Ranking Every Rock On The Range Lineup From Worst to Best

There are two weekends that I look forward to every year more than any other: Wrestlemania weekend and Rock On The Range. For those that don’t know, Rock On The Range is an annual rock and heavy metal festival held in Columbus Ohio the third weekend of May. What began as a one day event with 14 bands has grown into a three day goliath featuring 60 bands! If you’re a rock or heavy metal fan you can’t do much better than an event like Rock On The Range and it’s an event that I’ve loved the past eight years! Sadly this year I wasn’t able to go, but since Rock On The Range is this weekend I thought it’d be fun to rank each year by the quality of their lineup! For this ranking I’m going by overall quality not quantity. Some of the older shows that had fewer bands will outrank the newer ones. More isn’t always better! Also, this is just my personal opinion, musical taste is obviously completely subjective so if you read this and think “Wow this moron got the list totally wrong” that’s cool! Just comment on what lineups you think are the best! Finally, I haven’t gone to Rock On The Range every year since it started, but I know of like 90% of the bands that played all these years so I’m basing the ranking not on their performances at the show but rather how good/bad I perceive them to be!

12. 

This was the very first Rock On The Range and only featured 14 bands. Although there are some great bands on the lineup such as ZZ Top, Evanescence, Papa Roach, and Breaking Benjamin there are just as many bands that you look at and either think, “Who?” or “Oh God no.” The big names in this lineup though were enough to bring enough fans though and started the fandom that would create the largest rock festival in the country!

11.

The second Rock On The Range had a major improvement in the lineup! So much so that it spanned into two days! Some of my absolute favorites played this year such as Disturbed, Shinedown, and Seether. The thing that drags this down the most for though are the headliners. Kid Rock and Stone Temple Pilots? No thanks. Stone Temple Pilots have had an amazing career don’t get me wrong, but they just don’t do anything for me personally.

10. 

OK, the list stops going in chronological order after this I promise! This is where Rock On The Range really started taking off in my opinion. The two headliners are absolute legends (Slipknot and Motley Crue) and then when you look down the list there are still a lot of talented bands that although weren’t big in 2009, grew in fame and are some of the biggest names in rock and metal now! This festival could be one of the reasons why! You know you’ve got a good lineup when bands like Korn, Avenged Sevenfold, and Alice In Chains are opening acts!

9. 

This year had a lot of heavy hitters like Avenged Sevenfold (they show up a lot) and Slayer, but again two of the three headlining bands are pretty lousy. Kid Rock just doesn’t fit into this kind of festival to me and Guns and Roses aren’t the best live. I’m sure some are disgusted at reading that but again this is just my opinion! There’s lots of good lesser known bands here too that help even out the two less than stellar headliners. Also this Rock On The Range featured Staind which I THINK was the last year before their singer Aaron Lewis left to pursue a country music career (*shudders*). It’s been years Aaron please come back! I miss your angry depressing songs!

8. 2018

There’s two main reasons why I didn’t go to Rock On The Range this year.

1. I’m still poor from my Wrestlemania Weekend (worth it).
2. The lineup this year is pretty much garbage.

That is of course except for the headliners. There’s A7X AGAIN (them being here is a running joke for Rangers) along with grunge legends Alice In Chains, and they even got the almost mythical band Tool to come out of hiding! Heck, they got Maynard Keenan’s other band A Perfect Circle to even play! After you look at the first two rows of each day though the lineups are pretty bad. I always look forward to the lesser known bands because they normally end up being pleasant surprises. With a few exceptions like The Fever 333, there really aren’t any particularly great smaller bands. Although Rock On The Range is like a tradition for me, I was OK with missing out this year.

7. 

This was the first Rock On The Range to span into a three day event! Although Friday only featured a few bands and was more of a pregame than anything. Incubus is the main reason this year isn’t higher up on the list. Don’t get me wrong I like a lot of their songs, but they are so different live. They had ZERO energy when they closed their night out and I can’t think of another time I saw a closing band make so many fans leave the show early. This year though was the one that converted me into a Rob Zombie fan. Having never seen him live before, I stuck around because I thought surely he would put on a better show than Incubus, and hot damn was I surprised. He knocked my socks off with his theatrics, pyrotechnics and catchy songs. Also lots of great bands as you read down the list so you can blame the halfway ranking on Incubus.

6. 

This was the first Rock On The Range I went to. I randomly saw it advertised on Facebook and was blown away by how many of my favorite bands were on the lineup. I live three hours away from Columbus, but that road trip was worth it to see bands like Disturbed, A7X, Bullet For My Valentine, Alter Bridge, and Hollywood Undead. This was a great Rock On The Range lineup the full way through, but if I’m being honest, A Perfect Circle was a pretty lousy closer for the whole weekend. Before this festival I had never heard of A Perfect Circle, but when I heard it was fronted by Tool’s singer I had high expectations. The show this band just puts on is weird and it really took all the energy out of the weekend whenever they finished the set.

5. 

No A7X this year! Instead we got three excellent headliners in Disturbed, Rob Zombie, and Red Hot Chili Peppers played the festival for their first time! Bands like Deftones, Between the Buried and Me, Sixx AM, and At The Drive In were bands that either hadn’t played Rock On The Range before or hadn’t played in a long time so it was refreshing to hear some new material from well known bands! A lot of the bands towards the bottom of each day’s lineup are pretty forgettable. There are some good smaller acts though like Red Sun Rising, Avatar, and Crown The Empire. Also this lineup has the Butcher Babies which is just unforgivable.

4. 

If only I had Facebook in 2010 I may have heard of Rock On The Range this year. If I had I would’ve gone in a heartbeat because this lineup is STACKED. All of the last four are epic. This was the first year to feature my absolute favorite band of all time Rise Against! To find a band I’d consider “bad” you have to go almost all the way down to the bottom of the lineup and even some of THOSE are bands I love! Limp Bizkit as the closer though is the major blemish on this lineup. I mean anyone that likes Limp Bizkit only likes them ironically right? Nookie is poetry in song form (tee hee) but besides that there’s not much to say about Limp Bizkit that’s positive.

3.

These last three get really nitpicky so I apologize for that. This year in my opinion had the best trio of headliners the festival has ever had. All three are legendary bands that’ll be remembered and loved for years to come. The bands towards the bottom of each lineup are very hit and miss though which is partly why I put this year behind the #2 and #1 spot. Also the Saturday lineup for this year definitely got the short end of the stick. With exception to Judas Priest, Godsmack, Papa Roach, and In Flames there really aren’t any “must see” bands. There are a couple good not great bands and some bands that I actively avoided this year.

2. 

Last year’s Rock On The Range is one I will never forget. It started a year ago today. I was so looking forward to seeing Soundgarden headline Friday. Then the literal day before the news came: Chris Cornell took his own life. The entire festival was dedicated to him, and a lot of bands did Soundgarden, Audio Slave, and Temple of Dog covers in his memory. Sad memories aside, this lineup is incredible. From top to to bottom again there aren’t many bad bands on this lineup. This year though earns bonus points for FINALLY getting Metallica to play! Punk legends The Offspring along with the infamous Primus also made their Rock On The Range debuts. There was a good combination of long time Rock On The Range favorites, and newcomers to bring in new fans to the festival. That and the tribute to Chris Cornell made this one of the best Rock On The Range weekends of all time. However, there is one that puts this just ever so slightly better in my opinion.

1.

 

This was the year where Rock On The Range reached its final form and became a full three day festival experience, and the lineup pulled no punches featuring legends like Smashing Pumpkins, Alice In Chains, and Korn. This was also the only year Soundgarden played Rock On The Range and they were an amazing end to an already epic weekend. Most probably wouldn’t pick this lineup as the best, but for me personally it’s a gold mine. Every single row, even the very bottom, feature multiple bands that I love and own music from. You can’t see every band at a festival like this, so choosing who to see and not see was incredibly difficult. It was like choosing which child you liked the most! I always have a blast at Rock On The Range, but this year was particularly good to me and my musical preferences!

 

So that’s my ranking of each Rock On The Range based on the quality of their lineup! Although I’m not going to this year’s festival I’m already thinking about how great next year will be! I’ll just rob a bank or something so I can go to both Rock On The Range and Wrestlemania I guess. I’ll figure it out.

To Infinity & Beyond: Avengers – Infinity War

Two weeks is a long enough wait before talking about a movie right? I think so, but if you disagree then WARNING!!!! Infinity War Spoilers ahead! You have been warned! 

It’s finally here, the beginning of the climax for the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe! I still vividly remember seeing the original Iron Man in theaters. What started out as one small movie has now expanded into an 18 story epic that has all been building to this! This is Infinity War.

Plot

The Mad Titan Thanos has begun his rampage across the universe in search for the six Infinity Stones to complete his Infinity Gauntlet. With all six Infinity Stones Thanos plans to erase half the universe’s population to bring balance to life. Two Infinity Stones are currently on Earth putting it in the cross hairs for Thanos and his “Children” to wreak havoc. It’s up to Earth’s mightiest heroes and the Guardians of the Galaxy to join together and prevent Thanos from completing his universal genocide.

Villains

When a villain has been built up since 2012, it had better live up to the hype, and it’s clear within minutes of the film that Thanos is everything fans have been hoping for. Josh Brolin does an incredible performance as the Titan making him both horrifying and oddly relatable at the same time. Let’s set the record straight: Thanos doesn’t want to eliminate half the universe’s population to rule over it as its leader. No, Thanos believes eliminating half the population will preserve life for the entire universe. The universe is finite in its resources and must be kept in check. In Thanos’ eyes the only way to save the universe is to cut down the population. I personally think making it rain potatoes would be sufficient but what do I know? Like Kilmonger before him, Thanos is a villain that you can’t really argue with. The problem he is trying to fix is one that you can’t deny. Sure his methodology may be a bit off, but in his eyes he’s the hero. That’s what makes him one of the best villains the MCU has ever conceived. Thanos will literally do whatever it takes to complete his mission (more on that later). He’s also a terrifyingly powerful villain. He manages to beat the Hulk in mere seconds, survives attacks that would kill basically anyone else, and defeats literally all the Avengers and half the Guardians of the Galaxy all at the same time.

Up to this point the only “Children of Thanos” that we knew were Gamora and Nebula, but Infinity War gave us the rest when they introduced Ebony Maw, Corvus Glaive, Proxima Midnight, and Cull Obsidian. They only said their names maybe once in the entire film, but don’t worry you remember them because of their actions. Squidward… I mean Ebony Maw is particularly memorable due to him having a larger amount of lines. All four though are great villains that prove to be a formidable opponent for both the Guardians and the Avengers. They may be minions to Thanos but they are not to be taken lightly, they defeat the Avengers and Guardians multiple times throughout the film up until the final battle. They also bring a majority of the action sequences in the film and they lead to some great pair ups with different heroes in the MCU, you can’t ask for much more than that when their primary role is to make Thanos seem ever more menacing.

Best Scenes

I could honestly compile a top ten list of the best moments from this movie alone, but I’m going to limit myself to two best scenes this time. This first one though is one that I think everyone saw coming: The Battle of Wakanda. Without a doubt the best battle in the entire MCU. The Children of Thanos invade Wakanda in order to capture Vision and steal the Mind Stone from him so the Avengers team together with the Wakandan tribes to stop Thanos’ plans. The battle has everything: Hulkbuster armor, a badass beatdown by some of Marvel’s best ladies, an insanely cool entrance by Thor, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot, and even a lot of laughs. The two funniest bits by far are whenever Groot introduces himself to Captain America and all he can muster to say back is, “I am Steve Rogers.” At that point, the kid from Brooklyn had seen just about everything. Another hilarious moment is when Winter Soldier picks up Rocket Raccoon and uses him as a new weapon and Rocket then asks Winter Soldier how much he’s paying for his robot arm (because of course he would.). Then of course the ending is one of the most heart wrenching, emotional sequences you’ll find in any film, not just in the superhero genre. Thanos wins at the end of the battle and snaps his fingers killing half the universe and we the audience are forced to watch characters we’ve grown to love, die right in front of us. Not only that but every single BFF/Bromance in the MCU lost someone. Cap lost Bucky, Rocket lost Groot, the Guardians lost literally everyone, and worst of all, Tony lost Peter Parker IN HIS ARMS. The Battle of Wakanda is something I’ll never ever forget.

This picture isn’t from the scene, but this scene is kept so secretly you can’t find any pictures for it! 

The second best scene in the film concerns the mystery of the Soul Stone. Up to this point there were absolutely ZERO hints as to where it could be. People had theories and speculations, but we had to wait until Infinity War to get our answers. Turns out the only person who knew the location of the Soul Stone was none other than Gamora. Thanos tortures Nebula to get Gamora to reveal the location of the Soul Stone and Thanos forces her to take him there. They travel to the far away planet of Vormir and are met by the “Stonekeeper” who warns Thanos of the power of the stone. It’s at this point audiences started to think “Man this guy sounds familiar I can’t put my finger on it…” then the Stonekeeper’s identity was revealed!

…RED SKULL!!!!! When I wrote about Captain America: The First Avengers I said we were probably never going to see this guy again, but holy shit was I wrong and I am 100% OK with that! Red Skull warns Thanos that in order to get the Soul Stone he must show that he understands the stone’s power. He must trade the soul of someone he loves for the soul stone. That trade comes by hurling a loved one off a cliff. It’s at this point Gamora beings to laugh and cheer mocking Thanos that after all the years of work, the Universe itself ruined his mission because he loves nothing in the Universe. It’s at this point Thanos looks to her with tears in his eyes. Gamora laughs surprised he’d cry in defeat which is when Red Skull says this,

“Those tears aren’t for him.”

Thanos does love something: his daughter Gamora. Though heartbroken Thanos doesn’t hesitate to grab his beloved daughter and throw her to her death. From start to finish the entire scene was shocking, heartbreaking, and completely out of nowhere. Nobody saw this one coming.

Stan Lee Cameo

Again, Marvel is doing a good job of keeping spoilery pictures off the internet so instead of a photo of the actual cameo, enjoy this cameo from Deadpool 2! This amusing small cameo came at the beginning of the film. The Children of Thanos arrive at Earth with their ship and Peter Parker asks his friend to distract everyone else on the bus so he can escape as Spider-Man. The kids start screaming that they’re going to die at the sight of the ship which is when Stan Lee, the bus driver says, “What’s the matter haven’t you seen a spaceship before!?” We’ve been at this for 18 movies now guys, spaceships are almost an everyday occurrence in New York.

Post Credits Scene

We find Nick Fury and Maria Hill in New York when suddenly the effect of Thanos’ genocidal snap begin. Vehicles begin crashing, helicopters falling from the sky, and chaos ensues. Confused, Fury calls for backup with a Code Red. Suddenly though, Hill calls out to Nick and it’s clear she’s dying. Fury runs to his vehicle to grab a pager but then notices he’s beginning to fade as well. His last words being, “Mother f….” Nick hits the button on the pager and it falls to the ground. It shows the pager ringing and then received with a logo Marvel fans should find all too familiar: Captain Marvel is on her way!  There’s still hope!

Final Thoughts

This movie has been ten years in the making and it was worth every second of waiting! I honestly can’t think of anything negative to say about it I loved it the whole way through. It gave us so many great pair ups such as Tony Stark and Doctor Strange, Thor with the Guardians, and Bruce Banner and Shuri. Thanos certainly lived up to the hype as well being both terrifying and understandable. The movie almost shows Thanos as the hero! At the end of the film once he kills half the universe we see him retired enjoying peace and smiling as the sun rises. Marvel ALMOST has you rooting for this guy after he kills almost every hero we’ve come to love over the years. Yes the ending is literally soul crushing and difficult to watch for diehard fans, but those same fans had to know going into this that the film was going to end that way. Now the one year wait for Avengers 4 is going to be absolutely brutal, but we’ve got Ant-Man and the Wasp along with Captain Marvel on the way to keep us busy until then.

Thanos Meme

The only play the Avengers have left! Maybe if Tony gives Thanos a stern talking to he’ll surrender????

 

WWE Backlash Recap

The end of Wrestlemania is basically the season finale for WWE’s storylines. Not including the Greatest Royal Rumble, Backlash is the first PPV of the new “season” of WWE! Now that my Infinity War marathon is over, I’m trying to write something once a week, and I’ve decided that I’m going to include a WWE section on my blog! Primarily I’ll be recapping PPVs from both the main roster and NXT! Nevertheless, here’s a recap and my personal opinion of each match on the Backlash card! Reminder, these are my opinions, I’m not some wrestling guru; just a guy that loves some wrasslin’!

Bayley vs. Ruby Riot 

This was a pretty generic match with the outcome you’d expect. Before the match Bayley asked Sasha to bury the hatchet and be ringside to give her some backup against the Riot Squad. Sasha turned down the offer, and as expected there were a bunch of moments where Baylet got hit by the other Riot Squad members while the ref wasn’t looking. Besides Ruby Riot’s move where she threw Bayley into the turnbuckle, there wasn’t much that stuck out. It was a kickoff show match though so you can’t expect much out of it. 6/10 Ruby Riot wins via pinfall. 

Seth Rollins (Champ) vs. The Miz – Intercontinental Championship Match

Similar to Wrestlemania, Backlash decided to start the night off with the Intercontinental Title match! No Finn Balor this time though, only Rollins and the Miz! These are two of the most popular superstars on the roster so putting them together is instant success. Miz continues to be the ultimate heel and had some great spots with Rollins. I’m not sure if it’s possible for Rollins to have a bad match he’s just so versatile with his moveset which makes all his matches so exciting. At one point he pulled a Shane McMahon and nearly jumped the entire length of the ring to frog splash Miz, it just shows how athletic he is. The most dramatic point came when Rollins hit his knee off the post and Miz put him in the figure four lock. Rollins though gets an evil look in his eye and turns the lock on the Miz. The two go back and forth on the lock until Rollins makes it to the rope. Going into the match it was obvious that Rollins would win. If Rollins lost, both the Intercontinental and US titles would be on Smackdown making RAW super boring, but this fight did a pretty great job of making you second guess what the outcome would be. 8.75/10 Rollins wins via Pinfall.

Nia Jax (Champ) vs. Alexa Bliss – RAW Women’s Championship Match

Speaking of ultimate heel, Alexa Bliss holds that title proudly for the Women’s Division. These two had a great match at Wrestlemania, and the two again had a pretty decent showing at Backlash. Nia Jax repeatedly tossed Bliss around like she was a piece of paper, but Bliss responded with some smart moves such as attacking Nia’s legs and knocking her off the top post when the opportunity presented itself. In the end though, Nia was never in any real danger of losing the title so the match as a whole wasn’t as exciting as one would hope. 7/10 Nia Jax wins via Pinfall. 

Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy (Champ) – United States Championship Match

Next to Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe, this is the match I was most excited for! A championship match where either of the two could win because they were on the show (yay proper booking)! These two put on a solid match. Hardy got to do some nice aerial moves while Orton countered with his slower style. There weren’t any RKOs though which is always a downer. Nevertheless, Jeff Hardy had a sweet finish to close out the match to retain the title. Considering a year ago Orton was fighting Jinder Mahal, I’d say this year was an improvement for Mr. Orton. 8/10 Jeff Hardy wins via Pinfall 

Filler in a Pay Per View is never a good sign, but this one might just get a pass since it included some of WWE’s best Superstars.

At this point of the show Elias came out with guitar in hand, called New Jersey a toilet and did what he does best: piss the crowd off. Seriously why hasn’t this guy gotten more wins/title opportunities. New Day interrupted him with instruments (and pancakes) of their own and played their own song. Elias was about to restart when Aiden English broke out into a rap announcing Rusev Day! Elias tried to restart AGAIN, but was interrupted by No Way Jose who had Titus Worldwide in his entourage of dancers along with the Fashion Police. After everyone stopped, Elias YET AGAIN tries to start only to get interrupted by the GLORIOUS Bobby Roode and then hit with a Glorious DDT. As far as fillers go, this one was at least funny. Rusev deserves better though.

Daniel Bryan vs. Big Cass

And now the fight everyone has been waiting for! Daniel Bryan vs. The Mi… wait. Big Cass? BIG CASS!? WWE has been building heat between Daniel Bryan and The Miz for months and months and now that Bryan can fight again we are gonna have him feud with BIG CASS!? The story behind this feud is pure silliness: both were medically cleared the same day and Big Cass was overshadowed by Daniel Bryan (shocker). That being said, just seeing Daniel Bryan in the ring again is a treat. Big Cass isn’t a bad wrestler by any means, he has some good moments in the fight, but the story is just something the WWE Universe doesn’t want. This match up really is kind of a lose lose situation. Daniel Bryan wins, then Big Cass looks weak just after his return to the ring. Big Cass wins then the WWE Universe hates Big Cass for beating Daniel Bryan. Overall it was just an OK match that nobody really cared about. 7.5/10 Daniel Bryan wins via Pinfall, but Big Cass attacks Bryan from behind. Unfortunately this probably isn’t the last we’ll see of this feud. 

Carmella (Champ) vs. Charlotte Flair – Smackdown Women’s Championship Match

Since winning Money In The Bank nearly a year ago, Carmella really hasn’t had any time to shine so seeing her steal the Women’s Title from Charlotte after Wrestlemania was a breath of fresh air. Going into this match I was almost positive it was going to end in a DQ via the Iconics attacking Charlotte, but I was gladly proven wrong! I hate that Carmella is being portrayed as one of those champions that avoids fights and literally screams in terror at the competition, but thankfully we only had to deal with a small portion of that. The rest of it was a genuine match between the two and I am shocked to say that Carmella had a clean win! 7.75/10 Carmella retains via Pinfall.

AJ Styles (Champ) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – WWE World Heavyweight Championship, No DQ Match

Why isn’t this the main event of the night? Seriously we have a pointless tag match happening after this! Also, why is Nakamura obsessed with hitting AJ Styles in the balls? Besides the constant nut crushing, I’ve been happy that Nakamura is a heel and I’m even happier to see these two feuding still. A No DQ stipulation usually leads to a pretty epic match and this was no different. There were some great moments like Styles taking the nastiest crash into the steps I think I’ve ever seen, Nakamura getting hit with a chair and said chair deflecting back to AJ’s face, and AJ FINALLY getting revenge and smashing Nakamura’s balls. Then the ending happened. AJ and Nakamura exchanged nut shots again and both were unable to get up after a 10 count so the match was declared a no contest. An awesome match with the absolute stupidest ending I’ve seen in a long time. The feud could’ve continued with a much better ending aka anything other than that. 7/10 No Contest. 

Bobby Lashley & Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn

What’s the story of this match? All these big names didn’t have a match so they decided to put this together. Braun deserves so much more than being in a glorified filler match. The match was exactly that until the ending where Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens began fighting and throwing each other into the ring meaning soon we’ll (hopefully) be getting a feud between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn soon. This was just a match filled with superstars that should be doing bigger and better things. 6.5/10 Bobby Lashley & Braun Strowman win via Pinfall.

Roman Reigns vs. Samoa Joe 

I’m sure the WWE Universe loved the beginning of this match. Before the bell even range Samoa Joe unleashed hell on Roman Reigns and beat the snot out of him throwing him into all three announce tables at ring side. After the bell rang it was more of the same, Joe smacked Reigns around and the crowd (and myself) loved it. However it wouldn’t be a Roman Reigns match without a miraculous comeback from him with his signature, spear, Superman punch, and “OOOOOOOH” yell. They’re all there, but what brought the match down was the overuse of Joe putting Roman in dragged out submissions. It’s OK to have them, but these were dragged out for way too long where it seemed like nothing was happening. I get it’s part of their “story building” but the story shouldn’t bring down the actual match. The ending had some great back and forths but unfortunately the wrong person won. 6.75/10 Roman Reigns wins via Pinfall

Final Thoughts

I didn’t expect much from this PPV, and sadly my fears were right. It was overall a pretty mediocre PPV. The only great match from start to finish was Rollins vs. The Miz. The US Title match was good, but the other matches were all just average at best. Daniel Bryan should be in a better feud, or at least be making Big Cass look good. Instead we got the exact opposite. Styles vs. Nakamura ended up being a complete waste, and the final match had some spots that dragged on forever. I’ve only been watching WWE for four years, but I don’t think I’ve ever watched a Backlash PPV where I thought “Wow that was really good!” Maybe someday that’ll change, but not today. 7.25/10