Rebels from all over the country gathered at the Rock City Campgrounds at Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina this past weekend, May 4th and 5th for the third annual Carolina Rebellion. This was the first year that Carolina Rebellion extended its festivities to two full days of rock and we were lucky enough to be in the center of it to bring you coverage from the show.
Day one hosted to big-name bands including Alice In Chains, Limp Bizkit, Deftones, Three Days Grace, Papa Roach, Halestorm, In This Moment, and many others. Lots of people were there from the very moment gates opened to get their spots up front and many Rebels continued to trickle in throughout the day adding up to a crowd of 30,000 plus.
The first band to kick off this year’s Carolina Rebellion was UK’s Young Guns. They just recently started to hit their stride here in the U.S. with their single “Bones” topping the charts. The crowd was very receptive to the energy that they gave off during the performance and managed to start two circle pits by the request of front man Gus Wood.
Following Young Guns on the Rebellion Stage, the crowd shifted over to the Carolina Stage to take in the performance of the band, Otherwise. Lead singer Adrian Patrick was very much “in your face,” rarely straying from the edge of the stage. It was easy to tell by their performance that they valued audience participation and they definitely didn’t make it hard to stay engaged. The Vegas rockers ended their set with their most recent single “Soldiers.”
3 Quarters Dead soon took over the Jägermeister Stage. This band won the spot to open on this stage through Charlotte local radio station, 106.5 The End. They took the stage with lots of energy and it wouldn’t be surprising if left the stage gaining a lot of new fans.
Sick Puppies were next up back on the Carolina Stage and got the crowd amped up with songs including “War” and “You’re Going Down.” They also treated the audience to a cover of Foo Fighters’ “All My Life” and talked about their new album that will be coming out in July. You will be able to preorder the album on the May 20th so stay tuned to more information about that.
Next up was In This Moment. The audience first laid eyes on the stage and saw quite the set up for lead singer Maria Brink. She took the stage and gained the crowd’s attention, soon followed by the rest of the band and they opened their set with their newest single “Adrenalize.” Between various wardrobe changes the band continued to rock the crowd with songs including “Whore,” “Burn,” and “Blood.”
Shortly after the crowd shifted over to the next stage, Monstro took over and were soon followed by Asking Alexandra. Next up were Grammy Award winning, Halestorm. Arejay Hale was first on the stage complete with what looked like a marching band get-up and got the crowd riled up as the rest of the band took the stage. They opened with their single “Freak Like Me,” and continued to entertain the audience with performances including “I Miss the Misery,” “Love Bites,” and “I Get Off.”
Aranda took the Jäger Stage following Halestorm’s performance. Bullet For My Valentine graced the Rebellion stage not long after Aranda’s set and rocked the crowd. They played various songs from their collection including “Your Betrayal,” “Temper Temper,” “Tears Don’t Fall,” and “Scream Aim Fire.” The audience was very much into their performance judging from the amount of crowd surfers they had floating across the sea of people.
Papa Roach was next and gave one of the most energetic performances of the night. They opened with “…To Be Loved,” and played a good variety of songs from both old and new albums including “Silence is the Enemy,” “Getting Away With Murder,” “Where Did the Angels Go” “Lifeline” and “Scars.” We got to interview Tony and Tobin a little while before their set and they mentioned that they loved being really close to the crowd and feed off their energy. This show was no exception. Jacoby spent the entire performance of “Still Swingin” in the midst of the audience. He was going around and grabbing the hands of everyone by the rails and eventually jumped into the audience and crowd surfed his way around the pit, never even missing a beat. Papa Roach closed out their set with “Last Resort” and walked off the stage to Rebels chanting “Papa Roach.”
David Draiman’s new band Device followed Papa Roach. It was kind of a treat to see such a well-known artist on such a small stage (they were on the Jäger Stage) and the crowd definitely seemed to feel the same. As Device took the stage the crowd roared with cheers as they open with “Penance.” They continued through their set, playing “Vilify,” “You Think You Know” and treated the crowd with a special performance of “Close My Eyes” featuring Lzzy Hale, just like recorded version on their album. They rocked the crowd and David took a moment to clear up rumors and say that even though he is doing Device right now, it doesn’t mean that Disturbed is over.
Shortly after Device closes out the Jäger Stage, the crowd rushes over to the Rebellion Stage in anticipation for Three Days Grace. The guys walk on stage to the crowd cheering and chanting “Three Days Grace” and open their set with first single from their new record, “Chalk Outline” complete with pyro that warmed those at the front of the crowd on the chilly Saturday. They continued through their set playing a variety of songs from all their albums including “Just Like You,” “Pain,” “I Hate Everything About You,” “The High Road,” “Home,” and “Animal I Have Become.” Before their performance of “Never Too Late,” current vocalist Matt Walst introduced it as a song about never giving up and that Three Days Grace would never give up on their fans. Three Days Grace closed out their set with crowd favorite “Riot,” leaving the audience with lots of energy and wanting more.
Deftones were next and absolutely blew the crowd away. Their energy was hard to miss with lead singer Chino Moreno almost constantly running across the stage and swinging his microphone around. Their set list included “Diamond Eyes,” “Tempest,” “My Own Summer,” “Change (In The House Of Flies),” among many others.
The audience made one more trip over to the Rebellion Stage for Limp Bizkit. They stepped out onto the stage one by one and Fred Durst came out saying “You know what time it is? It’s time to keep on rollin’” and the band opened their set with “Rollin’.” The audience was signing along to every word and it was clear that Limp Bizkit was feeding off that energy. They played songs including “My Way,” where Fred came and got down into the crowd, “Nookie,” “Break Stuff,” and even did a cover of Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name.”
Finally, after a long day of amazing bands, Alice In Chains took the Carolina Stage one last time and closed out the night. Even though everyone in the audience had been standing for hours, their excitement could still be sensed in the air as they waited for Alice in Chains to come out. The band comes out and opens their set with “Them Bones.” The voices of the crowd could be heard even above the sound of the instruments. The band powered through their set playing songs including “Down in a Hole,” “Rooster,” “Hallow,” “Man In The Box,” “We Die Young,” and “Would?” They finished their set to the sound of endless cheers from the audience; a good way to end a full day of rock.
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