Rogers Bayfest

I would like to take this time to reflect on my concert experience at Rogers Bayfest in Sarnia. It was July 11th, 2009 and my friend John and I were stoked to see two of our favourite bands - Stone Temple Pilots and Our Lady Peace. After a surprisingly easy drive to Sarnia (from Hamilton = 2.5 hours) we arrived and began walking around the outdoor festival. It was a great venue and the weather was on our side making the experience even better! Ahh...

Before we begin, Rogers Bayfest in Sarnia is a popular outdoor event that features a rock and country weekend, showcasing big names in both genres of music. The rock weekend consisted of Counting Crows w/ The Trews (Thursday), KISS w/ Dean Liquer (Friday..yeah, KISS!) and Stone Temple Pilots w/ Our Lady Peace (Saturday). In previous years, Def Leppard and Aerosmith have played Bayfest. Pretty cool eh?

Let me fast forward to the OLP performance. What can I say about their performance? They sounded great! Did you catch that? They SOUNDED great...I barely saw the stage and even the small, pathetic screens they had around the festival. I'm 5'7 and that's not tall, so obviously everybody in front of me were 6'0 and over. Even my friend John, who is 6'0, had trouble seeing the stage. The first 30 yards or so in front of the stage was devoted to VIP ticket holders and anything beyond that was general admission. It just so happens that I was part of the general admission. Oh well but I didn't expect the crowd to be total pricks!

I've been to many outdoor festivals/concerts and they were never violent or uncomfortable. I've gotten used to the aroma of marijuana, cigarette and cigar smoke so that was all good, it didn't bother me too much. As for the OLP show, I had the opportunity to glance at the band on stage here and there but nothing was permanent. It usually ended by some douchebags pushing people aside or running through crowds or even jumping off TREES...yeah, trees! Honesty, are you kidding me? Anyways, STP came on at 10:30pm and of course, I got my ass kicked in a mosh pit during "Wicked Garden" and "Vaseline." Ugh, it was horrible! Even the Offspring mosh pit was less violent then that. Once again, STP sounded great and I actually got to see a good portion of their show - that was because I moved to the back of the festival.

I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy myself but it was way too violent and abrupt to actually enjoy a good rock show. It was definitely an experience I will never forget. Perhaps OLP/STP will play Hamilton or Toronto...separately...with security...and no trees.

To all those people who pushed and punched innocent rockers...