All Photos By Travis Failey Photography
With the return of concerts in 2021 came the return of rock festivals, although the majority of the ones held in the spring and early summer had moved to late summer and fall. Rocklahoma was one of those, moving from its traditional Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, although it remains to be seen if this change is permanent or just for this year. Of course with Covid still raging across the states it was inevitable that some lineup changes would occur, moreso than in previous years and as long as I've been the Managing Editor for KNAC.COM and thus receiving all of the press releases sent out for the various festivals, I have never seen the number of lineup changes that occurred at this year's Rocklahoma. Chief among them was the cancellation of Sunday's headliner LIMP BIZKIT, along with PHILIP H. ANSELMO AND THE ILLEGALS, who were to perform PANTERA's Vulgar Display Of Power, GEORGE LYNCH & THE ELECTRIC FREEDOM, LIGHT THE TORCH and CROBOT, among others. Others were added, such as STEEL PANTHER and MASTODON, but would they find a suitable replacement headliner for Sunday? And would the weather also be a factor as it has on occasion over past years? These questions would be answered soon enough as the weekend took shape.
Since my brother lives on the outskirts of Tulsa on the west side I took the opportunity to take our mother by there for a visit while I attended Rocklahoma, getting a few hours to relax with them Thursday afternoon before having to leave around 9:30pm to pick up fellow KNAC.COM contributor and photographer Travis Failey at the airport in Tulsa following his flight from Tampa, FL to cover the event. On his switchover flight from St. Louis to Tulsa he found himself seated next to 3 of the members of SEVENDUST, along with at least one other act, DIAMANTE, who also happened to be on the flight. However, due to the late schedule of his flight, he didn't arrive until 10:30pm and by the time we made it to our hotel it was getting close to midnight and we would miss the Thursday pre-party at Rocklahoma that featured THE IRON MAIDENS and Stephen Pearcy of RATT along with some others. That was okay though as we would need all of our energy for what would follow the next few days.
Day 1
Prior to heading to Oklahoma for the weekend I had scoped out the weather forecast with the hope that the festival being moved to Labor Day weekend would bring somewhat milder temperatures than during Memorial Day but those hopes were dashed with the forecast of mid-to-upper 90's for the entire time. With no shade to speak of in the festival grounds I was prepping myself to the idea that I would be sweating profusely while attending.
We had to get an early start on Friday as we had to get to the media tent first off to pick up our credentials. Unlike most if not all of the DWP Presents festivals this year where they are not providing photo passes, Rocklahoma is an AEG Live event and as such we WERE approved for a photo pass and that most definitely factored into the decision for Travis to attend Rocklahoma versus others that he was contemplating. Picking up his photo pass was no problem but for some reason they did not have the media passes on hand so while they went in search of said passes we headed back around to the GA entrance and the will-call window for our weekend bracelets, only to discover that they did not have Travis in the system for one anywhere. So, back to the media tent we went and when we finally got our media passes, we notified Michaela, our onsite AEG rep, about the bracelet issue and she took off on a golf cart to rectify the situation, which she did in short order. This was one of many things she would do over the weekend that would earn the highest praise from both of us.
One of the great things about having media passes (along with dedicated parking just for the media, which was AWESOME) is that we could roam the festival grounds before the general public was let in each day. This allowed us, especially on the first day, to survey the landscape and figure out where everything was located. This came in handy because for this year they had relocated the 2nd and 3rd stages from their previous locations in years past. In the past, you had the Main Stage, which is fixed at one end of the grounds, and the 2 other stages were at angles on either side of the Main Stage, each wiithin about 30 yards or so from the Main Stage. For this year, the 2 other stages were reloacted to the complete opposite end of the festival grounds near where the GA entrance was located. That meant there would be a LOT of walking involved considering the length of the grounds was probably 250-300 yards, not as bad as other festivals but certainly worse than it used to be here.
Rocklahoma also brings out a wide variety of characters and this year included an evil looking Easter Bunny, a guy dressed like Santa Claus on a beach vacation and an assortment of ladies that chose to wear actual lingerie. When did this become a 'thing'? Not that I would be complaining in most instances but most of the ones that chose to do so probably shouldn't be even in a private setting much less at a 3 day rock festival. Some things you just can't unsee.
Even though the main festival grounds don't open to the public until 2:30pm each day the music gets ramped up early on the third stage called the DEB Concerts stage which was located right by the GA entrance I spoke of inside a tent called The Roadhouse. Each day this stage would kick things off at 11:00am and on Day 1, the first band up that we unfortunately caught the very last song of, was a band called STRAIGHT SIX. Even at 11 in the morning the heat was starting to get oppressive so we decided to hang out there and caught LOVESICK RADIO, a band from Vegas. Immediately following them was OUTLAW DEVILS, a band from Tulsa and Dallas and although they looked nothing like it, if you closed your eyes and only listened to them you would have thought it was POISON performing, at least on a couple of their songs. Blue collar rock at its finest, they got the crowd going early.
We headed back to the media tent for a quick break and some water (they kept a small fridge fully stocked with water for us the entire weekend) and observed singer Diamante and her band doing interviews there and happened to catch TREMONTI founder Mark Tremonti walking by on his way to the backstage area, where the media tent was situated just outside of.
Afterwards we headed all the way back to the DEB Stage tent to catch Phoenix-based COLOR OF CHAOS and their hard rocking set, kicked off with one of their original tracks, "Eve Of Destruction" and their 30 minute set closed out with "Fortunate Son". This is another great band worth checking out.
From there, it was a short distance over to the 2nd stage, called the Renegade Stage, to catch the first of what would be a good handful of female-fronted acts playing Rocklahoma in 2021, that being the youngsters in PLUSH, lead by one Mariah Formica who had appeared on NBC's The Voice. This all female band consists of members who are all 21 years old or younger but they play with all the chops of seasoned rock veterans. By this time the heat had become
absolutely brutal while we waited for the band to start their set and it had to be especially hard on the band themselves, who were on stage for a full 15 minutes before beginning their performance with a song that I assume was called "Goddess Of Love". I say 'assume' because the band's debut album hasn't even been released yet and the only single released so far has been "Hate", as well as a 3-song sampler. "Hate" was played of course, along with original song "Sober" and an absolutely kick ass cover of HEART's "Barracuda". Chatting with the father of bassist Ashley Suppa afterwards he noted that the thermometer on the side of the stage registered 119 just prior to the band's set. Be sure and check out PLUSH opening for EVANESCENCE and HALESTORM on their joint run later this year.
From there we hiked back to the man stage, the Freedom Stage, to catch FROM ASHES TO NEW, who ended up being a no-show and I don't recall seeing anything that mentioned they wouldn't be performing or why. So after another media tent break and some air conditioning courtesy of my Tahoe we once again trekked all the way to the Renegade Stage for the next female fronted act, DIAMANTE. Dressed in shiny white spandex and her trademark blue hair the 25 year old turned up the heat (as if it was really needed) with set opener "Unfuck You" from her latest release, American Dream. She performed the title track, "Serves You Right" and "I Love Myself For Hating You" from that album and even a nice cover of the GOO GOO DOLLS' hit "Iris". DIAMANTE is definitely another one to watch.
Next up was CANDLEBOX on the Freedom Stage and I have to say that I've never been a fan of theirs but they put on one wail of a 40 minute performance, playing songs like "Arrow", "Change", "Riptide" and "Nothing Left To Lose" before finishing things off with a cover of BLACK SABBATH's "Children of The Grave". A fantastic set by Kevin Martin and company!
As the sun started to descend in the western sky and provide a much needed respite from the heat (thank GOD for SPF 50 is all I gotta say!), long running Atlanta, GA rockers SEVENDUST took the Freedom Stage and absolutely lit the place up with "Dying To Live", "Black", "Splinter", "Blood From A Stone", "Denial" and "Face To Face", among others. Frontman Lajon Witherspoon was on point throughout and despite the sun shining straight into their faces the whole time they fired back with some heavy heat of their own.
Next on the Renegade Stage was TREMONTI, the band founded and fronted by former CREED guitarist Mark Tremonti. The band is out on the road supporting their newest album Marching In Time and started their set off with the lead-off track from the album called "A World Away". TREMONTI played a couple of tunes from the release including the live debut of "If Not For You". Other songs performed were "Throw Them To The Lions", "Cauterize" and "Flying Monkeys". At the end Mark Tremonti apologized for his "old, worn out voice", though I thought he sounded pretty good, before performing "Wish You Well" to cap things off. Their set also brought out the first crowd surfing of the day.
Back on the Freedom Stage came CHEVELLE to what by this point was a near packed house for their first performance at Rocklahoma since 2016. CHEVELLE is also supporting a new album, Niratias, and it was well represented in their set with the first 3 songs from the album, "Verrukt", "Mars Simula" and "Self Destructor". Of course hits like "Send The Pain Below" and "The Red" were also included, along with closing number "I Get It".
Following up on the Renegade Stage was GRANDSON, an alternative, hip-hop, rap rock singer that really wasn't my cup of tea but was evidently very popular with the Rocklahoma folks as the crowd for his set was quite large and there was by far the heaviest crowd surfing of the day, which kept the barricade security on their toes for sure.
Then, at 10:45pm it was time for Freedom Stage headliner for Day 1, none other than repeat Rocklahoma performer, the master of macabre himself, ROB ZOMBIE, also making his first return to Rocklahoma since 2016. Having covered Rocklahoma in the past it is apparent that ROB ZOMBIE is a fan favorite and always puts on a stellar performance and this year was no exception. Rob also released a new album this year, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse
Conspiracy, and he kicked off his headline set with "The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition)" from that opus and he and his band were off and running, really never letting up on the gas as they plowed through the set with a mixture of WHITE ZOMBIE tracks, his own material and even a cover song or two thrown in for good measure. He lit up the Rocklahoma night with "Superbeast", "Living Dead Girl", "House Of 1000 Corpses", "More Human Than Human", "Thunder Kiss '65" and encore "Dragula". Of course it really wouldn't be a Zombie show without a cover of THE BEATLES' classic "Helter Skelter" in the setlist. Zombie finished up his set around midnight and Day 1 of Rocklahoma was officially in the books.
Driving back to the hotel from the festival through the town of Pryor, Oklahoma the police must see this festival as a way to pay their salaries for the year because the town was literally CRAWLING with cops! I had no idea this little town had that many officers. In just one half mile stretch of town I counted no less than 12 cars, either already having pulled people over or sitting in parking lots like vultures just waiting for their prey.
Day 2
Day 2 started off the same as Day 1 but the weather forecast had changed and now we were looking at a 60% of storms possible in the afternoon, but the good news was with the threat of storms came the chance for clouds and that certainly would be a welcome respite to the heat from Friday. Arriving at the grounds at about 1:30 we noticed right away that the threat of storms had already affected the day's performance schedule, with headliner SLIPKNOT's set time being changed from 10:45 to 8:15!
The first band we checked out on the DEB Stage was FIST OF RAGE, a local Tulsa band that put on a fine set and the most noticeable thing was that the sound volume on this stage was a bit louder than it was on Friday. If it's too loud, you're too old! Immediately following them on the same stage was ROCKET SCIENCE, another Tulsa based covers band (I assume because I heard no original songs). Led by the husband and wife duo of Scott Squires on vocals and Janna Jordan
Squires on lead guitar, this band lit the DEB Stage up with a blistering set of covers, opening with "The Hellion/Electric Eye" and Janna showing that she's the real deal on guitar, taking on all the parts with ease. They also played "Look what The Cat Dragged In" and "White Wedding" before stunning yours truly with a most impressive cover of "Bark At The Moon", which Janna absolutely fucking nailed! The band closed their set with "Balls To The Wall".
Taking a short break in the media tent we could see the storm clouds forming to the west of us and upon checking the radar we could see that a line was forming along a cool front and was getting closer. Someone in the tent that was monitoring the weather noted that there was a lightning strike 8 miles away and that Rocklahoma policy is that once the strikes reach 5 miles away, they shut things down. I noted to myself that it probably wouldn't be that much longer before that happened and sure enough, as my photographer Travis headed to the Freedom Stage to catch BADFLOWER the screens on either side of the stage lit up with a message that everyone needed to evacuate to their vehicles because of approaching storms. Rocklahoma host Eddie Trunk also took to the stage to repeat this warning and to let everyone know to check the Rocklahoma App or Facebook page for updates on when things would resume. There were just a couple of issues with this: 1. Cell service in the area kinda sucks as I noticed that even in areas where I had full signal things wouldn't load so we couldn't check Facebook for updates, and 2. What do you think happens when 20,000 people all try to access the App at once? That's right, it crashes, which is what it did the entire time during this evacuation. This was at 4pm when we evacuated and the rain started about 4:20, pouring for a bit and then just settling into a light rain for the next 30 minutes or so and by 5pm the rain was gone and the sun reappeared. The temperature had dropped about 10-15 degrees and there was a nice, dry wind blowing which made the rest of the day beautiful.
Back inside the media tent where we had dedicated WiFi we could finally access the App and waited for the all clear update, but before they would do that they had to now update the schedule once again and around 5:30pm they did, moving SLIPKNOT's performance time to 8:45 and moving BUTCHER BABIES to the 10-10:30 slot on the Renegade Stage. Why they didn't just put SLIPKNOT back to their original 10:45 slot remained a mystery and so now Saturday's festivities would end before ROB ZOMBIE even took the stage the night before.
The schedule changes also had 2 bands playing at the same time, with POP EVIL playing the Freedom Stage and JOHN 5 playing the DEB tent stage, both at 6pm. We opted to catch JOHN 5, who had the opportunity for double duty after playing with ROB ZOMBIE the night before. He took the stage in his trademarked long robe and wearing a mouthpiece that lit up and changed colors the whole time he was playing. He was in great spirits, smiling throughout his performance to what was probably the largest crowd I had seen in the tent up to that point. He also debuted a brand new song from his forthcoming album Sinner, that being "Que Pasa".
I headed back to the media tent for a breather where I ran into another photog who informed me that there was a SLIPKNOT photo release that had been dropped on us last minute and it had to be filled out and signed if we wanted to shoot their set, so I immediately tried calling and texting Travis multiple times to let him know but as I mentioned before, cell service sucked and it wasn't until he was headed to the Freedom Stage to catch ANTHRAX that I finally connected with him. The form had already been filled out so that all he had to do was sign it after he was done shooting ANTHRAX. And speaking of ANTHRAX, they are also a repeat Rocklahoma performer (which seems to be the case for quite a few bands each year) and certainly a crowd favorite. "The Number of The Beast" played on the PA speakers before Eddie Trunk came out to introduce the band as he put it, 'in a way the band could appreciate', stating 'You wanted the best, you
got the best, the hottest band in the land, ANTHRAX!'. The band then hit the stage with "Fight 'Em 'Til You Can't" and ran through their allotted time with the great ANTHRAX hits of "Madhouse", "Caught In A Mosh", "Got The Time", "I Am The Law", "Antisocial" and final number, "Indians". ANTHRAX never disappoints at Rocklahoma!
We headed back to the media tent to finish filling out the SLIPKNOT form only to be told that the forms had all already been submitted to the band and approvals given. This is when knight-in-shining-armor Michaela appeared again and without missing a beat, took the form from Travis and proceeded to RUN from the media tent to the band's bus to see if she could get one more approval! She returned a short time later with the good news. This act was above and beyond the call of duty and I'm really doubtful that anyone else in that position for say, Live Nation, would have done the same. It only solidified my opinion of what a fantastic job she did this weekend and I didn't hesitate to get word to her boss afterwards to let them know my thoughts.
You could tell it was time for SLIPKNOT because "For Those About To Rock" blared over the speakers and not to be outdone by Zombie's performance the night before, SLIPKNOT blew the doors off the place, launching their set with "Unsainted". It was also the debut of a new mask for vocalist Corey Taylor, who was actually still recovering from Covid the week before, but you couldn't tell. The band was on fire for their first performance in over 500 days (according to Taylor) and admittedly not being a SLIPKNOT fan, this show completely changed my mind. There was plenty of pyro and onstage antics as they steamrolled the crowd with "Disasterpiece", "Nero Forte", "Before I Forget", "Wait And Bleed", "All Out Life", "Duality" and 2 songs they hadn't played since 2016, "Eyeless" and "Left Behind". The encore consisted of "People=Shit", "(sic)" and finale "Surfacing". SLIPKNOT's first Rocklahoma appearance was definitely one for the ages and no offense to Zombie, this was the best showing of the weekend.
Finishing things up for Day 2 on the Renegade Stage was BUTCHER BABIES, who brought the majority of the crowd from the main stage to their location. With vocalists Carla Harvey sporting blue hair and Heidi Shepherd in yellow, the brought Day 2 of Rocklahoma to a close with a 30 minute set consisting of "I Smell A Massacre", "Monsters Ball", "Bottom Of A Bottle", "Yorktown", "They're Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Ha!" (NAPOLEON XIV cover) and "Magnolia Blvd", with moshing and crowd surfing in abundance throughout their set. The crowd definitely went home happy and spent from Day 2's events.
Day 3
Sunday brought very pleasant morning temps in the upper 50's and also the realization that there probably would not be a 'headliner' for the final day of Rocklahoma. I had held out hope that the Rocklahoma folks would somehow surprise everyone with a big name band coming to save the day at the last minute, but with each passing hour those hopes faded. As it would turn out, HALESTORM would be the final act of the evening on the Freedom Stage.
On the final day of Rocklahoma the first band we caught was PARALANDRA on the DEB Stage. PARALANDRA is from Missouri and I had already had the pleasure of catching this band live when they opened up for YNGWIE MALMSTEEN in Houston back at the end of July. PARALANDRA includes a father/daughter duo of Paul Carson on lead guitar and daughter Casandra Carson on vocals and guitar. The band has a new CD coming out soon and they certainly drew a large crowd to the DEB Stage tent and put on a fantastic set that included "Pretty Little Liar", "All Fall Down", a nicely done snippet of RUSH's "The Spirit Of Radio", their recently released new single "Despicable","Only Human" and "Back TO Life". This is another band worthy of checking out!
Following them on the same stage was L.A.'s BUDDERSIDE, fronted by Patrick Stone (ADLER'S APPETITE), who was once hired by the legend Lemmy Kilmister himself as a roadie, then signed by Lemmy once BUDDERSIDE was formed. The band proved their worth with a rousing set that saw Stone posing it up frequently for the photogs in the barricade and the whole band in otherwise fantastic spirits as they performed tracks from their 2 releases such as "Good To Be Alive", "Amber Alert" and brand new single "Voices".
On the Freedom Stage was one of the recent additions to the Rocklahoma lineup in the form of everyone's favorite sleaze parody rockers, STEEL PANTHER, who would be performing their first show with new bassist Phil "Silk Pockett" Buckman following the recent departure of longtime 4-stringer Lexxi Foxx. The band as always, led by Michael Starr, brought their tongue-in-cheek antics to Rocklahoma, kicking off their 30 minute set with "Eyes Of A Panther", then "Just Like Tiger Woods" and "Asian Hooker" before serenading the new Miss Rocklahoma for 2021 with what else, the ever hilarious "Girl From Oklahoma". The band then closed things out with "Community Property", "Gloryhole" and "Death To All But Metal".
Some other bands that played following STEEL PANTHER, which I did not catch myself but photog Travis did manage to get some shots of, included PUDDLE OF MUDD, MOTIONLESS IN WHITE and KNOCKED LOOSE before meeting up with me for another last minute addition to Sunday's lineup, mighty sludge rockers MASTODON. The band had been scheduled to play the Bonnaroo Festival on Friday, September 3rd as a replacement for DEFTONES, but then just days before the festival was to begin it was cancelled due to flooding from what was Hurricane Ida, so MASTODON gets to be the replacement again,
this time for PHILIP H. ANSELMO AND THE ILLEGALS, who themselves had to cancel because of the devastation of Ida that occurred in Louisiana. Bonnaroo's loss was our gain as the band sludged Rocklahoma with a 14 song set spanning 8 different albums, tracks including opener "Crystal Skull", "Divinations", "Megadalon", "I Am Ahab", "Black Tongue", "Mother Puncher", "Fallen Torches" and "Blood And Thunder". Though it would have been insane to catch PHILIP H. ANSELMO AND THE ILLEGALS performing their "Vulgar Display Of Pantera" set, MASTODON made sure that no one was sorry about them stepping in at the 11th hour.
We headed over to the Renegade Stage to catch Andrew WK to see what all the fuss was about and to see if he would be doing his usual DJ-style set or performing as an actual artist and it turned out to be the latter. Though I wasn't all that impressed with his set, the crowd certainly ate it up, with major crowd surfing and mosh pits taking place.
It was then time for the night's final act on the main Freedom Stage, that being Lzzy Hale and her cohorts in HALESTORM. They must have known in advance that there would not be a 'headliner' for Day 3 of Rocklahoma because they had full stage setup, lights, everything and though they weren't a headliner they absolutely put on a headliner-worthy performance. They only thing they didn't get was the headliner one hour, fifteen minute set, instead being relegated to just one hour but boy did they make the most of it! Sporting a black mini dress that was cut nearly down to her naval in front, Lzzy and company definitely added heat to the final night, rocking the crowd from the get-go with a quadruple punch of "Freak Like Me", "Love Bites (So Do I)", "I Get Off" and "Mz. Hyde". They followed it up with "I Am The Fire" with both Lzzy and guitarist Joe Hottinger donning Gibson double-neck guitars before launching into "Amen". Succeeding an Arejay Hale drum solo the band brought out their brand new song, "Back From The Dead", before the finale of "Uncomfortable" and "I Miss The Misery".
But wait, there was still one more act set to perform and out the cap on the 2021 Rocklahoma 2021 festival, that being the Mongolian folk metal sensation THE HU, and it was clear that they were in demand because as near as I could tell, virtually no one left after HALESTORM's performance, instead all piling down to the Renegade Stage to catch this final show. Though not a real follower of the band, after a several minute delay due to some onstage technical difficulties, the band the kicked off their 30 minute set with the catchy "Shoog Shoog" and the crowd went nuts. Any energy the crowd had left was poured out onto the ground in front of the Renegade Stage and then some. What a way to end the 2021 version of Rocklahoma.
A huge thanks goes out to my partner in crime, photographer Travis Failey for capturing some great shots from the event and to Michaela from AEG Live, who was on top of her game the whole weekend, seemingly never once breaking a sweat in making sure the entire event ran smoothly from a media perspective with all the poise and grace she could muster, and for taking care of us media folks with lots of water and even a cooler of beer on Saturday night!
There were only a few cons from the weekend, the biggest of which was the lack of a true headliner for Sunday. You cannot have a 3 day rock festival and not have a headliner for each day, you just can't. But other than that the only other real con that I observed was the fact that there was only ONE location at which you could buy that day's band merch and that resulted in consistent lines of 30-40 yards in length all day, every day from opening to close. Hell, there were at least two locations to buy Rocklahoma merch. Be that as it may, Rocklahoma is a well-oiled machine and other than the headliner issue they managed to handle everything that came their way.
Check out the Photo Galleries from Rocklahoma here:
All Photos By Travis Failey Photography
