2024 concerts
- Thread starter baller21
- Start date
People need to learn how to park at events so they don't have to wait 3 hours in and out. It irritates me when I hear stuff like this because if you van walk a few hundred yards further than everyone else at these events then you won't have any issues.
Red clay strays were absolutely phenomenal. Charley Crockett was great as always. Orville last night was killer and Hozier put on a helluva show. The bands I wanted to see so far have been great. Logistically this thing is a nightmare. Sam Summers is one of the greediest bastards there is. Only cares for profits over experience.
When we first started going in 2016 to 2019 it was a lights out show. Great bands, easy in and easy out. Now it’s about maximizing profits over fan experience and it shows. What used to be a great, local festival has turned into a **** show.
When we first started going in 2016 to 2019 it was a lights out show. Great bands, easy in and easy out. Now it’s about maximizing profits over fan experience and it shows. What used to be a great, local festival has turned into a **** show.
Not sure why it would be common sense to forgo paid parking and or a shuttle service to park on a Main Street in a tiny town. After my experience I’d agree it would probably be faster but had no idea they would have fewer people directing traffic than a HS football game. Obviously it was our first time attending this festival
Passing through part of Colorado near Dillion. Just took a walk to stretch the legs and found this. Won’t make Mt Joy in Iowa but I DO see they’re playing here next weekend…..
I may have to check this out….
I may have to check this out….
My daughter and I didn’t realize it until the band started, but we accidentally walked into VIP last night around 6:45 or 7. We had a lot of luck with seating, parking, traffic… but that was pretty well an isolated event. I heard people waited in line for hours today in that horrible heat? That is just awful. It sucks it has become so overcrowded
One of my favorite DFW bands "The Old 97's" are playing at Wooly's in Des Moines tomorrow nite. Any local fanatics going? I've seen them multiple times and always a great show. They have a new album out that is really good. Go check them out. Mrs Texbudman loves their lead singer and main song writer Rhett miller.
Rhett Miller is a very under rated songwriter. I saw them at Bonner Springs opening for the Turnpike Troubadours and Jason Isbell and they put on a hell of a show. Very solid band.
Got tickets to see the "Destroy All Enemies" tour with Megadeth in Bend. All That Remains and Mudvayne are opening....at Hayden Homes Amphitheater, which is a nice venue....general admission. Bend doesn't seem like it has many heavy metal fans, so might be a smaller crowd...I hope.
I will never understand why people do the parking/shuttle. Park in St. Charles and it's about a 10 minute walk. We parked there all 3 days, walked about 10 minutes and pull right out and drove home without any delay.
So many awesome shows locally this year - it's like the last decade rolled into one. Big one tomorrow night with Ice Nine Kills, In This Moment, and Avatar. My 6th, 7th, or 8th show at the new Waukee arena since it opened in the last 18 months - my wife's first show. Saw Ice Nine Kills and In This Moment separately last year and both were amazing as usual, excited to see them tomorrow night.
- Apr 6 - Breaking Benjamin, Daughtry, Catch Your Breath (Waukee)
- May 1 - Nothing More, Wage War, Sleep Theory (Val Air)*
- May 7 - Staind, Seether (Waukee)
- May 14 - Disturbed, Falling In Reverse, Plush (Wells)
- May 24 - From Ashes to New, Point North, Ekoh, Phix, Elijah (Val Air)*
- Jul 23 - Chevelle (Waukee)
- Aug 17 - Ice Nine Kills & In This Moment (Waukee)*
- Aug 19 - Five Finger Death Punch, Marilyn Manson (Wells)
- Aug 20 - Smashing Pumpkins (Waukee)
- Sep 28 - Highly Suspect, Dead Poet Society (Val Air)
- Oct 18 - Korn, Gojira, Spiritbox (KC)*
- Oct 19 - Skillet, Seether (Waukee)
- Oct 25 - Korn, Gojira, Spiritbox (Omaha)
- Oct 29 - Theory of a Deadman, 10 Years (Hoyt)
- Nov 27 - Babymetal (Waukee)
Absolutely. They were just here with Staind and I thought they were much closer to their good years than Staind. They paired perfectly with Staind. They've been steady with their album releases over the years so it's kept them in form and from showing their age too much.
Pretty good mix with Skillet - and while I like Skillet, the fact that they refuse to use cuss words drives me bonkers. They'll have a nice hard banger and you'll hear "dang", "darn", etc. Those words don't belong in hard rock music. It's not a hard rock song without a few expletives.
I love the venue. While it doesn't really matter much, the high-end aesthetics and feel inside set an awesome mood from the get go - they even have a coat check. There's plenty of parking but there's also construction in the area due to all the new buildings going up, so being earlier rather than later would be beneficial. I've been using handicap since right before they opened so I don't know how long the walk is as it gets full, but there seems to be a good setup with everything closer than anywhere but Val Air.
They have beverage/bar/snack points at 6 places so there's always one close (3 per floor). I wish they had bathrooms on each side rather than just in the rear, but that's pretty much my only partial complaint. On the flip side, the bathrooms are very big and efficient. I have to sit so always in the ADA section on the floor or in the mezzanine - there isn't a bad view in the place.
Acoustics, at least for rock and hard rock, are as good as I've ever heard. I hate the acoustics in the Val Air, and of course Wells wasn't built just for concerts so sound is always loud but not nearly as crip for rock.
Customary post-show review/summary:
TX2 - Absolutely knocked it out of the park for a band basically still in the womb. Amazing stage presence, clear vocals, strong band unity, energy was tremendous, and they set the mood perfectly. Sound mix couldn't have been better. They aren't without issue though - the music felt somewhat generic and over produced and from what I've heard, he's basically a musician born in a lab that gets fed the music already written and guided by music versions of venture capitalists. There are also some copyright and other controversies. With that said, never been more impressed with a nobody opening act that doesn't even have their first album out.
Avatar - If you've never seen Avatar, I would describe it as a mix of Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and Pee Wee Herman. Enormous stage presence as always, great sound mixing, stage and themetaics were strong, kept the energy going really well. They caught my wife completely off guard as it's a very, very unique show they put on and she only knew 1 or 2 of their songs, but she enjoyed it.
In This Moment - One of the groups that is typically absolutely amazing in concert - like a U2 level experience. They're a very theatrical type setup where the whole stage, props, dancers, etc play critical roles in everything going on. They usually only play about 10 songs because of the amount of transition music, wardrobe changing, and stage rearrangement between songs taking so long. Unfortunately, I felt this was their weakest showing by far. The stage this year was very paired down with little movement compared to last year's tour, very few dancers and extra elements to support Maria, and it just fell a bit flat. Sound mix wasn't good this time around, blocking out so much of the vocals. While Maria is always pretty stationary due to wardrobe, style, stage setup, etc, she only moved from her perch 5 times and 3 of them were during 1 song. Smoke and lighting was way too heavy so 95% of what you saw were silhouettes rather than the costumes, makeup, etc. Considering the importance of those elements for their type of performance, it was a big letdown. I had my wife so pumped, basically comparing it to seeing The Lion King on broadway... and it was anything but.
Ice Nine Kills - What can I say other than they too hit a grandslam. Given that all of their songs are stories of various horror films (i.e. a song about IT, one about Silence of The Lambs, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), they use a lot of props and characters acting out murder scenes and whatnot. They balance all of that action with a really strong stage presence and energy level. The sound mix was fantastic. I felt their showing was a lot stronger this year than last year's when they played in Cedar Rapids. They certainly matched the hype I had my wife ready for.
Overall - a really terrific night. TX2 was a nobody that came out balls to the walls. Avatar was absolutely spot on. In This Moment was the definite weak point. Ice Nine Kills saved the night from being average to great.
TX2 - Absolutely knocked it out of the park for a band basically still in the womb. Amazing stage presence, clear vocals, strong band unity, energy was tremendous, and they set the mood perfectly. Sound mix couldn't have been better. They aren't without issue though - the music felt somewhat generic and over produced and from what I've heard, he's basically a musician born in a lab that gets fed the music already written and guided by music versions of venture capitalists. There are also some copyright and other controversies. With that said, never been more impressed with a nobody opening act that doesn't even have their first album out.
Avatar - If you've never seen Avatar, I would describe it as a mix of Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson, and Pee Wee Herman. Enormous stage presence as always, great sound mixing, stage and themetaics were strong, kept the energy going really well. They caught my wife completely off guard as it's a very, very unique show they put on and she only knew 1 or 2 of their songs, but she enjoyed it.
In This Moment - One of the groups that is typically absolutely amazing in concert - like a U2 level experience. They're a very theatrical type setup where the whole stage, props, dancers, etc play critical roles in everything going on. They usually only play about 10 songs because of the amount of transition music, wardrobe changing, and stage rearrangement between songs taking so long. Unfortunately, I felt this was their weakest showing by far. The stage this year was very paired down with little movement compared to last year's tour, very few dancers and extra elements to support Maria, and it just fell a bit flat. Sound mix wasn't good this time around, blocking out so much of the vocals. While Maria is always pretty stationary due to wardrobe, style, stage setup, etc, she only moved from her perch 5 times and 3 of them were during 1 song. Smoke and lighting was way too heavy so 95% of what you saw were silhouettes rather than the costumes, makeup, etc. Considering the importance of those elements for their type of performance, it was a big letdown. I had my wife so pumped, basically comparing it to seeing The Lion King on broadway... and it was anything but.
Ice Nine Kills - What can I say other than they too hit a grandslam. Given that all of their songs are stories of various horror films (i.e. a song about IT, one about Silence of The Lambs, Psycho, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), they use a lot of props and characters acting out murder scenes and whatnot. They balance all of that action with a really strong stage presence and energy level. The sound mix was fantastic. I felt their showing was a lot stronger this year than last year's when they played in Cedar Rapids. They certainly matched the hype I had my wife ready for.
Overall - a really terrific night. TX2 was a nobody that came out balls to the walls. Avatar was absolutely spot on. In This Moment was the definite weak point. Ice Nine Kills saved the night from being average to great.
Last edited:
Went to see Rancid/Pumpkins/Green Day at the Twins stadium Saturday. Can't say I saw much of Rancid. Pumpkins were awesome though. I'd pay to see them again. Billy Corgan wears a weird smock and strangely reminds me of Varys from Game of Thrones, but he still sounds good. Some in our group thought they were better than Green Day. I don't know about that, but they were definitely louder. Green Day played Dookie and American Idiot in their entirety, which was cool, but we missed out on some good songs in exchange for some of the filler songs for those albums. Been awhile since I saw a full on rock show and this definitely qualifies. One of the better concerts I've seen.
