OCEAN
CITY, MD
SATURDAY
& SUNDAY, MAY 17-18
Wow! Welcome to the inaugural Boardwalk Rock sold-out concert with 55,000
people on our beach and boardwalk. It
was a perfect weekend of sun, fun and rock music for us to enjoy from 28 bands representing
more than four decades of incredible music. Unfortunately, due to health issues, Motley Crue, 3 Doors Down and Alice
in Chains all had to cancel their appearances at the festival which meant some
of the other bands had to shuffle their time slots. With only a week ‘til show time, they were
able to get Rob Zombie to fill in one of the slots.
Day 1 started out
with Kat Von D on the main Thunder stage. Some other highlights of the
day had Extreme
playing on the Lightning stage with lead singer Gary Cherone running
around the
stage like crazy the entire set. I
skipped The Struts band as some of the bands overlapped with the same
time slots. Mammoth WVH put on a high-energy set
that was great to see. I have only seen
Wolfgang Van Halen one previous time when he was the bass player with
his late
great father Eddie Van Halen's band Van Halen. Would love to catch them
again sometime. On the Bolt stage midday was Bush where during
the second song, lead singer Gavin Rossdale jumped in the photo pit and
all the
way down to the soundboard to sing up close and personal to the crowd.
Back to the Thunder Stage where Sirius XM's
very own Eddie Trunk was introducing the next act saying, “It's not too
often
you get to see a zombie during the daylight,” as he introduced Rob
Zombie to
the crowd. Back to the Bolt stage where Halestorm was rocking the crowd
into a
frenzy as Lizzy Hale and the band played a powerful rock set that closed
the Bolt
stage with a great performance. To close
out day 1 on the Thunder stage was Def Leppard who played a 90-minute
set as an
absolute sea of people on the beach roared their approval and also with
waves
of applause. It was cool to read on
Instagram that Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen said, “We are in Ocean
City,
Maryland, at Boardwalk Rock Festival and I never knew this place existed
but it
is awesome.
Day 2 started out
with an easier entrance into the festival than day 1 which had quite longer
lines that had gone around some of our street blocks as well as up the
boardwalk for several blocks. I’m also happy to say the weather was just as
perfect as on day 1. I got started back at
the Thunder stage with Saliva, which I had seen years ago in Salisbury at the
Civic Center. They put on a powerful set
with lead singer Bobby Amaru getting some of the fans up front to crowd surf
their way to the photo pit. Then I
hurried to the Bolt and Lightning stages to catch the bands Lit, Crossfade,
Dorothy, and Night Ranger. What a great performance from them with Night Ranger’s
lead singer and bass player, Jack Blades throwing in some songs such as, “Coming
of Age” and “High Enough,” from his days in the old Damn Yankees (remember
them) with Ted Nugent and Tommy Shaw. Now
it was time to take a short walk across the parking lot to the Bolt stage to
catch one of the best acts of the day: none other than Alice Cooper! He and his band gave us a great 60-minute set
with his amazing guitarist Nita Strauss just shredding her guitar and bending
her body all over the stage.
Then I was back to
the Thunder stage for Shinedown in the blistering heat and sun amid thousands
of fans on the beach. It was just amazing to behold this sea of people on the
beach when usually we can just walk right down to the water. To end day 2 at the
Bolt stage, we heard Three Days Grace. Then up on the Thunder stage Nickelback ended the festival giving us a
crazy 90-minute set with pyro and great images on the LED screen behind them
and the two on each side of the stage.
All in all, the
sold-out Boardwalk Rock was a huge success for all the fans and our town and is
already booked for next spring at the same time; in fact for the next five
years with C3 Productions. Don't wait;
get your tickets early because you don't want to miss an event like this. Clearly, these festivals are making a positive
impact on our town and, in fact, are putting Ocean City on the nationwide
festival map. Many of the performers
commented on what a great town and beautiful oceanside view we have. Ocean City has become quite attractive to
bands and I’m sure we’ll continue to have the opportunity to hear many
more. And remember, we do have the fall
festivals Oceans Calling & Country Calling coming back in the fall the same
time as last year. Until then, let’s enjoy our summer here at the beach before
they start setting up again for the next incredible concert lineup. Thank you Ocean City!
Gary Crouthamel, Concert Photo Journalist
for Coconut Times
