Adam “Doc” Fox is our resident Renaissance man: A mountaineer, film editor, Columbus Crew fanatic, self-identified anarchist, and our digital marketing director. He’s also a seasoned music columnist for the Source and has covered Sonic Temple and Inkcarceration with reviews, artist interviews, and insights into the regional music scene. Please enjoy his musings from this year’s festival.
Trends on Instagram Reels and TikTok glorify the pre-tech generations, where live music and drinking in a field were the pinnacles of entertainment.
With the world dramatically shifting to device entertainment, where would that leave the live music scene, especially as it relates to metal, emo and punk?
Day 2 of the Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival at Historic Crew Stadium proved that the live scene and the fans who flocked to witness it all were alive and well — primarily attributed to [in a good way] generational brainwashing and origin stories.
While deep in the crowd, I noticed some parents and asked them what it meant to continue this tradition and present this environment for their daughter.
“She’s 19; four years ago we started going to concerts,” festival dad Brian Lewis said. “We took her to a Disturbed concert, and when we were leaving, she said, ‘This is who I am now.’
“And so this is our family bonding time, and we started going to festivals a couple years ago, Louder Than Life, last year’s Sonic Temple, Louder Than Life this year, Inkcarceration.”
“Next year, she goes off to Purdue, so it’s gonna be a little bit more difficult, so we’re taking advantage while we can,” mom Jennifer Lewis added.
The Lewis family is continuing a tradition baked into their own origin stories, which was a big theme I desperately wanted to get into with the humans of Sonic — what series of moments in their lives had driven them here?
“I’ve been going to concerts since I was little,” Jennifer said. “Our daughter wasn’t really into any music when she was little, but that’s all we played in the car. So when she started ‘getting it,’ we took her to her first concert and that sealed the deal. And so we’re like, yes, we could finally bond with her.”
Childhood influences were everywhere, and that’s what brought Michigan native and current Florida resident Larry Williams to Ohio.
“I’m a little punk and scene kid, so that’s what I grew up on,” Williams said.
Transitioning across the concrete-covered festival grounds, Everclear was playing its hit “Santa Monica” as the crowd sang, “We can live beside the ocean / leave the fire behind / swim out past the breakers / watch the world die.”
The influence of the 1990s music scene was a big part of Friday’s lineup, and how many of the fans got into live shows and are continuing the tradition today.
Powerman 5000 told the crowd that anyone who was listening to alternative radio in the ‘90s probably knew their hit, “When Worlds Collide,” and all the “Xennials” danced to it.
Emo was being created in the late ‘90s but really pioneered and cemented in the early 2000s, with pop punk crossover bands like New Found Glory.
When the dyed-black-hair kid at the college party got to be DJ for a second, they played “Hit or Miss” with crowd chants around remembering “when Thriller was our favorite song.”
When talking about generational love of live music being passed down, the concept is that it will continue long after we die. And that was illustrated by a group of fans completely covered in fake blood with red demon-eye contacts.
“The reason behind the blood was my dad’s birthday was the day before Halloween, and he passed away in 2020,” fest attendee “Anna” said.
“We were supposed to go to Rock on the Range. So I’ve just been celebrating in his honor — why not be bloody and [honor him] in a way I want to as well, bloody and sl****, you know?”
“My dad and my sister always went to Rock on the Range, and I wanted to see what it was all about,” fellow blood-soaked fan Gerge [or George] Geibbins said. “And it’s my second year here now.”
On the Citadel Stage, Woe, Is Me was blasting out a hardcore cover of Katy Perry’s “Last Friday Night” — extra special because their drummer Matthew Whyde had on a yellow Columbus Crew jersey.
Continuing the ‘90s dominance of Day 2 was Stone Temple Pilots (STP) on the main Temple stage.
“This is for Mr. Scott Weiland, wherever he may be,” new STP lead singer Jeff Gutt said before they played the highway anthem of “Interstate Love Song.”
STP had one of the best performances of the entire two days to that point, opening with “Dead & Bloated” as the crowd yelled, “I am smelling like a rose…”
That album-opening hit was followed by “Wicked Garden,” the radio sensation “Vasoline” from their second album, and then “Plush,” which asks the existential question, “Is it raining in your bedroom?”
Festivals are not for the deep cuts of bands, but for the hits and tracks that will get even the casuals singing along. That theme continued with “Crackerman” and “Sex Type Thing.”
The sun escaped the clouds and it was a cool 70 degrees as Yellowcard played its iconic anthem, “Only One.”
At the main stage, while Staind was performing, “It’s Been Awhile,” a fellow Source Media journalist, who I won’t name, may or may not have been crying during that song.
I’d never heard of Paleface Swiss before and was blown away by the loud, fast, super-speed energy of pure metal mayhem. The Swiss-based band was encouraging more crowd interactions.
“We need crowd surfers, we are a European band, we need more crowd surfers,” lead singer Marc “Zelli” Zellweger said.
Another great act of the day was the hardcore band, Atreyu. RIP to his horse in “The Never Ending Story” and shoutout to my old college roommate who wore an Atreyu shirt like every other day. Hardcore the way it was meant to be played, without fluff or extra dumb sound effects.
Unfortunately I missed Chelsea Grin’s set but they have a lot of talent and should be streamed right now. Same for Jiluka, the Japanese “kei metal” band, Signs of the Swarm, deathcore incarnate, and Brand of Sacrifice, Canada’s finest version of deathcore.
Another show stealer was Sublime, which had recently replaced lead singer Rome with the band’s original singer’s son. How was Jakob Nowell going to fill his father’s impossibly big shoes? On the voice side, yes, we all know there’s only one Bradley Nowell, but Jakob hit most of what he needed and had an amazing stage presence.
“Everyone who crowd surfs right now, gets a free Kia Sonata,” Jakob told the crowd. And as more and more bodies were tossed up into the hands of the people in the pit, he kept pointing and saying, “You get a Sonata, and you get a Sonata.”
They wrapped the set with “Santeria” in one unified vocal crowd swell.
“Freshman year of high school, Pat [last name redacted] said smoke this,” Sublime fan “Riley” said. “And I said, okay. And then he put on Sublime.”
Living up to the hype as one of the most intense and layered metal bands, Lorna Shore absolutely demolished every soul that witnessed the onslaught. The drummer looked to be floating above the band in a mist of strobe lights and non-stop visual stimuli.
Decades into the future, I can’t wait to see what new traditions and metal coat of arms will be created for the never-going-to-die live music scene.
