Epicenter Twenty Ten

During a muggy 90 degree weekend in Fontana, California 50,000 people congregated on the black-top outside the Auto Club Speedway for Epicenter 2010. A massive stage loomed in the distance. Two monolithic video screens hung at either side of the pillars as if daring gravity to try and pull them down. Another screen onstage; comprised of thousands of tiny LCD lights pulsated and illuminated with iconic band logos and unique video shows.

As people passed through the Speedway’s entrance, they were met by tents that peppered the pavement like shanty shacks from the Depression Era. Evoking memories of Warped Tour, a main stage sat at the far end of the fairgrounds and a second sat at the head where the entrance was located. However, unlike Warped Tour, the band schedule never overlapped and allowed for you to see everyone play throughout the day, almost like a live play list, the soundtrack for you and 49,000 fans. You could stand and watch Bush rock out on the massive video screens at the main stage and then wander a quarter of a mile back to watch House of Pain, passing Monster Energy Drink’s V.I.P lounge, Camel’s smoker’s lounge, a massive blow-up Jagermeister bottle and swarms of people drinking, eating and socializing. As a special treat this event saw several bands reunited and playing for the first time in years. Eminem was the most notable, this being his only show on the west coast this year, as well, bands like Blink 182 and Bush were emerging from time offstage and out of the spotlight to perform at Epicenter.

Big Boi

I arrived as Big Boi; a half of Outkast and a whole of himself (as he would put it later in our interview) began his set. Crashing past the dozens of photographer’s Big Boi shouted rhymes from his new solo album “Sir Luscious Left Foot.” Tracks like ‘Daddy Fat Sacks’ and ‘Shutterbug’ thumped their booming bass out to the audience with Big Boi lyrically devouring the microphone in his hand. I would find out later that the high heat literally caused the rapper’s vinyl to begin melting on the turntable while he was performing.

In our interview Big commented on how he felt his music had no boundaries, “we never discriminate against any type of music and that’s why we can go anywhere with it.” He felt the event was great fun and upon delving deeper into his music and lyrics he stated “It’s necessary to educate as well as to entertain, personally I like to make you think about a song and that’s how I engage people in my music.” I think the mass of people cramming against the divider at the concert would agree with him.

“Music needs a reality check and that’s really what’s up” Scott Russo commented about performing with Big B, (who should be clarified as the white rapper from northern California, not the solo performer from Outcast). “I created my own genre, something between singing and rapping. I couldn’t break into rap because they wouldn’t let me in.” stated Big B about his music. “Big B brings melody” Scott chimed in, “and it can be funny but that’s just him being honest.” “I’m not a rapper,” Big B continued “There are so many rapper’s who are doper than me but the problem is that their not me.” The idea of doing your own thing and doing it your own way seemed to be a pretty constant theme with the lineup of bands at the festival. The headliners of the two-day event, Eminem, Kiss and Blink 182 had forged names for themselves by just being themselves. And that was evident in their performances, Eminem came onstage to a Star Wars like scrolling text across a black backdrop, Kiss had a crazy pyrotechnic performance and Blink (who would be performing their last show of 2010 before returning to record their new album) delighted fans by replacing lyrics with comments about human genitalia. “It’s a pretty great experience,” commented Slaine, part of La Coka Nostra and Boston based Special Teamz, who performed with House of Pain at the event. “You know we are just doing our thing and it’s fun to be back together doing it again,” Danny Boy, also of House of Pain talked about the group reuniting after 9 years for the epicenter event. “I still get texts all the time when ‘Jump Around’ comes on TV or the radio and we just figured it was time to give it another go.” Members of House of Pain also joined Eminem onstage along with other guests like Lil’ Wayne and D12.

As the weekend carried onto the second day the predominately rap, hip-hop lineup was complimented surprisingly well with punk icons like Bad Religion, Rise Against and Blink 182 along with eccentric rock n’ roll band 30 Seconds to Mars. In a strange twist of line-up KISS and Bush had played the first day with the rap lineup but seemed better suited to play with the punk bands that tore up the stage on the second day.

Bad Religion

I took what espionage tactics I had studied from the Bourne movies and applied it to a smooth operation of my own, maneuvering past the ever-vigilant security force to plant myself on stage to shoot Bad Religion, Rise Against and 30 Seconds to Mars. (Ok so maybe it wasn’t that intense but its a damn more entertaining story than the truth, which I will never reveal.) The performances all had clout and having watched the mass of bodies reach up to their icons who sang out lyrics to their awaiting ears was an awesome sight. As the second day wrapped to a close, Blink 182 took the stage and with a large chunk of “Enema of the State” to open with, erupted sonic devastation to the audience. It was a nostalgic show, chills were felt for songs like “What’s My Age Again?” and “Dumpweed.” I was transported back to Jr. High and my friends who had introduced me to the pop punk surge in the days when Offspring and SUM 41 dominated the airwaves.

30 Seconds to Mars

As I was leaving the venue that evening I concluded that, although the Epicenter event was still a toddler in the world of festivals like Warped Tour and Ozzfest (as it was still into only its second year) the event was still trying to contend for the prize fight for the best music festival. For one, this was Bush’s first performance in almost 9 years along with several others reuniting for the event (House of Pain for instance). The concert had already expanded into a two-day event and was a welcome breath of fresh air from festivals and shows that were getting scaled back due to the recession. Having KISS follow Eminem was a bit of an odd decision for me personally but I still would encourage anyone to watch the expected steady growth of this festival for next year and hopefully years to come.