Exit 111: Rock N' Roll Heaven
The Exit 111 festival was held in Manchester, Tennessee, for three days at the Great Stage Park, and has been the exclusive home of the annual Bonnaroo Festival. No other festival has ever been held on the same grounds, previous to this year’s inaugural Exit 111. The event included a car show, the Red Bull Freestyle Motocross Experience, and The Paranormal Cirque performances on all three days. This festival also had one of the best music lineups for any festival this season. Exit 111 was a piece of “Rock N’ Roll Heaven.”
Gates opened on Friday afternoon, campers set up their camps, and the party began with an incredible day one lineup. Ticket holders also had the opportunity to go look at some badass cars at the car show. The show included a mix of rides from years past and modern cars decked out to the max. One of the highlights of the car show was Jack Sander’s 1958 Chevy Cameo. A rare truck that was in mint condition. The festival ticket also provided the experience of the Red Bull Freestyle Motocross. Red Bull Action sports athlete, Tyler Bereman along with some of the best freestyle motocross riders in the world including Brody Wilson, Keith Sayers, and James Carter, showcased their insane talents all three days for the festival crowd. That’s not all. A ticket to Exit 111 also provided an opportunity to experience The Paranormal Cirque. A paranormal experience under the tent that combines theatre, circus, and cabaret, presented by Cirque Italia. The show featured acrobats of the air, illusionists, freaks, and mysterious creatures that brought the tent to life for one very paranormal experience.
Day one of the Exit 111 music festival included an absolutely stellar lineup. The bill kicked off with Kyle Shutt, guitarist from The Sword and Doom Side of the Moon on the Hell Stage and Watermox began the day on the Rise Above Stage. The Heaven Stage would be the main stage for the event and started the rock n’ roll off with The Cadillac Three. The southern, American rockers just released a new single, “All The Makin’s of a Saturday Night,” and played tunes from their albums, Legacy and Bury Me In My Boots. Great band to kick off the main stage.
The day got tricky and difficult to choose which bands to see. Both the Hell Stage and the Rise Above Stage had bands billed for the same start times throughout the festival. Next up on these stages for day one was Black Stone Cherry and Bishop Gunn. The Kentucky rockers, Black Stone Cherry, brought their best to the festival stage. A brilliant four-piece band that has a catalogue of superior work. Checkout their release Family Tree. On the Rise Above Stage, straight out of the Mississippi Delta, featuring a blend of rock and roll, soul and blues, was Bishop Gunn. One of our favorite tunes from the set included, “Makin’ It,” from their 2018 album, Natchez. Bishop Gunn proved to be one of the best acts on the festival bill for day one.
The second main stage slot of the day belonged to long time thrashers, Anthrax. The heavy metal band formed in 1981 in NYC and they had the crowd going fucking nuts during their fueled set of classics and newer material. Anthrax is never one to miss at any festival or show, period.
As the sun went down over the horizon, the two side stages turned up the heat with Zakk Wylde and the Black Label Society and Knoxville alternative/grunge band, 10 Years. Two acts not to be missed.
Back on the mainstage, under the lights, the American thrash metal band, Slayer, performed for their last time in the state of Tennessee. The band is currently on their one hundred shows worldwide, farewell tour, that began on May 10, 2018 and will conclude on November 30th of this year. It was an honor and a privilege to cover a set by these icons of metal.
Killswitch Engage and Seether played the last sets of the night on the Hell and Rise Above Stages. Both bands fucking rocked the crowd senseless and set up the perfect ending to day one on the side stages. The main headlining act for day one was the southern rock pioneers from Jacksonville, Florida, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Though the band has changed members and have lost members over the years, the dynamics have not changed one bit. The band played all the well-known tunes that you would come to expect, mixed in with the deeper cuts that the true fans expect to hear at a live show. Another grateful opportunity to cover one of the best bands in the history of music. Fifteenth studio album in the future, with “several songs ready or in the can,” according to Johnny Van Zant.
Day number two at Exit 111 featured an eighteen-band lineup, to include six acts on the main stage. The Saturday schedule was packed full of kickass talent from top to bottom. The day began on the Hell and Rise Above Stages with a post-metal band from Massachusetts, Astronoid, and a rock n’ roll group from Orange County, California, Them Evils.
No better bands than those two to open the day for the first main act on the Heaven Stage, Alien Weaponry. The Waipu, New Zealand band threw down an impressive set featuring songs from their studio album Tu. Most of the three-man band’s tunes are in the Maori language. No matter, the music translates without a problem to the early day crowd.
Next up on the side stages for the second sets of the day were Graveyard and the female-fronted rock band, New Years Day. The latter, fronted by Ash Costello, formed in late 2005 and has grown their brand through promotion on social media in those early years. The band is one of the best that we saw at the festival and definitely deserve a higher spot on future festival bills. Costello’s emotion and wide-ranging vocals make this crew a must-see act, whether they headline or support or are on a festival bill such as Exit 111.
Back on the mainstage for the second act of the day was Fever 333. The punk rock/hip-hop infused trio energized the festival crowd as the mosh pit fired up in full force. The band has only been together for a couple of years, but have the experience with other bands and the talent to take this show to the top. Their set included tunes from their new album, Strength In Numb333rs.
The four in the afternoon time slots on the Hell and Rise Above Stages proved to be a real treat with Power Trip from Dallas, Texas and Dead Sara, another female fronted band hailing from Los Angeles. Get on board with both of these acts, especially in a live setting. The rest of the afternoon featured heavy hitters on the day schedule. Nothing More played the main stage while White Chapel and an OKR favorite, Blackberry Smoke played the side stages. All three acts had an enormous early evening draw. Blackberry Smoke could easily play the main stage at any rock festival in the nation and beyond. This truly shows the amount of talent that played at Exit 111.
French heavy metal band, Gojira, played the main stage in the seven o’clock slot. This band is known for their environment themed lyrics and gone from “utmost obscurity” to being placed amongst death metal’s leading new millennium upstarts. Gojira has a couple of Grammy nominations under their belt, and their live performance leaves you wanting more.
From the four bands in the next two sets on the side stages, the Exit 111 fans were given a choice: nostalgia or modern rock n’ roll and heavy metal. The eight o’clock slot on the Hell Stage featured the rock band out of Michigan, Sleeping With Sirens. On the Rise Above Stage, rock band legends, Cheap Trick dazzled the crowd.
This same scenario was setup for the ten fifteen set times on the same stages. The fans were given the choice of hardcore thrash metal band, Mastodon, out of Atlanta, Georgia or the legendary Texas trio of ZZ Top. No matter what, you weren’t wrong here, but we leaned towards the nostalgia.
The final two bands on the main stage, Heaven Stage, was Ghost followed by the Saturday night headliner, Def Leppard. Ghost is a veteran Swedish rock band, having formed in 2006, and they put on one of the top three performances of the festival. “Square Hammer” and “From The Pinnacle to the Pit” were two songs from the set that were absolutely brilliant live. The band is also one of the most visually stimulating acts that you will ever see. Seven of the groups eight members, its “Nameless Ghouls,” wear identical face-concealing costumes. Front man, Tobias Forge, also wears a prosthetic mask, forming the stage character, The Papa Emeritus.
English Rock icons, Def Leppard, closed down the Saturday festivities at Exit 111. The band started in the ’70s, but climbed to fame in the ’80s during the growing “glam metal” scene. Def Leppard brought all the hits with them during their set and made for a proper finish to one hell of a day two, of a three-day rock n’ roll marathon.
The final day of Exit 111 brought with it another lineup delivered straight from the music Gods. The day began with O’Brother, a veteran rock band from Atlanta, Georgia and Tetrarch, a metal band also originally from Atlanta, but now reside in Los Angeles, on the side stages. Both bands fucking rock and it is amazing that they started the final day of the festival.
Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown kicked things off on the main stage. The Nashville, Tennessee hard rock/blues infused band threw down a top five performance at the festival. They played tunes from their brand-new release, Truth and Lies, along with some songs from their 2017 self-titled album.
The one forty-five time slot on the side stages brought the punk rock via Plague Vendor, out of California, and the heavy rock n’ roll courtesy of From Ashes to New. On the main stage, just after these time slots, Thrice. The veteran rock band formed back in ’98 and was known in the early days as metal and punk influenced post-hardcore. Thrice's earlier music was known for being fast and based in heavily distorted guitars, prominent lead guitar lines, and frequent changes in complex time signatures. Their performance at Exit 111 had the mosh pit going at full speed.
Metal core band, Of Mice & Men, was second up on the Hell Stage on the final day of Exit 111. Playing in that same timeslot on the Rise Above Stage was Dirty Honey. A band that we are very familiar with, having covered them as the opening act for Red Sun Rising on their Peel Tour. We also caught a glimpse of the band at this year’s Rocklahoma festival in Pryor, Oklahoma. The band are some rockers from Los Angeles and is heavily influenced by Led Zeppelin. OKR spoke with the band at Exit 111 and we asked about bassist, Justin Smolian’s connection to our home base, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Turns out, according to Smolian, his “bass guitar was made in Tulsa by Seth Lee Jones and was built in the style of a ’63 jazz bass.” Back on the main stage, Alter Bridge held down the four o’clock slot. The band formed in 2004 and has six very impressive studio albums over that time. Their set included songs that spanned their entire discography to include tunes from the latest album, Walk the Sky.
The five o’clock schedule on the two side stages made for another difficult choice at Exit 111. Grammy nominated, Lamb of God for songs from their 2009 album, Wrath, on the Hell Stage and Grammy nominated, for their albums Collide and Comatose, Skillet took the Rise Above Stage in the same time slot.
The next to last band on the main stage was the Deftones. The veteran band was formed in ’88 and are Grammy Award winners for “Best Metal Performance,” and their first three albums went platinum in the United States.
Two final bands on the side stage and the festival headliner on the main stage. What a fucking festival for its inaugural year! Coheed & Cambria and Ministry closed down the side stages. Both bands are veteran acts that could be headlining many different festivals all over the land. Ministry is considered to be the fathers of the industrial metal movement in the late ’80s. The final headlining act of the Exit 111 three-day festival weekend, Guns N’ Roses.
GNR is the most iconic rock n’ roll band that could have possibly headlined a first-year festival. Fucking outstanding billing and the band showed the crowd why they are still doing, not to mention, headlining festivals after all these years. While, they have gone through multiple lineup changes and many highs and lows throughout the years, GNR is still putting on one of the best shows out there today. The set included all the early hits from their debut album, Appetite for Destruction, which has sold over thirty million copies worldwide since its release in ’87 making it the best-selling debut album in the United States, of all time.
The inaugural Exit 111 festival was nothing short of pure brilliance. The lineup was more than fantastic, the grounds of the Bonnaroo Festival made for the perfect setting for a weekend of camping with family and friends. A car show, extreme motocross, and The Paranormal Cirque added even more kickass elements to an already jam packed, rockin’ good time. Exit 111 was pure “Rock N’ Roll Heaven.”
Exit 111:
https://www.exit111festival.com
https://www.facebook.com/Exit111Fest/
https://www.instagram.com/exit111fest/
https://twitter.com/exit111fest
All Photos Courtesy of OKR Photographer Kaeleigh Grace: