First of all Rocklahoma has been a goal of mine ever since the festival began. In the beginning it was purely a hair metal festival and I said "one day I will be there". After a lot of hard work I finally got in contact with Retrospect Records owner Sam McCaslin. He liked what 3D In Your Face was doing and invited us to be apart of this festival last year. It wasn't in the cards for us but I promised him we will make it in 2016. We as a band decided that no matter what this was our chance to do something big with our new album. The journey started Wednesday, May 25th with a warm up gig at The Chrome Lounge with Texas Hippie Coalition, Sons of Texas, and John Doe. This was a stacked show and of course from the get go things were behind schedule. We weren't sure what to expect but our show went great and I think we surprised a ton of people with the new songs from Lost In The Volume. I'm not one to talk shit on any band but during our last song a member of another band stormed the stage and started screaming at me "Get off. You guys are done. You are over time.". I couldn't stop the show so we played our last song and then it hit the fan. No punches were thrown but it was tense in the parking lot after we left the stage. After the show we hit the road towards Pryor, OK, arriving at 7:30 AM.
We pulled up to the gate and the door guy wouldn't let us in until our label representative escorted us in. Of course he wasn't awake it was 7 AM. So we parked the bus at the gate and slept for 5 hours until they let us in. After we finally got in I was so excited that there was no sleeping. We started networking and chatting with the people already inside the campgrounds. To our surprise people already knew who we were. The hair, the bus, and the videos really helped get the word out before we even played a note. The first band we ran into was Nightrain, a cool sleaze band from Norway. We eventually became great friends with these guys and hung out with them for the rest of our stay at Rocklahoma. The first interview on the list was with Thunder Underground. Check out Jason and Trent's review here. We then caught the blistering set by Moxy and The Influence. We took the Camp Jager stage at 9 PM sharp to a very eager and enthusiastic crowd. It was fantastic. I don't even have words. So much fun. After our show Nightrain destroyed the place again. We partied and watched bands all night until 4 AM with our new friends and fans.
Day two started off pretty early with the alarm going off at 11:30 AM. Sniper and I got dressed and had to be at the media tent by noon. Inside of the media tent I had interviews set up from 12-3 PM. Everyone was very excited to see us and we ended up running into fellow Omaha natives Arson City and Screaming For Silence. 3 hours of interviews, while fun is exhausting. We hit the catering tent and ran into fellow label mates The Tip. Imagine that scene at dinner. By about 5 PM we finished getting dressed and ready for the evenings show and took the stage right after Sixx A.M. The crowd was huge and ready for some glam slam rock n roll. We tore through a 40 minute set and I finally got that feeling that all the hard work was somehow worth it. We packed up and headed to the merch tent and met some of our new friends and fans. You get used to taking pictures with people but at this level it was almost non-stop. No complaints at all. We made it back to the bus, had dinner, and got changed. Stumbling back into the festival still covered in makeup and glitter we caught the end of Rob Zombie's set. Probably one of my favorite acts Last In Line was scheduled to play and we had to cross a sea of 50,000 people to catch their amazing Ronnie James Dio set. Around 11 we ventured back to our stage and caught an amazing set by The Hellectrocuters from France then headed to the after party. I told you this was an all night affair. The final band that we caught was fronted by a fully costumed Umpa Lumpa. I didn't take any acid that night but I think everyone was tripping watching this band perform. I think we called it quits around 5 AM.
Saturday started a little later with a few interviews at 2:30 PM in the media tent. We went back to our stage inside the festival and caught sets by Salems Lott, Collectve Soul, and Mycah. This was all building to a performance by the modern glam rock godfathers Prophets of Addiction. These guys played some New York Dolls/Ramones infused rock n roll. Truly amazing that these guys are our friends. Then it was time for the reason we all came to Rocklahoma, The Scorpions. Even though we were standing about 200 yards back, hearing those songs played nearly brought me to tears. I mean I always dreamed of it but now it was actually happening. We then caught sets by Ragdoll and Freeway Mad. The after party at Camp Jager was taken over by the wild leather clad glam boys. It was truly a sight to behold. We stood around talking and hanging out until 5 AM. Calling it a night for the 3rd day of Rocklahoma. I woke up Sunday in Kansas City, MO. Due to our generator breaking down on the bus we had to limp back home to Nebraska. We had been sitting in a field in Oklahoma all weekend with no power and no AC. Not to bad but a night time drive seemed a little bit more dangerous so we had to push it back home. It was sentimental leaving and watching all of our friends back at the festival finish off what we started.
Thank you to my band mates, our road crew, my friends, and family. Without your continued support there is no way we could have made this dream a reality. Most of all thank you to Sam at Retrospect Records for giving us a shot. We will never forget you. See ya next year.
ALWAYS LOUD
FOREVER PROUD
Sam Spade
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