Northern Invasion
May 13th, 14th, 2017
Somerset Amphitheatre
Somerset, Wisconsin
Saturday, May 13th, 2017
*Sleep Signals, *As Lions, *Dinosaur Pile Up, *Wage Wars, *Rival Sons, Dorothy, *Citizen Zero, *Of Mice & Men, *I Prevail, Volumes, *The Struts, *The Story So Far, Every Time I Die, *The Pretty Reckless, *Sum 41, The Dillinger Escape Plan, *Bush, *Pierce the Veil, In Flames, *Godsmack, Soundgarden
Sunday, May 14th, 2017
*Cold Kingdom, *The Charm The Fury, *Goodbye June, Badflower, *Starset, Radkey, *Motionless In White, Sylar, Bad Omens (cancelled), *Bleeker, *Nothing More, *Attila, *Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, *Alter Bridge, Opeth, *Fozzy, *Papa Roach, *Amon Amarth, Gojira, *The Offspring, *Kid Rock
2 days. 1100 miles traveled. 3 stages. 42 bands. 24 hours of rock and metal! The third time would be the charm for Northern Invasion.
This year’s festival would see the return of Starset, The Pretty Reckless, and Motionless In White. Each of the three bands had played the inaugural festival in 2015, and released a critically acclaimed album prior to this year’s festival. Some of my favorite performances, it was amazing to see these three bands smashing through the crowd on the main stage.
The three stages this year were timed with very little overlap for the performing bands, and allowed fans to catch full performances from their favorites. I never thought that I’d get the chance to see bands like Gojira, Amon Amarth, Sum 41, or The Offspring, but Northern Invasion pull out all the stops and thousands of fans thrashed to some of the best rock and metal musicians currently touring.
Something none of us ever thought we’d be seeing though. Soundgarden closed out the first day of the festival, and gave us a performance we’ll never forget, even if none of us knew this was one of the final times Chris Cornell would be on stage. Their Northern Invasion set was also the only time on this tour they’d playing Room a Thousand Years Wide, and one of the only times of this tour that fans would hear Flower. Chris Cornell, whether with Soundgarden, touring solo, Audioslave, or any of the numerous projects he’d worked on, helped to craft the way so many of us listen to and enjoy music. His voice, and inspiration will be missed, but never forgotten.
Highlights of the weekend included Frank Carter doing a handstand in the crowd during his set with The Rattlesnakes, Gavin Rossdale of Bush being chased through the crowd by fans while still singing Little Things, and the Viking battle scene unfolding as Amon Amarth annihilated the 2nd stage crowd.
Northern Invasion would also be one of the last times for fans of The Dillinger Escape Plan to catch them live before the band’s retirement, and one of only a handful of times in 2017 that Godsmack would perform.
The addition of the Zippo sponsored acoustic tent gave hundreds of lucky fans the chance to see performances by their favorite artists unlike what they’re used too. I wasn’t expecting Of Mice & Men to be such an amazing acoustic band. Zippo also gave bands like Royal Republic, who weren’t playing the festival proper, the chance to still perform an intimate set. Royal Republic even took to the main stage’s crowd to play in between other band’s performances. An exceptionally interesting acoustic set for anyone within earshot.
Even the FYE meet and greet tents were run like a well-tuned machines as fans eagerly waited in line to meet their favorite bands.
Oh yeah, and Kid Rock closed out the 2nd day, but the majority of the crowd had already left prior to his “performance” after having The Offspring rock their faces off.
