It’s just about that time of year again, where 50,000 Kansas Citians drink beer and get sunburned while a lucky few get their cornea scratched.  The 2010 Rockfest lineup was announced, and it’s definately one of the weaker ones I’ve seen.  I don’t want to hash through the entire lineup but the fact that Godsmack is headlining the whole thing says a lot.  I keep wondering if they had a larger headliner in mind and had them cancel at the last minute. 

The biggest problem seems to be that the lineup is too predictable.  Maybe it’s my imagination but there are too many bands that seem to come through Kansas City all the time.  The most obvious one is Drowning Pool who put on a good show a couple of years ago at the City Market but they were just in town a few months ago.  Same with Rev Theory and Three Days Grace.

For all my complaining I’ll probably still go, with everything depending on the arrival of a new baby.  The promoters smartened up and scheduled the thing a month earlier on May 15 which should be pretty nice weather.  I think the advantage of the weak lineup is that there’s no one I’m dying to see so I can leave whenever and just enjoy myself.

May 30th was the annual Kansas City Rockfest put on each year by 98.9.  Just a few thoughts since I didn’t end up staying that long.

First off it was hot.  Really hot, like Tattooine.  I decided to go this year because I figured it wouldn’t be too hot at the end of May.  I certainly learned my lesson on that.

So anyway, I packed up my sunscreen, one unopened water bottle, and a camera (as per the rules they posted) and went on my way.  The concert was at Liberty Memorial, but I ended up parking at Union Station for $20.  It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it was like when you’re in Vegas and you think you’ll walk somewhere because it’s only a few properties down the strip.  Even though they’re right next to each other it takes forever to get from one to another - probably a good 20 minutes.

One of the interesting thing was the number of scalpers buying and selling tickets.  It was around 3:30 and things started around noon, so the $40 face value tickets were now being sold for $20.  On top of that, the scalpers were buying people’s tickets for $10 so they could sell them for $20.

Once I arrived at the concert I was suprised by the sheer number of people.  Obviously 50,000 tickets sold is a lot, but it’s one of those things that doesn’t click until you see it in person.

There were plenty of beer tents serving crappy beer so there wasn’t a wait for that.  There weren’t as many concession stands and someone told me it was a 45 wait in line to get a hot dog.  Here’s another thing - they kept hyping that no food or drink would be over $5.00, which turned out to mean that EVERY food or drink item was $5.00, including the cup of lemonade I got.

I was supposed to meet a couple of people at a specific spot but couldn’t find them.  I went to go check out Parlor Mob’s set on the second stage.  I didn’t expect much that early in the day but they were really good - a solid blues based hard rock band that really seemed to click.  I ended up ordering their album from Amazon based on the strength of their set.  They had a pretty small crowd in front of the stage which was suprising based on the sheet number of people there.

After that finished I moved over to check out Corey Taylor’s set.  Despite owning two Slipknot albums I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of them or Stone Sour but there was a lot of talk about his first solo show.  He pulled out a few suprise covers like Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” and the “Cheers” theme.  His set was good, but not great.

After his set I found the people I was supposed to meet.  However, I was nearing the end of my day when something in the air scratched my eyeball.  It was killing me so I decided to leave and let the good Dr. McKeon look at it.  Apprantly what I should have done was fashioned an eye patch to cover it so I could have stayed.  Anyway, I got some numbing drops and I was happy.

I left during Shinedown’s set and from what a lot of people were saying, they were the band everyone wanted to see, even over the headliners.

One other interesting thing is that as I left (somewhere around 6:45).  I saw lots of unused tickets on the sidewalk leading up to the Liberty Memorial and even saw a small stack stuck under a minivan’s rear windshield wiper.

So that was it.  However, I do have a plan for next year:

1.  DO NOT buy tickets ahead of time.  Don’t fall for the hype of it being sold out.

2.  If it’s too hot, just stay home.  If the weather is nice go and pick up some cheap tickets from scalpers.  If that doesn’t work out just go see a movie or something.

In less than two weeks Rockfest sold all of its 50,000 tickets, and according to the site it’s the biggest one day music festival in the United States.

There’s a lesson here to radio stations and promoters but somehow I doubt it will take.  I’m not the biggest fan of KQRC, but they’ve done an outstanding job building up an audience and promoting their shows.  If I recall correctly when I moved to the area ten years ago it was being held in Sandstone which holds around 18,000.  

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out with a crowd this size.  I”m curious when the busiest time will be and how many people are going to stay all day.  It starts at noon but there’s no way I’m going to make it all day.  I’ll probably end up showing up around five and leaving toward the end of Korn’s set, depending on the size of the crowd.

Apparently this came out on Tuesday, but the lineup for the annual rockfest show was announced:

Korn
Buckcherry
Shinedown
Drowning Pool
Dope
Corey Taylor
Loaded with Duff McKagan
Saving Abel
Rev Theory

..and some other bands I don’t know anything about. Despite my dislike of huge crowds (I think last year they had around 50,000 people) I may end up going, and I’m not sure why. For some reason this sounds like a good time. It’s being held at the end of May before the summer heat becomes unbearable for outside shows. I’m interested in seeing a decent number of the bands (Korn, Shinedown, Buckcherry, Corey Taylor, and Loaded) where most years there’s only 1-2 that I care about seeing.

By the way, I had no idea Korn was down to three members now. They’re starting to remind me of the Monkees when they put out those two albums without Peter Tork’s face on them and then their next album only had Mickey Dolenz and Davey Jones on the cover and they looked really lonely.

The big question mark for the show is the craziness factor.  Will it be good crazy (where I don’t get hassled) or bad crazy (some redneck tries to pick a fight with me) ?  Based on the radio station that’s sponsoring this thing it has to be one of the two.