One of the scariest moments of my life at Rocklahoma
today as a major storm with 70 mph winds and rain came through the site mid afternoon. It started as rain during Trixter's set, then during the bands final song "give it to me good" all hell broke loose! It happened so fast it was amazing, causing the total collapse of two side stages. These were not small cheesy stages! They were major massive structures!! Total miracle nobody was killed. I was on the main stage when this all happened watching Trixter. The band was pulled off and the stage was put in total lockdown and sealed shut. The main stage is one of the few permanent structures on the site, so anyone who was on it just held tight and prayed it did not go down also. Beyond scary not knowing what was happening outside and hoping the thing did not cave in. Thankfully it didn't and after an hour the stage was reopened when things turned to just rain. Rain continued through the rest of the night and a decent amount of fans stayed in it.
As for the bands and performances here's what I can tell you briefly from what I watched. Trixter did a great job. You would have never known it was 13 years since they played. Really energetic and soaked up the fun of being a band again. Also handled the weather issues really well and had fun with it as long as they could. Lynch Mob was unreal. One of the best lineups ever of this band with Marco Mendoza, Fred Coury and Oni Logan. Slamming beyond belief and George was really into it and played amazing. Even tossed in some Dokken and once again said a reunion is inevitable in the press conference I did with them. This was really, really kick ass! See this lineup if you can for sure.
Kix was also great. These guys were always great live and that has not changed at all. Good to have them back. Steve Whiteman is a phenomenal front man and the band is original except for the bassist. Lita Ford played for the first time in 15 years (not counting the recent NY area warm ups). She did really well. Band was strong, good set list, stage show with pyro and bombs, very cool. She is back full time with more dates being booked. It poured during her set but the fans still loved it and Lita was very appreciative.
Warrant closed things out. I was fried after a stressful day so only watched a few songs but they also sounded really good and everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief that Jani was sober and really sounding good and into it. He was fresh from his latest rehab but you'd never have known it.
Everything wraps up Sunday with Ace, UFO, Tesla, Queensryche, Zebra. More coming soon and weather is expected to clear.
ET
