A weekend at Carolina Rebellion with S16: Day 3!

Carolina Rebellion:

May 4th through 6th, Concord, NC welcomed its annual rock music festival back to the Charlotte area; enter the Carolina Rebellion. The Rebellion has become a staple in the area since 2011 with a slight break when the venue moved to Rockingham, NC back in 2012. In 2013, the festival returned back home and has become a permanent fixture and our local rite of passage for rock and heavy metal fans.

Check out coverage from day 1 and 2 here!

Day 3

You could tell by Sunday, people were not moving quite as fast as they had been on Friday and Saturday. I know I had some achy feet. The fitbit said 8.5 miles had been walked on Saturday. Thank goodness Monster kept the cooler stocked with coldish energy drinks, because we had more music to see. Jelly Roll, straight out of Nashville, was in the house reppin that white trash Tennessee style on the Black Stage and got the crowd pumped. Some other standout acts of the day were Greta Van Fleet. These young guys are taking us back to the 70s with their Zep influences that came into play way before these guys were even born. Jimmy and Robert would’ve been proud to see how their legacy has been passed on.

Code Orange. What can you say about them other than what just happened here? They were off the stage and into the crowd before I could even swing my camera up from my hip. Once they started it was a non-stop barrage of metal. Impressive to say the least.

Incubus – still chill, and still damn good. I could have kicked back and just jammed with them all day. One of my favorite live bands ever, and my opinion was not changed.

So, The Fever 333. “We have to to go the Gold Stage to see these guys,” I heard from the other photographers. A huge crowd gathered up around the stage. Once the band started, I knew why. Highest energy and wildest stage presence of the festival goes to the guys in 333. Pulling the drum riser around, rolling around under it, trying to rip down their banner from the rafters (those pesky zip ties kept that from happening and you could see it did not make Jason very happy), flying out to the crowd, throwing stuff into the crowd, using the side banners as a hammack. Those are just a few of the things I saw during their performance, and I only saw two songs. I had to make my way over to the next stage to see a legend, Billy Idol.

I have to give it to Idol, he is still looking good in his early 60s. What is more appropriate than the “Rebel Yell” singer performing at the Carolina Rebellion? I won’t mention any names, but rumor has it one of the other photogs took 2,400 shots during the three songs we shot. Hey, we did have perfect light, so why not go for it. Idol did a good job representing us old folks and killed it.

Queens of the Stone Age and Muse closed out the festival on Sunday night both with massive light shows to pull the crowd in with them.

There was some gripes early on about the lineup for the 2018 Carolina Rebellion, but actually seeing almost every band, I feel they did a good job bringing in a lot of really good bands that offered a little something for everyone. I didn’t see massive lines at the bathrooms or the vendors, so it was very well planned to easily handle the massive crowds over the three days. This was my first time at the Rebellion and I was not sure what to expect. My expectations were exceeded, and I can’t wait to see what the organizers have planned for 2019.