Tag: historic crew stadium

Metallica returns to Historic Crew Stadium

Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to gift a lot of concert tickets to a lot of people thanks to this gig. Often, especially in the earlier days when I was writing for corporate entities, I would be given a “plus one” with my reviewer tickets. It’s always been important to me to share what I consider to be good music with people that I care about. It’s been awesome to be able to take friends and family members along for the ride over the past twenty years or so.

One of those people that I’ve been able to take to a handful of shows over the years has been my eldest niece. She accompanied me to a Cheap Trick show as an early teen. I was able to bring her to a big festival in Toledo a few years later that featured a who’s who of 80’s hair metal. It featured bands like Ratt and Dokken. We’ve seen Lynyrd Skynyrd and in 2019, for the inaugural Sonic Temple Festival (after they changed their name from Rock on the Range) we were able to see her favorite band at the time: Foo Fighters. I tend to think that, over the years, my writing has gotten better. Alas, comp tickets for big festivals like Sonic Temple have become much harder to get a hold of since I no longer do this for a corporation. I’ve been very fortunate to get free tickets to more concerts than most people probably go to in a lifetime, so I’ll never complain about not getting comped for something that I love to do and have been privileged enough to do countless times. It is frustrating, though, that those opportunities have dried up for some events due to the fact that I’m now just a name and no longer a name with a corporate logo attached to it. I digress.

With that being said, Sonic Temple was not going to be in the cards for me this year, even with as awesome of a lineup that they had organized. Metallica. Korn. Alice Cooper. Alice In Chains. Linkin Park. And on, and on. These are some legendary acts and in a sudden twist of fate, that same niece shot me a text that she had picked up tickets for Sunday as a surprise for her and her boyfriend….and that she had gotten one for me as well! The seeds, that I hope I planted in her brain years ago about live music, have become a passion of hers too. I was touched that they had grabbed a wristband for me as well. Typically, her and her boyfriend go to Ohio’s other major festival; Inkcarceration in Mansfield. They recently moved to Columbus, though, and live within walking distance of Historic Crew Stadium. I went down Sunday morning, to their home, and we walked to the stadium in time to catch one of the opening acts for the day: Fame On Fire.

They were a fun show and we stayed there at the “second” stage for most of the early afternoon. We caught sets by The Plot In You, From Ashes to New, and Badflower. From there we separated for awhile. I was ready to get into the stadium for Chevelle, while they were more interested in seeing Asking Alexandria who has long evaded them. Chevelle was great, as always, and performed for the second largest crowd of the day besides the headliner.

Initially, the band after Chevelle, was supposed to be the iconic Alice In Chains. Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, they had to pull out two days before the gig. That didn’t leave the festival organizers much time to find a replacement…especially one with the kind of draw that Alice In Chains brings in. They did, however, especially on such short time do an admirable job by adding hometown heroes Beartooth to the lineup. I’ll be the first to admit, that I am not what you would call a huge Beartooth fan. I think they are fine. It has definitely been cool, though, to see them grow over the years. You used to be able to see this band in small venues and this past winter they headlined a show at Columbus’ Schottenstein Center. That’s big time. It was also quite clear that the moment was emotional for the band as well. Lead vocalist Caleb Shomo stopped multiple times to thank the crowd and even towards the end appeared to be shedding some tears. To open an enormous show in your hometown for the biggest band in the world has to be one of those bucket list moments for them.

Outside of maybe AC/DC, there are no current bands in the rock/metal stratosphere that are as big of a draw as the festival headliner: Metallica. They are far and away the largest act that this festival has booked and it’s doubtful, honestly, that that will change. Just as they did when they headlined Rock on the Range in 2017, they absolutely filled the stadium. I’m a huge Metallica fan, but they are not my favorite band. That does not change the fact that they are massive, and at least in the United States, there is nobody else that can do what they are doing. They are bigger now, in 2025, than they even were in their “prime”. The only other act, that I’m aware of, that is playing football stadiums for multiple nights per city is Taylor Swift. I mean no disrespect to her when I say this, but she isn’t playing two completely unique sets each night either where there are zero songs repeated. That is legendary.

And so it was. Metallica came and conquered Columbus yet again. Their Sunday set was a perfect blend of classics and a few tracks from their most recent album 72 Seasons. One of the highlights for me was hearing a stadium full of people echoing back the outro to “The Memory Remains”. Getting to see the biggest band in the world, again, with my niece and her boyfriend at our hometown festival was awesome. Gene Simmons famously stated that “Rock is dead.” Sometimes it feels that way, and the up and comers definitely have their work cut out for them if there is ever going to be a new band to be on that same level as a Metallica or a Led Zeppelin or an AC/DC. But rock isn’t dead. Events like this couldn’t happen if that were true. This festival has grown from a one day affair to a four day event with four stages and 100 performances since 2007. Younger generations of fans and newer bands will have to continue to keep it alive but hearing 50,000 people in a stadium singing along to “One” and “Enter Sandman” has me very optimistic that the legends of yesteryear and the legends of today have laid a more than solid foundation for the legends of tomorrow.

Metallica Set List Columbus, OH Sonic Temple Festival May 11, 2025

  • Whiplash
  • For Whom The Bell Tolls
  • Ride The Lightning
  • The Memory Remains
  • Lux AEterna
  • Screaming Suicide
  • Metal Militia and Hang on Sloopy (medley)
  • No Leaf Clover
  • Cyanide
  • The Call of Ktulu
  • The Unforgiven
  • Wherever I May Roam
  • Fight Fire With Fire
  • Moth Into Flame
  • One
  • Enter Sandman
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Lynyrd Skynyrd, Oliver Anthony, and Fuel visit Columbus

Well, I’m going to start this one with the elephant in the room. The first Buckeye Motorcycle and Music Rally festival in Columbus, OH (at least on Saturday, I didn’t attend Friday) was horribly attended. I don’t know who dropped the ball. I don’t know if this was promoted poorly or if tickets were too expensive or if there were just too many other things to do in Columbus on this day, but I genuinely felt bad for all involved. I felt bad for whomever put this event on, because I don’t see any way that they made any return on their investment to host this event. I felt bad for the dozens of pop up shops and food trucks that had nobody to serve. I felt bad for the three great bands that likely haven’t played to crowds this small in ages.

With that said, each of the three bands that I took in, remained professional and put on great shows. At 6 p.m. Fuel took to the stage. The Pennsylvania rock band had played this venue before at 2014’s Rock on the Range Festival, which was the last time I had seen them perform. At this point in the evening there were only a few hundred people in the massive stadium to catch their set, and that’s a shame because they were on top of their game. The people in the pit area to the right of the band was spirited and engaged and I believe kept the band inspired to put on a good performance. Honestly, with as poorly attended as this was, the event’s organizers should have began massively discounting ticket prices a month ago to try to recoup some cost and they also should have allowed everyone on to the stadium floor yesterday as it became apparent that dividing the fans into areas made the crowd size look even smaller. At one point the band even remarked that they didn’t care if they were playing to 5 people or 15,000. Most importantly, the band sounded great and were able to debut a new song from an upcoming album release that they seemed genuinely excited about. Of course, their late 90’s and early 2000’s anthems “Shimmer” and “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)” were very well received by the fans in attendance but the prospect of new music is always welcome by fans and band alike.

Fuel performing “Hemorrhage (In My Hands)”.

I was very excited for the next performer of the night; Oliver Anthony. I believe that this was his first visit to Columbus. I don’t do many reviews of country artists or go to many country shows. Country music has become so commercial over the past twenty years with so many of the radio friendly artists honestly being the farthest thing from country. In recent years, however, there has been an uptick of talent being exposed that is more representative of real country music. Oliver Anthony fits that mold. His band was fantastic and brought their brand of foot stompin’, back porch sittin’, Blue Ridge Mountain music to life. After a brief Bible reading and a performance of “Amazing Grace”, Anthony would also remark about the scarcity of the crowd; commenting that “I guess tonight will be an intimate affair” or something to that effect. When their set began at 7:30 the crowd may have been pushing 1,500 spectators. While the attendees were few, the ones that came enjoyed the band in a steady rain for the majority of the set. Obviously, the highlight was their 2023 anthem “Rich Men North of Richmond”, a song that resonated with millions of Americans from every sort of background that are fed up with being sold out by the suits in Washington, D.C. However, if you haven’t dug into the rest of their catalog yet, you are sorely missing out. Songs like “Cobwebs and Cocaine”, “Ain’t Gotta Dollar”, “I Want To Go Home”, and “I’ve Got To Get Sober” as well as a cover of Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” were all highlights as well as many more. These are the types of songs that I mean when I say real country. These are the types of songs and the type of music that depict the kind of struggles that those rich men North of Richmond know nothing about. The band concluded their set with “Rich Men North of Richmond” and had three minutes left of stage time when it concluded…so they played it again, much to the delight of the rain soaked yet raucous crowd. Normally, they would also include a cover of “Free Bird”, which was requested from the crowd but Anthony quipped that “someone else had to play that one tonight.”

At 9 o’ clock it was time for the event’s headlining act, the iconic Lynyrd Skynyrd, to make their first appearance at Crew Stadium and their first visit to Columbus since 2012 when they opened the city’s Columbus Commons venue in downtown. That show was the first time that I was able to officially review this legendary group and photograph them as they toured in support of their Last of a Dyin’ Breed record. As they have every time that I’ve been fortunate enough to see them (I believe last night was #12 since the 2006 tour with 3 Doors Down and Shooter Jennings), they brought their best effort. This was my first time seeing them since the passing of guitarist Gary Rossington last spring, and while Damon Johnson has mighty big shoes to fill, he served admirably and the band is now able to continue on and keeping some of the greatest music ever written alive and relevant in the live setting. I’d imagine that by the time that Skynyrd took the stage that the crowd had probably reached a few thousand strong and the rain held off for the rest of the night. The Jacksonville band played their pretty standard 14 song set and while there weren’t many surprises, I imagine it is nearly impossible to find the perfect set list unless they were going to play until 3 a.m. Alas, they wrapped up around 10:30, sounding as good as ever. I hope that at some point Columbus gets another shot to see this band before they hang ’em up for good. If I don’t get a chance to see them again, I was glad to be there throughout the years. They always made sure to “play it pretty” for Cincinnati, Columbus, Cuyahoga Falls, Toledo, and Dayton in all of the different venues that I saw them play. Not only did I get to see them all of those times, the supporting acts that they’ve brought out on the road has also been the stuff of legend: Hank Williams, Jr., ZZ Top, Bad Company, 3 Doors Down, Justin Moore, Shooter Jennings, Black Stone Cherry, Blue Oyster Cult, The Marshall Tucker Band, and .38 Special are just some of the groups that I’ve also seen along the way as a touring partner of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

Lynyrd Skynyrd Set List 6/29/2024 Columbus, OH

  • 1. Workin’ For MCA
  • 2. Skynyrd Nation
  • 3. What’s Your Name
  • 4. That Smell
  • 5. I Know A Little
  • 6. Whiskey Rock-a Roller
  • 7. Saturday Night Special
  • 8. The Ballad of Curtis Loew
  • 9. Tuesday’s Gone
  • 10. Simple Man
  • 11. Gimme Three Steps
  • 12. Call Me The Breeze (J.J. Cale cover)
  • 13. Sweet Home Alabama
  • 14. Free Bird (encore)
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