The 13th edition of Rockfest shakes the Montebello grounds.

Montebello Rockfest founder Alex Martel can confidently say he has run another successful festival this year. The 13th edition of Rockfest was held last weekend at the quaint town of Montebello, Quebec with around 200 000 people attending over the three days.

Martel had announced earlier this year he was scaling down the festival with less bands and removing one of the smaller stages leaving the two main stages and the smaller Tony Sly stage to make sure the festival goers were able to enjoy uninterrupted concert experiences.

This year the festival introduced bigger headliners already on its opening night, Thursday, having names such as Propagandhi, Comeback Kid, A Day To Remember, We Came As Romans, and Five Finger Death Punch on the main stage to close off the first evening. Opening the night on the main stage however, was Martel’s Deadly Apples, who reunited at last year’s Rockfest after a seven year hiatus, and have since toured with several huge names including Korn in Japan, and South America with Deftones. The band is to head over to Mexico with Thirty Seconds To Mars after the fest, and opening the entire Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie tour all summer across US arenas.

The highlight of the opening night for me was Detroit’s metalcore band We Came As Romans, who put on an explosive performance full of energy and a blinding light show.  The band released their latest album, Cold Like War, in October last year, and have just returned from a three week tour in Europe last month.

Friday morning started with sad news coming from the Rockfest grounds. A 25-year old festival goer had passed away earlier that morning for a suspected overdose. This marks a second year in a row that the festival claims a casualty after a 60 year old man suffered a heart attack last year on the last day of the festival.

This year’s incident highlights the urgent need of having Naloxone kits available for the festival goers, and a Montreal based harm reduction group Grip says they handed out around 200 kits by the end of Saturday and at least a thousand fentanyl strips. During the weekend several people were sent to the hospital with drug related incidents, but luckily no more casualties were reported.

The afternoon at the festival was dedicated to the Celtic punk band veterans Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, who both drew huge crowds in front of the main stage. The best crowd surf of the fest was most likely recorded during one of these shows as a concert goer surfed across with a huge inflatable unicorn, wearing just a zebra print leotard, only to be gently escorted out of the pit afterwards by the security.

Friday’s other names included Suicide Silence, Lagwagon, Rancid, Cannibal Corpse and Rancid to mention a few. Sum 41’s anticipated return to Rockfest was a success, and the band ended up playing their whole 2002 album ‘Does This Look Infected’ in front of an adoring crowd. Singer Deryck Whibley looks to have pulled off an impressive recovery and was in a fantastic shape.

One of the most anticipated and the most theatrical acts of the night was Norway’s symphonic metal band Dimmu Borgir , who did not disappoint. All band members had dressed in leather and their usual face paint, with lead singer Sagrath wearing an impressive floor length cape. The band have a busy summer ahead touring the biggest metal festivals in Europe, and their Rockfest appearance was most definitely a sweet treat for their North American fans.

Godsmack drove fans wild with their fiery performance on the main stage, and the highlight of their performance was the epic drum battle between the front man Sully Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin towards the end of the show.The band made sure to play their biggest hits and even after over twenty years together, the band still kicks ass.

The newly recouped Stone Temple Pilots took the stage just after dark on the Budweiser Prohibition Stage, and I was very curious to see how the new singer Jeff Gutt would fill the shoes of Scott Weiland, and most recently Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington, who briefly filled the front man role for STP, before passing away last summer.

Gutt’s voice is eerily similar to of Weiland’s, and his moves and mannerism’s on stage were like watching Weiland raise from the dead to perform again.

The biggest highlight of the night was the main stage headliner Prophets of Rage who blew absolutely everybody’s minds with their powerful performance. The super group consisting of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave’s guitar god Tom Morello, bassist Tim Commerford and drummer Brad Wilk, along with Public Enemy’s Chuck D and DJ Lord and Cypress Hill’s B-Real delivered a clear political message to their audience. Morello had dressed one of his several guitars with “Fuck Trump” sign, and shortly after the band was formed two years ago, the band has gone beyond the disastrous U.S election when he declared POR as “an elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit”.

The band played RATM’s biggest hits and included a bunch of Cypress Hill and Public Enemy tunes in between, and got thousands of people jumping to House of Pain’s Jump Around.  I can’t think of a better way to finish what was one of the best lineups ever to perform the Rockfest grounds on the Friday night.

The festival’s final day, Saturday, had the anticipation for more lighthearted headliners with Jack Black’s Tenacious D, the L.A. based comedy glam metal band Steel Panther, and insanely popular Weezer to close off the night.

I made it to the fest on time for Utah rock band The Used on the main stage, followed up by Ottawa’s progressive metal band Beyond Creation on the Tony Sly stage.

Maryland’s All Time Low, and Arizona rock group Jimmy Eat World took the crowds on the main stage starting off the last, hot sunny day of this year’s Rockfest.

One of my biggest favorites in the afternoon lineup was Richmond, Virginia’s Municipal Waste, who had invested in an impressive backdrop stating the band’s very clear political stance. The singer Tony Foresta got the crowd worked up and mosh pits going on both sides of the stage and the audience all warmed up for the next metal headliner of the day.

The biggest circle pit of the festival was formed during another Virginia band, Lamb of God’s set. Front man Randy Blythe and his band are known for intense shows and getting their fans to doing the infamous ‘wall of death’, which divides the audience in the middle and charging towards each other. The audience was not left disappointed having the fans leave the pit most likely bloodied and most definitely soaked. The best show of the closing day!

The honorary mention to the most visually impressive shows goes to Pennsylvania’s Motionless In White, who were all dressed in black pvc and black paint across their arms and necks. The singer Chris Motionless, worked the stage and got the female audience members in front of the stage screaming and crying in delight.

The night was bound to be Jack Black and Kyle Gass lead Tenacious D’s, who got the crowd singing on top of their lungs, a clear favorite being ‘The Best Song In The World’. The duo, who have been playing together since 1994, have announced the much anticipated sequel to The Pick of Destiny 2, which is to be released in October.

This was my first time seeing Steel Panther live in action, although I had heard several rumors of the band’s larger than life rock cock moves. The singer Michael Starr and guitarist Satchel threw comedic banter back and forth, while the bassist Lexxi Foxx concentrated on looking pretty. The band brought bunch of  ladies on stage from the audience for their song ‘17 Girls In A Row’ as usual, and played a full set of profanity filled hilarity spiced with leopard print and flowing hair.

Closing off the last night of the Rockfest was California’s Weezer who still after being together for 25 years, are enjoying a worldwide success which does not seem to have an end in sight. The band has most recently been in the headlines for covering Toto’s classic hit Africa, and after going viral online, they have added it on their repertoire, as well as a Smashing Pumpkins cover.

Overall this year’s Rockfest was a toned down version of most of the recent year’s experiences, but we cannot wait to see what Alex Martel comes up with next year!

By Laura Collins