Welcome to the first of a two-part review of the 2011 Empire Rock Fest held July 22 & 23, 2011 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This year’s event marked the first year under new management and stage location (in front of the 8,000 seat grandstand vs. the grass surfaced festival grounds), while the festival maintained its strong hair rock band line-up of the previous three years of existence.

To paint the picture of the location, beyond the large covered permanent seating structure, the set-up also allows for plenty of ground level real estate to either watch the event in the comfort of a lawn chair or in front of the stage with the most engaged spectators.

The weather for the festival appeared to be shaky at best heading into the weekend with temperatures forecasted to be in the mid-90’s with high humidity and a good chance for severe thunderstorms. As the event unfolded, all of those became reality with the exception of the skies casting a friendly sunshine smile on the entire event which was the best case scenario although many of the musicians playing in the mid-to-late afternoon time slots suffered through extreme heat, but all pulled off enjoyable sets non-the-less.

Three local Sioux Falls bands (POWER PLAY, JUKEBOX ZEROS, and HOMICIDE COLLIDE) kicked off the event beginning at 12:30 PM on Friday. I was unable to leave work early enough to see these acts, but from accounts from those on hand they did a nice job of setting the festival tempo.

Ted Poley took the stage at 5 PM right in the bull’s eye of the day’s heat and direct blasting sunshine, but proceeded to please the crowd with DANGER DANGER songs “Bang Bang”, “Naughty Naughty, “I Still Think About You”. The set also included an arrangement of solo songs and “Afraid ofLove” off the contentious “Cockroach” release. My only disappointment in the set-list was the absence of any songs off the most recent D2 release “Resolve”.  Kudos goes to Mr. Poley for his brave performance in the extreme South Dakota heat. My hands felt like they were on fire shooting pictures, I can only imagine what it was like performing in those conditions.

Next up was the KISS tribute band STRUTTER. Like Poley, they took the stage in the direct heat. On top of that, they were in the infamous full KISS stage apparel; I can only imagine what that had to be like. During their nearly hour long set they performed numbers predominately from the KISS Alive I & II era with a few 80’s songs such as “Lick it Up” and “Heaven’s on Fire” mixed in. Technically it was the floor of the stage that was probably on fire. Did I mention how hot it was yet?

STRUTTER

FIREHOUSE graced the stage right on schedule at 8 PM and proceeded to give the crowd pretty much all the expected hits from their first two studio albums. For anyone who has seen FIREHOUSE at any point between 1991 and today would confirm these guys have always put on a solid performance and sound great. This night was no exception. C.J. Snare advised the crowd that they had re-recorded those hit songs they have been playing this evening in conjunction with their 20-year milestone. Are you kidding me, what the heck happened to that time for most of us? WOW. FYI: “Love of a Lifetime”, “”Overnight Sensation”, “Hold Your Fire” and the like were performed to near perfection.

Firehouse

SKID ROW capped off the night with a rowdy, high energy performance that started right at 10 PM sharp. Having seen SKID ROW a few years ago, it appears that nothing has really changed with the band in any noticeable manner down to the set list that was played. I guess that is either good or bad depending on what you are hoping for as a fan. I do wish they would write some new material again. Songs like “Youth Gone Wild”, “18 & Life”, “Monkey Business” all sounded worthy of being performed in arenas again as did pretty much the entire set.

SKID ROW

I would like to finish the first day’s review by saying one of the things that really impressed me and it even became more evident as the weekend progressed was how well the new management ran this year’s event. Everything was always on schedule and very professionally run which I much appreciated. The only negative from my perspective (maybe) was one particular overzealous mall cop security wanna be at the facility entrance (he was without a tazer mind you) who thought it was his obligation to check my camera bag at every given opportunity to make sure I wasn’t carrying any beverage not purchased at the facility or possibly hiding a concealed weapon since the last time we crossed paths. I say (maybe) because I started to actually find humor in it as more of these opportunities would present themselves. We became friends as the weekend unfolded as you might imagine, or maybe not! It’s all good my rock brothers and sisters from another mother.

Festival Website:

http://empirerockfest.com/

to read part 2 click here!