Even though the mosh pit dust from the three stages had settled during the night, it wouldn’t last for very long because once the front gates opened and the sea of people passed the security checkpoint, the dust would be stirred up again like a raging wildfire. Today everyone rushed in all directions eager to find their spot in front of the stage to either see Rob Zombie, Bring Me The Horizon, Stone Temple Pilots, Marilyn Manson, and many others that were on deck to play throughout the day, with San Diego’s, even they call themselves crappy punk rock since 1992 Blink-182 closed out the evening.
Dead Posey started Aftershock’s day two on the Monster Energy stage, with Sick Puppies coming in right after them over on the Kolas Discovery stage, with Phoenix, Arizona’s Doom Metal band Spirit Adrift stirring things up over on the Coors Capital stage that just happens to be right next to the Interstate 5 northbound bridge. You literally could pull over to the side of the road and look down onto the Aftershock Festival below. How long you could pull it off being on the side of the road, well, that’s up to the Sacramento police department, I guess. It was mentioned in the Sacramento Bee Newspaper by Rick Boone that there would be more than 450 security and police officers to keep the peace and make sure everyone attending was safe during the long weekend. The festival is expected to bring some significant revenue to Sacramento, including $125,000 paid to Sacramento County for the use of Discovery Park. Mike Testa with Business Sacramento estimates the weekend will bring in approximately $30 million.
Rebecca Tullett traveled from Brisbane, Australia, to attend this year’s Aftershock Festival. She said the over 14-hour flight was worth it to see one of her favorite bands Bring Me The Horizon perform. With Korn, Marilyn Manson, Motionless In White, and I Prevail also performing during the festival, “made the trip even better, and the jet lag all worth it,” she said. She also mentioned that “everyone was so friendly and chatted with me in the lines and on the barrier, and wanted to know about Australia… it was such a great community of people. I just loved it!” In addition to the headliners blink-182, several buzz-worthy up-and-coming bands across the rock spectrum were present during the weekend, with highlights including blazing sets from Mongolian folk metal troupe The Hu, and hip-hop/metal hybrid act Ghostemane who at one point during their set happened to have an endless sea of crowd surfers, and one of them just happened to be in a wheelchair. It was pretty amazing. They are two bands that need to be checked out and need to come back to the festival again.
Be on the lookout for Badflower, they are a four-piece rock band from Los Angeles, California that formed in 2013, and just released their debut first full-length titled Ok, I’m Sick February 22nd, 2019, on Big Machine records. They gained from former NSYNC member Lance Bass. Their hit song “Ghost,” which they performed closing out their Aftershock set is almost like Metallica’s “Fade To Black,” a song about the depression and the struggles of suicide, that will hopefully inspire and uplift you out of the darkness. Like mentioned, be on the lookout for this band; they are going to go far in the coming years.
It was too bad that Gojira was playing on Sunday’s bill because on Highly Suspect’s new release MCID, some of the members, more than likely the Duplatier brothers, Joe and Mari, had collaborated with Highly Suspect on the song “SOS.” It would have been great to see them perform this live together, but the three-time Grammy nominees came out and played some of their hits like “Bath Salts,” “Lydia,” “Serotonia,” and the crowd-pleasing song “My Name Is Human.”
Marilyn Manson came out with all pistons firing and was full of piss and vinegar starting his set off with “Irresponsible Hate Anthem.” Minutes into the song when he fired off its chorus, “f*ck it,” the crowd was instantly amped with enough electricity to feed the roaming PG & E blackouts that were happening around some of the counties in Sacramento and surrounding areas. Among the many songs that Manson performed during the evening were “The Dope Show,” “Say 10,” “Antichrist Superstar,” and he even performed the new wave British duo Eurythmics cover “Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This),” which he recorded in 1995 found on his Smells Like Children release. With the crowd far from done raging, Manson closed out the night with everyone’s favored song, “The Beautiful People.”
Jordan White, 15, who traveled with his dad, Terry, from Beaverton, Oregon, said his favorite moment from the Aftershock Festival was watching Bring Me The Horizon, especially when they performed their song “Can You Feel My Heart.” And Bring Me The Horizon definitely brought it to Sacramento, California playing a wide variety of songs, opening with “MANTRA,” and then breaking into “Wonderful Life,” “Shadow Moses,” “Happy Song,” “Drown,” and then finishing the night with the powerful song “Throne” that’s on their That’s The Spirit 2015 release. Bring Me The Horizon are currently on their Threesome Tour, with Sleeping With Sirens, and Poppy, wrapping things up October 29th at The Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater in Miami, Florida.
Rob Zombie’s first performance at Aftershock was in 2014, back when, at one point, they had four stages. Since then he has released The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser album in 2016 along with making two movies 31, and 3 From Hell, and you could tell by the crowd’s loud reaction when he walked out on the stage to the song “Dead City Radio And The New Gods Of Supertown” that they had wanted to see this Rockstar and movie maker legend, maybe since the day before, last month, or maybe even back when the lineup was announced, or quite possibly since 2014 when the last time he was in Discovery Park. The crowd loved him, and he probably could have easily been the headliner for the night instead of blink-182. Rob Zombie is quite the entertainer during his shows, as you instantly you get bombarded with lots of bright, colorful lights flashing everywhere, along with nine video screens playing various clips of horror movies, song lyrics, and other crazy images. Rob Zombie worked the crowd to songs like “Superbeast,” “Living Dead Girl,” “Well, Everybody’s F*cking In A U.F.O.,” and “Pussy Liquor.” Of course, Rob Zombie can’t forget about his previous musical past and played some classic White Zombie songs as well, “More Human, Than Human,” “Electric Head, Part 2: The Ecstasy,” and “Thunder Kiss ‘65” preceded by Rob wanting John 5, his guitarist, to play Led Zeppelin’s “Heartbreaker.” Before Rob Zombie ended his set, a movie trailer was played on the video screens for his latest movie 3 From Hell, and then he finished the night with “Dragula.” A highlight during the night, Rob Zombie played the Beatles “Helter Skelter” song in the style of Motley Crue’s version with, of course, video clips playing various clips of Charles Manson and his ‘Manson Family.’
Blink-182 closed the Aftershock festival to a huge crowd on Saturday night after previous monstrous performances earlier from Stone Temple Pilots, Bad Religion, Fishbone, Ho99o9, and Sick Puppies, and they had quite the variety of songs on their setlist for everyone to enjoy, including “The Rock Show,” “What’s My Age Again?” “Happy Holidays, You Bastard,” and “All The Small Things,” And of course, it’s not blink-182 if you don’t have Travis Barker show off on the drums, right? And of course, he did after the song “Violence.” With no time to waste right after the Aftershock Festival, they’ll hop on a plane and play a couple of shows in England, then heading back to the States and play at KROQ’s Halloween Costume Ball on October 26th in Los Angeles, California.
