Another review incoming...
Last Saturday, the day after being in Coney Island for the reggae concert, I drove down to Camden NJ (just outside Philly) for an all day rock festival hosted by the Philly rock station WMMR, the festival is known as the MMRBQ. Line up was pretty interesting for my tastes so I snagged a ticket awhile ago (long before I knew I'd do back to back shows about 2.5 hours apart, but anyway...).
Got there after 2pm and saw the ending of the second band's set, Ayron Jones. I only saw the end, so can't comment too much other than it's very rare (at least for me) to see a full african american rock band. From what I saw, those guys could rock. I really thought they were cool if only for diversity sake, but maybe their music is good too. The last song I saw was solid.
After them came Dorothy. Had never heard of this band before, but was really impressed. Watched the entire 30 minute set and the singer, named Dorothy, was so energetic. So engaging. Exactly the type of front person for a rock band that I love. She sounded powerful and commanded the stage. The music was more basic rock, a bit of a classical sound. I actually put this as my 3rd favorite set of the day and maybe the #1 surprise. She performed her new single live for the first time, you can watch it here if curious about what I'm talking about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6dcRZQtLkWhat was really cool about this being a radio event was that the radio show was live from the venue, so between sets I'd go over to the consession area of the venue and you could watch the live radio show. The hosts were all interacting and taking pics with people. The weather was PERFECT too. It felt like it was super easy to keep entertained between sets.Here's a pic of the side of the venue along the water with Philly in the background, you can tell from this pic that the weather was perfect.
Next up was the band I wanted to see the most and my second time seeing them this summer, Mammoth WVH. This event had a weird seating arrangement. Your ticket only matter for the last 3 bands, otherwise before that, the entire seating area and GA pit were open to anyone. So I got myself up close and center in the pit for this set. There were Wolfie chants in the crowd as soon as he came out. You could just see it in his eyes that he was impressed by the reaction. The venue was also pretty packed at this point of 4pm. The performance was solid. This band is legit live, with 3 guitars and all of them add backing vocals so the live performance not only sounds great, but it's tight too as this band had been touring non stop all summer so they've had a lot more time to gel since I first same them August 5th. Sadly they played 1 less song than what they were doing opening for GNR, but that's really the only bad thing I can say. I had SO MUCH FUN rocking out in the middle of the pit to this set. ALMOST caught a guitar pick too thrown by Wolfie
My pic:
Wolfie's twitter background pic from the same show:
It felt like the place emptied for a bit after his set as Dirty Honey started setting up. I know I left, had to pee and wanted to watch the radio show some more. Got back and took a seat in the back to watch Dirty Honey. They sounded good. I just have to give the edge to Dorothy because of her energy over DIrty Honey though. Their music was solid and performance was good, but they all kind of stayed to stage right which was very odd to me. It felt like they were only interacting with a small part of the crowd. They were talked about in this thread recently and I can see why people enjoy them. To me, they felt like a group of older dudes catering to the older dude crowd. Good, but nothing special for me. Glad I got to see them though.
Now it was time for the headliners. Cheap Trick! I'll admit, at this point of the day, I was really tired. I put a lot of my energy into that Wolfie set and now the sun was starting to set and I was fading. I missed a good chunk of their set because I sat back and ate crab fries for dinner and re-hydrated. Sucks, but that's kind of what happens at festivals. You got to pick your battles here. I watched the beginning from the lawn, ate my dinner, and then made it to my seat (great seat btw) for the end of their set. They were good, but nothing special for me.
The Offspring were next. I loved them so much as a kid. Smash will go down as one of my all time favorite albums. It's very nostalgic for me and I even still enjoy it. But the band themselves have not aged well. They only played 2 songs off their new album (first album in like forever) and those songs kind of sounded like shit. The singer has no power in his voice anymore. The guitarist, Noodles, admitted to being shitfaced after he made a really poor joke about not knowing the bassist's name. It sounded like they were pumping in fake keyboards as well. Overall, I enjoyed the set because I enjoy most of their music, but they were kind of a let down overall. Most interesting part of their set was I helped lift a guy over the barrier into the GA pit up front and then watched him get kicked out
The headliners were Janes Addiction. I was never a fan of them as a kid in the 90s when Jane Says was always on the radio. I didn't get it. However, I think I get it now. And it's not because of that song. But more so because of their kind of trippy guitar playing and Perry's energetic performance. They were really good. My 2nd favorite set of the day. I didn't know most of the songs, but the hits were played and really enjoyable. Just watching Perry alone was extremely entertaining. I may never get to see them again, I feel like they are a fairly inactive band, but I'd recommend them to anyone who likes the music from the early 90s.
Couldn't of asked for a better concert experience. Great day!
MMRBQ Camden NJ 9/25/2021onward to tonight for the Pop Punk's Not Dead tour with New Found Glory and Less Than Jake!
Topic: Your Concerts for 2021 (crosses fingers) (Read 18389 times)
