The 3rd Annual Louder Than Life Festival was hosted again this year at Champions Park in Louisville, KY. The festival which features the top touring bands currently making their way across the U.S. also offers fans some of the best gourmet man food, and bourbon that you will find at any music festival. With Jack Daniels offering fans a “Taste of Tennessee”, Monster Energy giving out plenty of free samples and merchandise, and FYE selling music, as well as hosting band meet and greets, there were plenty of things for fans to do while taking a break from the days music.
Bourbon World gave fans a chance to sample some of Kentucky’s, as well as the country’s best bourbon and also played host to Iron Horse, a bluegrass metal cover band that played daily shows in the Bourbon World tent. Along with bourbon Louder Than Life brought in local breweries from throughout the country to offer fans specialized drafts to wash down their bourbon with. For those looking for something a little stronger than a beer, El Jimador Tequila, and Tito’s Handmade Vodka were on hand serving up drinks as well.
The weekend saw over fifty thousand fans pack Champions Park as thirty-five bands played across three stages over the course of the weekend. With the music spread across three stages fans didn’t need to be concerned with missing any artists due to overlapping set times. The festival was set up with two main stages, the Monster and Loudmouth stages, and a third stage, the Zorn stage. One of the best things about festivals is that you never know who will join who on stage for a special performance, and this weekend was no different. We saw Taylor Hawkins, and members of Anthrax join Cheap Trick during their headlining performance on the Zorn stage. Corey Taylor joined Korn for the live debut of “A Different World”, and Skindred’s Benji Webbe got in on the action during Disturbed’s cover of “Killing In The Name”.
Festivals like Louder Than Life give fans the chance to see veteran acts, as well as the opportunity to see newer artists they may not have heard of before all in one place. Another advantage for fans at festivals is the chance to meet some of their favorite bands and artists. The FYE tent hosted meet and greets thru out the weekend allowing fans to take pictures and have merchandise signed. The following bands participated in the meet and greets, Anthrax, Pierce The Veil, Twelve Foot Ninja, Young Guns, Neck Deep, Avatar, Motionless In White, Sick Puppies, The Amity Affliction, HELLYEAH, Crobot, Adelitas Way, Skindred, Trivium, Sabaton, Parkway Drive, Pop Evil, Kyng, Sevendust, Skillet, and Ghost.
Cloudy weather and the chance of rain on Saturday didn’t deter fans from coming out to get things started for this years festival. Gates opened at 11am and with ’68 kicking the day’s events off on the Loudmouth stage shortly thereafter, fans were lined up early to make sure they got their place along the barricades. The days events wrapped up with Cheap Trick, Slayer and Avenged Sevenfold headlining each of their stages. I think for me, the two standout performances of the day had to be Avatar, who should be playing a later time slot with a longer set, and HELLYEAH, who just continue to blow me away every time I see them live, another band that should be given a later time slot and longer set. Saturdays lineup consisted of Bishop Gunn, Dinosaur Pile Up, Twelve Foot Ninja, ’68, Being As An Ocean, Young Guns, Neck Deep, I Prevail, Sick Puppies, Avatar, The Amity Affliction, Motionless In White, Chevy Metal, HELLYEAH, Anthrax, Cheap Trick, Pierce The Veil, The Cult, Slayer, and Avenged Sevenfold.
Sunday’s weather was better as things got under way on the Zorn stage with Them Evils kicking things off for the day. Clutch and Disturbed closed out the Zorn and Loudmouth stages for the weekend, with Slipknot wrapping up the weekends festival over at the Monster stage. Highlights for Sunday would have to include Parkway Drive, who are a must see live band, Zakk Sabbath, a chance to see guitar legend Zakk Wylde playing classic Black Sabbath, and Ghost, whose cult like following continues to grow with each album release and tour. Sundays lineup, which seemed to be the heavier stacked day of the two day festival consisted of Them Evils, Smashing Satellites, Sabaton, Crobot, Adelitas Way, Skindred, Kyng, Zakk Sabbath, Parkway Drive, Trivium, Pop Evil, Skillet, Sevendust, Ghost, Alter Bridge, Clutch, Korn, Disturbed, and Slipknot.
Look for the Louder Than Life Festival to return to Louisville in 2017 for what we can only imagine will be another great festival for the city and the fans. Below you can find some of the band’s setlists from the festival. Also stay tuned for galleries from each day to be posted soon as well.
Bishop Gunn
Bishop Gunn Setlist:
Eye of the Hurricane
Silver Streak
Let the People Know
Have Your Way with Me
Bank of the River
Drum Solo (with band introductions)
Whole Lotta Love (Led Zeppelin cover) (with snippet of Led Zeppelin’ s “Moby Dick” preceding performance of song)
Twelve Foot Ninja
Twelve Foot Ninja Setlist:
Mother Sky
Invincible
Sick
Collateral
Coming for You
Shuriken (with band introductions and snippet of the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling”)
One Hand Killing
Young Guns
Young Guns Setlist:
Rising Up
Bulletproof
Echoes
Paranoid
Mad World
I Want Out
Bones
Neck Deep
Neck Deep Setlist:
Gold Steps
What Did You Expect?
Lime St.
Threat Level Midnight
Serpents
December
Kali Ma
Can’t Kick Up the Roots
Avatar
Avatar Setlist:
For the Swarm
Hail the Apocalypse
Paint Me Red
The Eagle Has Landed
Let It Burn
Smells Like a Freakshow
I Prevail
I Prevail Setlist:
Scars
Heart vs. Mind
Walk / One Step Closer / Killing in the Name (Pantera / Linkin Park / Rage Against the Machine covers)
Blank Space (Taylor Swift cover)
Stuck in Your Head
Already Dead
Love, Lust and Liars
The Amity Affliction
The Amity Affliction Setlist:
I Bring the Weather With Me
Open Letter
All Fucked Up
Pittsburgh
Don’t Lean on Me
This Could Be Heartbreak
Motionless In White
Motionless In White Setlist:
Devil’s Night
570
Abigail
A-M-E-R-I-C-A
Du hast (Rammstein cover)
Generation Lost
Reincarnate
HELLYEAH
HELLYEAH Setlist:
X
Demons in the Dirt
Sangre por Sangre (Blood for Blood)
Moth
Say When
Startariot
I Don’t Care Anymore (Phil Collins cover)
Human
Anthrax
Anthrax Setlist:
Caught in a Mosh
Got the Time (Joe Jackson cover)
Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t
Antisocial (Trust cover)
Breathing Lightning
Indians
Chevy Metal
Chevy Metal Setlist:
Jailbreak (Thin Lizzy cover)
Bitch (The Rolling Stones cover)
Stay With Me (Faces cover)
Looks That Kill (Mötley Crüe cover)
Live Wire (Mötley Crüe cover)
My Sharona (The Knack cover)
The Stroke (Billy Squier cover)
Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie cover) (with John Lousteau)
You Really Got Me (The Kinks cover)
Under Pressure (Queen cover)
Let There Be Rock (AC/DC cover)
Cheap Trick
Cheap Trick Setlist:
Hello There
Big Eyes
California Man (The Move cover)
Heart on the Line
Baby Loves to Rock
Clock Strikes Ten
Stiff Competition (with Taylor Hawkins)
Bass Solo
I’m Waiting for the Man (The Velvet Underground cover)
I Want You to Want Me
Dream Police
Surrender (with Joey Belladonna and Frank Bello)
Auf Wiedersehen (with Scott Ian)
Slayer
Slayer Setlist:
Repentless
Chemical Warfare
Disciple
Mandatory Suicide
Hate Worldwide
War Ensemble
You Against You
Dead Skin Mask
Seasons in the Abyss
South of Heaven
Raining Blood
Black Magic
Angel of Death
Avenged Sevenfold
Avenged Sevenfold Setlist:
Nightmare
Afterlife
Shepherd of Fire
Hail to the King
Buried Alive
Gunslinger
To End the Rapture
Second Heartbeat
Planets
Acid Rain
Encore:
Bat Country
Unholy Confessions
Crobot
Crobot Setlist:
Plague of the Mammoths
Easy Money
Skull of Geronimo
Welcome to Fat City
The Necromancer
The Legend of the Spaceborne Killer
Adelitas Way
Adelitas Way Setlist:
Sick
Criticize
Bad Reputation
Ready for War (Pray for Peace)
The Collapse
Invincible
Skindred
Skindred Setlist:
Rat Race
Pressure
Kill the Power
Nobody
Warning
Trivium
Trivium Setlist:
Strife
A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation
Until the World Goes Cold
Down From the Sky
In Waves
Sabaton
Sabaton Setlist:
Ghost Division
Sparta
Blood of Bannockburn
Swedish Pagans
To Hell and Back
Primo Victoria
Parkway Drive
Parkway Drive Setlist:
Crushed
Carrion
Vice Grip
Wild Eyes
Devil’s Calling
Bottom Feeder
Pop Evil
Pop Evil Setlist:
Ways to Get High
Lux
Deal with the Devil
100 in a 55
Last Man Standing
Trenches
Torn to Pieces
Footsteps
Take It All
Sevendust
Sevendust Setlist:
Pieces
Face to Face
Hero
Praise
Shine
Decay
Thank You
Zakk Sabbath
Zakk Sabbath Setlist:
Children of the Grave
Snowblind
War Pigs
Into the Void
Fairies Wear Boots
Alter Bridge
Alter Bridge Setlist:
Come to Life
Farther Than the Sun
Addicted to Pain
Show Me a Leader
Metalingus (preceded by a drum solo by Scott Phillips)
Isolation
Blackbird(preceded by a guitar snippet of the Beatles’ “Blackbird”, performed by Myles Kennedy)
Rise Today
Ghost
Ghost Setlist:
Square Hammer
From the Pinnacle to the Pit
Ritual
Cirice
Year Zero
Absolution
Mummy Dust
Korn
Korn Setlist:
Right Now
Here to Stay
Rotting in Vain
Somebody Someone
Coming Undone
A Different World (with Corey Taylor) (Live debut)
Shoots and Ladders (with a snippet of Metallica’s “One” at the end)
Blind
Twist
Good God
Falling Away From Me
Freak on a Leash
Disturbed
Disturbed Setlist:
Ten Thousand Fists
The Game
The Vengeful One
Prayer
Stupify
The Sound of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel cover)
Inside the Fire
The Light
Stricken
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / Baba O’Riley / Killing in the Name (U2 / The Who / Rage Against the Machine covers)
Indestructible
Voices
Down With the Sickness
Note: Killing in the Name was performed with Benji Webbe of Skindred
Slipknot
Slipknot Setlist:
The Negative One
Disasterpiece
Eyeless
Before I Forget
Killpop
Dead Memories
Left Behind
The Heretic Anthem
Psychosocial
The Devil in I
Wait and Bleed
(sic)
Encore:
Surfacing
Duality
Spit It Out
