually stimulating but the music was loud, clear and carefully planned to provide us a perfect combination of old hits and some music off the new album, Nightmare. Just when we thought we had seen it all, the show ended with Avenged Sevenfold playing “Almost Easy” with the entire stage lit up with fire and several skeletons dropping from the ceiling, giving you one more big visual to look at and talk about on the drive home.

Hats off to the people who brought this real rock show to Springfield, IL. Keep them coming because we Central Illinois folk Can’t Stop Rockin!

Remember a couple of years back when everyone hated, supposedly, Fred Durst and everyone thought Limp Bizkit was finished.  Think again!  Limp Bizkit’s 8:15 show at Cadott, WI had to be one of the best I can remember!

Talk about really bringing it to your audience.  That’s what Bizkit did, in fact, Fred brought most of the show out in the audience.  He was all over the crowd in the VIP section, up on the  lawn and on the light tower.  By the looks on everyone’s faces, I don’t think Fred is hated anymore.  I was extremely happy since he was jumping over the bleachers between my wife and I and we got to high five him. 

The band had a good mixture of songs, here was the setlist:

Willy Wonka Intro
Hot Dog
Livin It Up
My Generation
Eat You Alive
Break Stuff
Nookie
Behind Blue Eyes
Take a Look Around
My Way
Rollin
Faith

On the last song “Faith”, Fred invited all the ladies in the audience to come up on stage.  There must have been 100 girls up there and gold confetti was being shot into the crowd; freakin amazing!

Wes Borland didn’t disappoint with one of his crazy outfits.  He had pitch black hair with half of his upper torso silver and half black, sporting some big muscular gorilla looking leggings.  DJ Lethal is one showman.  When you think of a DJ you don’t think of someone whipping the crowd into a frenzy every chance he gets, do you?  The crowd really came alive.  Speaking of the crowd to me it was mind boggling the number of 16 – 20 year olds in the grass.  This band was a little before their time but you couldn’t guess that by their reactions!

I recommend this show to everyone except little kids.  Fred dropped more “F” bombs than the movie Scarface, but hey it was awesome!  Keep these shows “Rollin, Rollin, Rollin”.  We would definitely rock out with Limp Bizkit again.

Skillet was the sleeper breakout performer for the 2010 Cadott Rockfest.  As a fill in at the last minute for Gavin Rossdale, I have to admit I was worried.  Being a huge Bush fan I was very stoked to see Gavin and very disappointed when he cancelled.  Not knowing the band Skillet at all and bringing a Christian band to the fest, I was equally worried.

When Skillet took the stage and ripped into their new hit single “Hero” my worries left in a hurry.  This band put on a stage show that made the other bands pale in comparison at this Rockfest.  Lead vocalist and bass player, John Cooper, with wife Karey Cooper, guitarist, made quite a pair with their intense stage presence and extreme rock show.

Ben Kasica, on guitar and UK import drummer and vocalist Jen Ledger, round out this awesome quartet which kept the crowd on its feet.  This show was filled with plenty of lights, smoke and action.  Guitarists, celloists and violinists took turns on platforms that rose on both sides of the stage making for some great effects.  This show had lots and lots of energy like a rock show should.  I highly recommend this band to any rock fan not to mention they have a great Christ centered message, beneficial to all.

We’ll definitely be attending another Skillet show very soon!

On Friday July 16, 2010, Default played the 2:45 PM slot.  I hope this was just a scheduling conflict because this band in my opinion should have played much later in the evening.

My wife and I, having seen this band before remembered how good of a show they put on a few years back opening for Nickelback and knew they wouldn’t disappoint. We were right, they didn’t.

With a new album out “Comes and Goes” the boys from Canada rocked Cadott with some new tunes and some old favorites.  A couple of new songs which have made the charts in Canada were played such as “All Over Me” and “Turn It On” which had favorable crowd response and then their two biggest hits were played “Deny” and “Wasting My Time” towards the end of the set. 

Not only is this an all around solid group of musicians, originally discovered by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, but Dallas Smith, lead vocalist, has got to have one of the best voices in rock.  He sounded perfect on this afternoon.

I thought the show was great for a band playing an early timeslot.  As I stated the last song was “Wasting My Time” and I’m sure many will agree our time wasn’t wasted watching Default!

Theory of a Deadman played the 8:30 PM slot on Thursday night.  The trio from Delta, British Columbia was a highly anticipated act this year since they had to cancel last year right before the fest.

I have heard several good and bad remarks concerning TOAD in concert.  Many younger concert goers have told me they were great to see live but some of my older (more experienced) concert goers say they were quite boring to watch.  I had never seen them so I was excited!

About an hour into the show, I made my decision.  I have to agree with my older fellow rockers.  I was bored!  Not much crowd interaction, no movement, just stood there and played.  If you are looking for a good mixture of old and new songs like “Not Meant To Be“, “No Surprise“, “By The Way“, “Hate My Life” and “Bad Girlfriend” then you will enjoy this aspect of the show.  If you think the lead singer, Tyler Connolly, is cute then you will enjoy the show.  He stands center stage and the cameras are on him most of the time.  Even the people way in the back got a good look at him due to he was the only thing on the big screens most of the time.

The sound was good but if you are looking for a reach out and grab you rock show, you won’t find it here.  If I had the chance to go see them again as a headliner, I would probably not.  When I go to a rock show, I want to ROCK!