Review: KISS says farewell, Rob Zombie brings the energy at Sonic Temple fest

“Ladies and gentlemen, everything is going to be alright,” lead singer Johannes Eckerstrom of the Swedish band Avatar exclaimed last night in his post-Alice Cooper makeup from the Octane Stage, one of three at the Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival. It was late in the afternoon and the sun was struggling to glide over the Historic Crew Stadium. Then, he let out a screech, dramatically implying an answer: “Not!”

The implication, of course, was that if things are going in the toilet, why not have a good time, a sentiment that perhaps was one of the few uniting the wildly diverse, nearly 80 hard rock, metal and hip-hop acts from all over the globe performing over the now-four-day bacchanalia.

“We’re here from a foreign country to take your women and your jobs,” Eckerstrom said well into a set of shrieking, pounding metal mania, “and it feels so good!”

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Queens of the Stone Age took the stage Friday

About 24 hours earlier, from the main Temple Stage inside the stadium, guitarist and singer Josh Homme led Queens of the Stone Age through something of a restart, in the band’s first gig in five years in support of a new album to be its first in six years. The jocular singer warmed to his return with stage patter. Singling out a youngster in the audience, he said, “Kid, someday you’re gonna blow it all and be me (number) two.” Said child could do worse than become a musician/leader in five respected bands and a sought-after producer like Homme.

Still, Queens did seem a bit tentative and for a band whose catalog relies on a more subtle, subversive darkness than many of the more over-the-top bands during the weekend, but it received a mostly respectful response.

Other highlights of the festival include dozens of artists, graphics companies, community outreach groups and like-minded merchandisers, who filled an expanded entryway to the venue. And there is drink and food, including offerings from all the essential food groups: burgers, dogs, tacos, fries, birria ramen, chicken-on-a-stick, mac and cheese and BBQ—even BBQ mac and cheese.

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Tool an early highlight on Thursday

Tool, a repeat performer at the fest, proved to be an early highlight, closing out Thursday’s lineup on the Temple Stage. In the huge, wide-open venue, the band’s expansive set was more musical than its concerts in large, enclosed stages, with the multimedia component yielding a bit to the music. That’s not to say it was insignificant—the lights and film, mostly created by guitarist Adam Jones, are an essential partner in creating the magical, frightening, blissful and violent world in the band’s songs.

At the center as usual, though, was singer Maynard James Keenan, outfitted for this occasion in black slacks, white shirt and black vest. The spiked mohawk of the recent past is gone, for now. As is his habit, though, Keenan lurked in the shadows, delivering soaring passages of philosophical dread, political paranoia and prosaic wonder. The music, something akin to an evolution of Pink Floyd’s sound, floated then pounded, and dissolved into the atmosphere. Opening the set, the title track from its newest album, “Fear Inoculum,” had a foundational pulse reminiscent of Floyd’s “One Of These Days.” It was followed by “Pneuma,” which built to an explosive climax.

Jones’ films, projected on giant video screens behind and on the sides of the band, have continued to evolve over the years. The creepy found footage in some of his earlier work was replaced by wondrous computer-generated images of humanoid bodies, often rotating as if under medical examination and jerking rhythmically. Thursday, the emphasis was back to something like the psychedelic light shows of the 1960s.

Keenan became a candidate, meanwhile, for Sonic Temple MVP, when he bravely took the Octane Stage Saturday night with one of his side projects, Puscifer. The band wore uniform black suits and ties with Keenan and fellow singer Carina Round singing into microphones on stands that were strapped to their waists. Their mechanical movements and the electronics-augmented music suggested Kraftwerk, the Talking Heads and especially Devo. In an interview video onstage, Keenan claimed that Plasmatics singer Wendy O. Williams—an alien—had faked her death and been reassigned gender as Keenan. It went a ways toward explaining the sound and presentation, as did perhaps a fascination with David Bowie’s late-1970s work. At the heart, though, was Keenan’s familiar melodic approach.

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Rob Zombie brought the energy, KISS closed out Saturday night show

Another standout on Saturday was Rob Zombie’s trademark horror show. The singer, actor and film producer, pushing 60, delivered a crushing set of metal with the energy of a 20-something. Opening with “The Triumph Of King Freak (A Crypt Of Preservation And Superstition),” he kept the energy high, backed by images from old horror B-movies, and some of his own.

Saturday night, presumably the biggest draw of the festival even though a huge number of ticket sales were sold for the entire weekend, ramped up to a feature performance by KISS, whose “End of the Road World Tour” began January 2019 and is set to end this December.

The band’s comical shtick was accompanied by familiar selections from its catalog, which defined the world inhabited not only by much of the audience in its teens during the ‘80s and ‘90s, but younger converts as well. The band worked its appeal by formula, then and especially now. Performing in full makeup—their aging faces showed underneath the white and black Kabuki-style paint—and costumes of its heyday, the band delivered just enough to call it quits at the end of the year.

Sonic Temple continues today with a headline performance by Foo Fighters.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Review: KISS, Rob Zombie, Avatar and more play Sonic Temple festival