Dominated by a packed heavy metal festival in Grand Rapids, the weekend also boasted shows by Chloe Kimes, The Insiders, The Verve Pipe, Chuck Mead more. The photos and set lists at Local Spins.
Not Silent: Disturbed closing out Upheaval on Saturday. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
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After a weekend of headbanging highlights, heavy metal’s Disturbed proved “Indestructible,” as it were, taking rabid Upheaval Festival fans “Inside the Fire,” deep into “The Night” and reveling in “The Light.”
After performances by 22 hard-rocking bands and two long days of moshing at Grand Rapids’ Belknap Park, metalheads had one more dance with the heavy metal gods late Saturday night.
Alternative metal titans Disturbed greeted the largest crowd of the weekend with heavy riffs and primal drumming that propelled a 16-song set that ignited the late-night spectacle with “Ten Thousdands Fists” and wrapped up with “Down With the Sickness” to wrap up the encore. (The band, of course, also rolled out its much-ballyhooed cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” near the end of the main set. View the set list here.)
Fan-Interactive: Alfonso Civile and Heartsick. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Day 2 of the second-year festival added even more fans to its legion of thousands and also spotlighted two Michigan bands — one on the Main Stage and the other on the Hilltop Stage.
Alpena’s Katharsys Theory unleashed the very first set of the day, and while the band played to a sparse early afternoon turnout, the rockers put on a show as if there were 10,000 people on hand. Bringing speedy metal-core to Upheaval, Katharsys Theory proved their mettle as one of the most enjoyable acts to watch at the whole festival.
Meanwhile, Lansing’s Heartsick kicked things off on the Main Stage, adhering to the mission proclaimed on its website: “Heartsick operates under a simple philosophy: Treat every show as the last, and every fan as the first.” This philosophy was on full display as the metalcore band (with a heavy emphasis on hardcore) blew the Main Stage wide open on Day 2. Giving audience members everything from fast-paced hardcore riffs to crushing breakdowns, Heartsick clearly aimed to have as much fun as possible on stage, succeeding at that with flying colors. Midway through the show, lead singer Alfonso Civile even pulled a fan up on stage to crowd-surf on a large, inflatable banana.
Just ahead of Disturbed, Three Days Grace rolled out many its biggest alt-rock hits, including “I Hate Everything About You,” “Riot,” “Animal I Have Become” and “Painkiller.” Fans rocking Three Days Grace T-shirts were in full force, chanting the band’s name in unison as Three Days Grace left the stage. (View the 13-song set list here.) – By Benjamin Blackburn
PHOTO GALLERY: Upheaval Festival – Day 2
Photos by Anthony Norkus
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker
Elsewhere, the weekend unfurled several other milestone shows: The Verve Pipe at Listening Room’s “Listening Lawn” in downtown Grand Rapids (view the set list here), The Insiders playing Kalamazoo State Theatre’s 95th anniversary celebration in Kalamazoo, Chuck Mead & The Grassy Knoll Boys at Grand Rapids’ Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill, followed the next night by singer-songwriters Chloe Kimes and Grace Theisen, and Saturday’s inaugural Rotary Rocks event in downtown Rockford. View the galleries below.
Plus, check out reviews/recaps of Thursday’s Michael Franti & Spearhead concert at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park and Spin Doctors with Sister Hazel at Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium in Grand Haven.
PHOTO GALLERY: The Verve Pipe at Listening Lawn (Studio Park)
Photos by Enrique Olmos
