Is Rock USA The Best Festival Lineup This Summer?

Rock USA has a banging lineup! The festival, set for July 17 - 20 in Oshkosh, Wis., has some big names on the lineup, including the mighty Van Halen.
Here's the lineup so far:

Wednesday, July 17 –
Avenged Sevenfold
Buckcherry
Saliva
TBA (2)

Thursday, July 18 –
Queensryche
Great White
Slaughter
TBA

Friday, July 19 -
Godsmack
Chevelle
Sevendust
TBA (2)

Saturday, July 20 –
Van Halen
Ratt
Jackyl
Dokken
TBA

Rock USA is running a discount sale on tickets March 11-13. During that window only, you can get a four-day pass for $49.

In my opinion, this is just a fantastic lineup. Great classic rock. Glam. Modern metal. This festival looks like a ton of fun. The drawback is that Oshkosh is so remote, the town is kind of hard to get to and there aren't a lot of lodging options. Most music fans camp, which isn't my thing. Will you attend this event?

 

Comments

[Ace Steele]

Wit the exception of Van Halen, There's not a single band on this bill that's above "large club" status.

[Metalboy!]

Au Contraire, Ace!

The Frank Gehry designed Merriweather Post Pavilion, built in 1967 and one of the first "sheds" ever constructed, holds a capacity crowd of 19,316 people.

Last Summer I saw the newly reformed RATT (sans Crosby, RIP) headlining at M3 there and the place was sold out. Nobody left after Queensryche. The audience came to see RATT and a reinvigorated RATT is what they got!

They put on a helluva show, synchronized moves and all, and quite simply, tore the roof off the place.

That seems a little beyond "large club status", donchya think, Ace?

To see RATT and Van Halen back to back? Now that's what sounds like a REAL Summer Festival line-up's supposed to be! M3, take note!

[Ace Steele]

That's totally different. M3 was what? 60 bands combined.
Using Ratt as the example currently draw at a level that they play (in their own home town,even!) at the Key Club... the very same address where they played covers as an unsigned band, when Gazzarri's was at that address. 300 to 500 tops.

Aside from VH, A7x is the biggest name I see on there, & they play the 2000 seat club, "Club Nokia" here. Great White plays the 200 seat Brixton down by the beach.

[Him]

VH night looks like the winner (people know how I feel about Dokken). But there are some interesting acts on the other nights as well. Might have been a better, more focused, event if they scaled back to two or three nights.

I have to agree with Ace as well. This is a case of quantity over quality and one anchor name on the last night to draw in people on other nights (potentially). Think of the logic: "Oshkosh on a Friday night. Godsmack anyone?!!?" And the other options are . . . well?

And I think Thursday's first band will likely end up sounding the best . . . even if it stays TBA (sorry)!

Still, I give them credit for trying to offer an alternative to big corp. tuna fish festivals.

[GEO II]

2 good days. 2 crap.

[NC Rocker]

Kind of strange that there is another festival the exact same weekend in Wisconsin. Rockfest has a pretty solid lineup too.....Kiss, Motley Crue, Warrant and Whitesnake from the Glam era.....then several good modern bands. I think Rock USA wins though just because of Van Halen and Ratt. Plus they still have a TBA headliner for Thursday because they did have Bret Michaels and I guess that fell through.

[kari]

I dont know why people are still talking about Van Halen after the last tour. DLR is a complete joke now and just ruined the whole show for me when I saw em. He belongs on a cabaret stage, not a rock festival stage in 2013!!!

[Will]

With the exception of Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday it looks great.

[Christian]

Not sure if I could last four days, but this is a good mix of awesome new bands ( like A7X ) and older bands who really just play the nostalgia circuit, by and large, and would benefit from the exposure.

[Gary]

If I weren't 1000 miles away, yeah, I'd go. But I gotta agree with Rita on the whole VH thing. I'd prefer to remember the 2 times I saw them back in 1982 and 1984. You know, when they were an absolute monster live. (I'm somewhere up near the stage in the Pannama video that they filmed in Philly at the old Spectrum. LOL) Now they're just a shell of what they were IMHO.

[dj]

van halen and ratt on the same bill!!!! fuck yeaaa!!!! thats rock n roll at its best. Avenged, Buckcherry, and Godsmack are awesome adds, bringin some new school in and mix it with the old school love it!

[will]

Check out Skull Fest in North Platte, NE. Set for October, it features Kip Winger, Jack Russell, Phil Lewis, Ron Keel, Ted Poley, Bullet Boys, Enuff Znuff, Hurricane, Tango Down, and many others.

[Metalboy!]

Hear, hear! DJ!

Yeah, gotcha, Ace, but if RATT wasn't a big deal, why would all the people who came out to M3 bother to stay until the very end? One word: RATT!!! If they weren't there to see RATT, they would have headed for the aisles hours before because who in their right mind would be sticking it out for "co-headliner" (that's a joke!), Queensryche?! Nope... RATT!!!

p.s. RATT and Poison shoulda toured together. They coulda called it The Ratt Poison Tour. Ba-dum-bump! Pshhhh!

p.s.s.t. Geez, NC Rocker, KISS, Crüe and Whitesnake? That's pretty large also. Sure wish I had the bread to rent a Winnebego! I'd go to both of those Fests! What line-ups! UNREAL! More hyperbole! -- What if you could get 'em all under one shed roof? GlamTour 2013! KISS, Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, RATT, Buckcherry, Whitesnake! All you would need is Poison to round it out!!!

[Him]

For some reason, my last post didn't make it. Oh well. I will focus on one of my more important (to me) points:

It is kinda' sad when the best bands on Thursday will end up being TBA (either one or two), especially if they never announce actual bands.

Be kind. That was part of a far larger post, basically: (1) siding with Ace Steele on the lack of draw across days; (2) suggesting fewer days with more acts; and (3) agreeing that the last day is the best in terms of talent (notwithstanding issues of consistency in some cases).

[Will]

Ratt Poison is the name of an hour block of 80s music on Tulsa's KMOD.

[GNR]

Its so nice to live in Wisconsin :)

Dont' forget www.moondancejam.com up in Minnesota the same weekend as these fests...

[Metalboy!]

Cool, Will. Do they play nothin' but RATT and Poison?

If so, clever boyz!!!

p.s. Happens to me all the time, HIM. Fortunately, with you, the stuff is always greatly entertaining. Kudos!