Sunday
Apr302017
More M3 Rock Festival Videos!
Sunday, April 30, 2017 at 08:50AM
M3 wrapped up yesterday and apparently the festival was amazing overall. I've been trolling YouTube, looking for clips. Here's some more:
Junkyard:
Danger Danger:
RATT:
Were you there? Write me a review in the comments!
Reader Comments (6)
I was actually able to bring Nick with me along with two of my buddies. I've written about this before, but Nick is Hispanic and is diagnosed with Autism. He is now in 9th grade and this past year has been rather brutal for him. He has been viciously bullied this year especially during the campaign season. Rolling Stone magazine even did a feature story about the bulling occurring in Saucon Valley School District and the surrounding suburban school districts. Yes, we live in Saucon Valley and he attends there. Our Superintendent has submitted her resignation in light of a lot of this after she was targeted on a white supremacist website, The Daily Stormer, for her role in trying to combat racism and bullying in our school.
Here is the Rolling Stone article for those who are interested:
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/trump-effect-how-one-district-is-fighting-hate-at-school-w465998
Anyway, getting back to Dangerous Toys. Back at the motel, I was talking to my friends and Nick about the DT concert and how much I enjoyed it. I shared the story with them about getting an erection in the community shower and the ongoing bulling I endured in High School. Regardless of who said what or who did what to me, I told them that I wished that I had handled the situation better. They seems a bit confused- why should I have handled myself better? Shouldn't the bullies handled "themselves" better? was their thought. I get that. So I explained my feelings about it...
Yes, I has absolutely humiliated that that happened to me, but I stood firm are kept denying that it happened. Every time a hateful word was said or I was pushed up against my locker, I became more emotionally insecure and retreated inward. I wish I had the 'cojones' back then to simply laugh it off and boldly and proudly admit to it (they already knew it happened anyway), and say something like, 'Yeah, I sported some wood. It was rock hard, too. Big deal. Why are you so interested in my junk?" What???You've never gotten an boner at an importune time? Yeah right, give me a break."
However, I wasn't able to grapple with it and be so open and honest about it until years later. Nick was soaking it all in. So were my friends. Then something amazing happened. Since we are having this [gay] bonding moment, both of my buddies shared quick stories of times in High School, where they inexplicably got an erection (perhaps not in the showers) and other students noticed and they were laughed at, too.
Ok, enough penis talk. This isn't the Howard Stern Show. I wanted it to be about Bullying and the effects it has on people and how our genre of music can get up past troubling times in our lives. Perhaps this might be why, after all these years, my two buddies that went to M3 with me (who I met as adults), had similar tales of harassment. I never knew that about them, nor did they have any clue about me. They were a bit stunned. Ironic.
Great venue with good acoustics. Music was loud. Pavilion was full, and i'd say the lawn 50% on Friday and 75% on Saturday. I liked that you could roam the festival site, and there were plenty of food/drink stations so lines never were very long anywhere. So kudos to the organizers.
Now to the music. For me on Friday, there were 3 highlights:
1) Faster Pussycat because it became a unique show as Taime Downe was unable to perform due to pneumonia. They sang a few songs themselves, and had some guest vocalists join them for pretty great renditions of the hits.
2) Winger sounded incredible. I mean, maybe the best sounding band of the entire festival. So tight, and Reb Beach in amazing form. Kip as well, and it's nice to see he still embraces his rock roots though he's gone the classical composition route the last few years.
3) KIX was awesome. This was my first time seeing Kix live, and now I totally understand why they headline on Friday at this festival every time. I talked to a few people in the crowd, and everybody was there for Kix. They were missing one of the guitar players (rehab), but if you didn't know, you wouldn't have noticed. Kudos to the guitar player for picking up all that slack. And I really loved Steve's sense of humor. After they played "Don't Close your Eyes", he said, "Come on people, that was a hit! And you know we didn't have many of them". Loved that. They should have had more hits.
Saturday was a full day of music. I'll go through a few of the higlights for me.
1) Reunited Ratt. Amazing. Warren was a beast on the guitar, and it's certainly unique to see Juan's bass moves. Stephen has never been a fantastic live singer, but he sounded pretty good this night. I've seen Bobby's version twice, but have to admit, there is something special about seeing these songs performed with Warren and Pearcy.
2) Tom Keifer. It's unfortunate he was without his Cinderella bandmates, but he played all the hits and sounded great. I've seen Tom/Cinderella many times before, so was not surprised he was good. Very underrated guitar player .. he's excellent.
3) Vixen. Never seen them before. Missed seeing Jan, but I have to say the new guitarist Britt Lightning was pretty damg good!. She fits in well with the group. Roxy can sure hit the skins.
4) Jack Russell's Great White. One of the big surprises for me. They sounded really good, better than the other Great White version I saw 2 years ago. And it wasn't just Jack's singing ... the band was excellent.
5) Danger Danger. Surprisingly good. They were with the all original lineup which was cool. Ted Poley is a very good frontman, and he was the only singer who went into the crowd for a song. Very charismatic. Plus he's a Jani Lane clone, so that helps.
6) Warrant. Good, not spectacular. Played all the hits faithfully, but there is no doubt Jani is missed.
I also saw Junkyard, Vain, Bang Tango and Dokken. Dokken was a bit disappointing because I guess they ran out of time and didn't play their biggest hit "In My Dreams". Unless they played it as an encore because everybody rushed back to the main stage when it appeared they finished their set.
All in all, a great experience. Not too bad a drive from Louisville. I may return next year depending on the lineup. This time, there were 7 bands I had never seen before, so it was worth it. Rock On!
RATT, Junkyard, Dangerous Toys, KIX, Danger Danger and Jack Russell's Great White all sound like they made for another great festival.
I've seen nearly all of these bands POINT BLANK multiple times, both back in the day AND recently in venues such as M3 and on the cruises -- except for Junkyard, who I saw twice years ago, once off each album of the first two albums. Fortunately, I will catch them at 80's in the Park in Melbourne, Florida, only about an hour from where I live.
VAIN is the only one I've NEVER seen and from what I understand, I am really missing out, not just for the "hits" like "Beat The Bullet" but apparently because of all the great music they've been making since including their most recent releases.
Hopefully, I will catch them soon and let us pray to The Metal Gods for another great M3 line-up next year and that I will be attending it all. AND, Metal Gods willing, raising a red Solo cup with my fellow BBGer's on there, as well! Cheers!
https://sauconsource.com/2017/05/09/federal-civil-rights-lawsuit-filed-svsd-alleges-racial-discrimination/
I know this is a music website. However, anti-bullying is my soapbox and mostly why I started a career in social work. As I stated above, music has helped me get through troubling times. And, I know that my son is currently using, not only song, but also his guitar to help him through his difficult times, too.