ROCKLAHOMA ‘09: EPIC FAIL
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 2:00pm by Axl RosenbergOur friend Allyson at Bring Back Glam has been reporting from Rocklahoma all week. She’s obviously a big fan of the event, given that a) she runs a site all about glam and b) she wrote the text for the Rocklahoma coffee table book that came out last year.
But she’s been making (perfectly valid) complaints about this year’s fest for the past ten months, taking issue in particular with this year’s line-up. And as it turns out, she was totally correct: attendance at this summer’s edition of the event was apparently abysmal.
Check out this photo Allyson took of the crowd. This was at dusk; if it was Ozzfest, everyone who skipped the second stage would be starting to pile in right about this time. No such luck for Great White, even though there was absolutely no chance of being burned alive at the outdoor venue:
Now, even if you hate hair metal – and I’m sure quite a few of you do – Rocklahoma has been successful in the past. So maybe it’s just the failing of this year’s line-up, which included non-hair metallers such as Anthrax, Overkill, Anvil, Metal Church and Saxon, in addition to acts like Twisted Sister, Stryper, Warrant, Ratt, Skid Row, Lizzy Borden, Jackyl, Nelson (Nelson are still around?!?) and Beautiful Creatures.
This was the third annual Rocklahoma, so presumably it’s been a much more successful event in the past. But the organizers better figure out what the fuck went wrong if they wanna keep it going in years to come.
Head over to Bring Back Glam for all of Allyson’s reports from the show, plus more photos of the very, very low attendance level.
-AR
It’s also possible the economy has something to do with it. I would think that, all things being equal, the more old school metal fans would replace the hair metal fans, given the Anthrax/Overkill/Metal Church addition.
Maybe everyone finally figured out that all of those bands suck.
Metal Church and Overkill certainly do not suck. Especially Metal Church. Go listen to KsE, bozo.
*sarcasm about the KsE comment. Guess it doesn’t carry well in text form.
Metal Church rules.
kind of funny that the one year they get some bands that seemingly would up the attendance (anthrax, overkill) no one shows up…
How in the fuck would Overkill up anything?..except that whiny ass voice the singer has…Blech!!
I wanted to go but there’s this called electricity that i really enjoy having and if i hadn’t paid my $300 bill, i wouldn’t be able to be here right now.
$300.00 electric bill! too many 1000W lights?
Oh man that picture is fucking awesome. And I love that those people are fenced in by a cattle gate.
Shit. I would have gone for Overkill and Saxon alone.
WE CAME TO SHRED
Take it from a burned-out Texan living thru the hottest summer on record (one year after the last hottest summer on record!,) festival season doesn’t start below the Mason Dixon line until November. Take a look at the FunFunFunFest in Austin to see how it’s done properly.
Fuck hair metal. As Dave Mustaine said, Glam stands for Gay Los Angeles Metal. Thank god grunge came along and killed that shit. Who the hell would go to this shit? I mean, I guess since this year they got some original thrash shit like Overkill and Anthrax it’d be well worth it. But really, Stryper and Lizzy Borden? People actually still listen to them?
Dude, I saw Lizzy Borden in there support for WASP a few years ago. They are a pretty great band live. The music on the other hand is hit or miss.
Lizzy was Bad Ass!!
That’s Rocklahoma? It looks like people waiting for a pig-judging contest at a county fair.
If they wanted to judge pigs, judging by that photo they need only look left or right.
what has 2,500 legs and 6 boobs? an overkill concert!
nah it looks like a few less legs than that here. bobby blitz just turned 50 and overkill still steal the show every time, as i’m sure they did here. btw, this was metal church’s last show ever and that turnout sucks especially for them. kinda wish they could’ve played a bigger show to end with… put overkill /metal church/ anthrax on a euro fest and it would be huge.
yeah as soon as Overkill was about to come on..everyone left…That singer sucks….Welcome to the guttttterrrrr…give me a fuckin break..
oh yeah i forgot. they played bands like with ratt and twisted sister. those two bands have fantastic singers. i’m sure their fans have great taste. give ME a break
*with bands like
and there’s other bands on the bill with some of the greatest frontmen of all time… like jackyl, styrper, and warrant. even skid row with johnny whateverthefuckhisnameis oh man these bands are all so much better than overkill.
Yeah Since Ratt had like 20 more songs that people actually know…and played to a decent crowd unlike Overkill who absolutely has not a one thats worth a shit..unless your some ugly fuck stick who enjoys bands that play in tennis shoes with holes in em…Look Man Overkill never made it for a reason and adding 25 years and some lbs isnt gonna help..
yeah i’m sorry i like overkill better than ratt. guess that makes me some ugly fuck stick who blah blah blah. i get it tough guy. nobody really cares how many more ppl watched ratt.
and comparing an old never-was thrash band to an old super duper has-been hair band is ridiculous. but not as ridiculous as them playing the same show.
Man, that burned alive comment was even to far over the top for me…
I think it was a combination of a lot of things. Last year the rain and winds that came through and blew all the stages down probably killed many peoples moods. That, and they upped ticked prices out the whazoo last year. That’s why they were discounting VIP tickets 100.00 for next year. There were still a lot of people there. Many of those bands would agree that playing in front of 10-15000 is still better than playing in front of a club with only 100 people.
Perhaps they should get Metallica to play. Hell, Metallica plays everywhere – they don’t care.
It’d help if they had it like not in Oklahoma…