HOG Fest mania
Concert Review
Article and Photography by: Brieghanna Chase
On a cool and rainy night in Milwaukee, fans flocked to Fiserv Forum to warm up at HOG Fest, a music festival hosted by 102.9 THE HOG, a Midwest radio station. With a stacked line-up of rock and metal music for fans of all ages, everyone was sure to have a good time, and they most definitely did.
Opening the show with a reinvented, emo-rock inspired cover of the Tears for Fears classic hit “Mad World” was Atlanta, Georgia-formed rock band, The Funeral Portrait. Flawlessly moving into their popular “Generational Psycho”, the band put on an energetic and captivating performance full of their usual stage antics of flirting, notably between singer Lee Jennings and bassist Robert Weston, and TFP fans seemed to be eating it up. During “Voodoo Doll,” the crowd lit up with their phones as Lee, with his own light, and fans held them up, swaying them side to side, following the singer's lead. The set ended with the band's ever-popular, “Suffocate City” from their most recent album, “Greetings From Suffocate City”.
Despite the name, Sleep Theory is about as far from sleep as possible. Hitting off their set with “Fallout”, they came out strong, ensuring the audience was more than awake and ready for a good time. This new American Rock band from Memphis, Tennessee, has entered the scene with full force, releasing two albums since their formation in 2019. Their 8-song set included a good mix of songs from both albums, including “Fallout”, “Numb”, and “Gone or Staying” from their EP release “Paper Hearts”, and new hits like “Parasite”, “Gravity”, “Stuck in my Head”, and “Static”. The band also threw in a pleasant surprise by performing a cover of Boyz II Men “Can You Stand the Rain”.
Next to heat the stage was I Prevail, and no, we don't mean that figuratively, we mean it quite literally; their performance was full of amazing and hot pyrotechnics. Dominating the stage with a big opening of “NWO”, they came out making an impression on the crowd. While it seemed many members of the crowd were not prepared for the head that this band was bringing, by the end of their set, they were awake and ready, and quite possibly sweaty. Getting the crowd pumped with their single “Violent Nature”, the floor began to break into factions: the crowd-surfers and the circle pit moshers, and I am not sure which was bigger. The band continued to impress when drummer Gabe Helguera ripped out an impressive and heavy drum solo before performing, as the singer Eric Vanlerberghe said: “the most difficult song to perform”, which happened to be “God”. This band not only kept the crowd entertained musically, but singer Eric and guitarist/ vocalist Dylan Bowman kept you engaged between songs with their banter and off-the-wall comments. To keep the energy high, the final songs in their set were the well-known “Hurricane” and “Gasoline”, ensuring that you were hot and ready for Three Days Grace to take the stage.
Anticipation rose as the HOG Fest announcer came out on stage to thank all the members of the team who made that night possible and introduce the headliner that the crowd was waiting for. With much excitement from the audience, Three Days Grace took the stage for part one of not two, but 3 parts of their set. With both new singer Matt Walst and original singer Adam Gontier, the band gave the perfect set for both old and new fans of the group. Starting their set with “Dominate”, a perfect descriptor of how they overtook the entirety of Fiserv Forum that night. The combination of vocals from the two singers only elevated the classic songs such as “Pain” and “I Hate Everything About You”, as well as the newer songs, like “Kill Me Fast”, the band's most recent release since Adam Gontier rejoined. The lyrics echoed through the arena as fans poured their hearts out alongside the singers, creating a very immersive experience in which everyone's hurt, pain, and joy filled the air.
The first part of the set ended with “Don't Wanna Go Home Tonight” as they reset the stage to a more intimate atmosphere for the acoustic portion of the evening. The acoustic set was a three-song break featuring “Get Out Alive”, “Chalk Outline/ Porn Star Dancing”, and “Lifetime”. The calm didn’t last long as the last part of the show cranked back into high gear with a cover of 3 Doors Down “Here Without You”, and ended the show with “Riot”. The emotions ebbed and flowed through the entire show as the crowd felt every lyric, chord, and beat. Three Days Grace gave everyone in attendance everything they could have wanted from a performance and more, leaving every single person on a high that is sure to be difficult to top any time soon. HOG Fest was, without a doubt, a massive success.
