“Are youuuuuu readdddddy?” (In robust screaming Jonathan Davis voice…)

It’s festival season.

Just kidding. More like Festivus. But we can dream of the warmer temps and the flowing beverages and, omg, what am I going to wear, where are my glowsticks? Etc. Etc. Etc.

Okay, I’m kidding with a lot of that, too. I just saw a new rock/metal fest promoted in my feed, maybe like a week or so ago now, and although it didn’t pique my interest, it captured my attention. The greedy gumdrops over at Live Nation recently announced something called Sick New World Festival to be held on Saturday, May 13th, 2023, in Las Vegas. The lineup features a lot of the bands we’d be glad to see and many who are simply trying to sell $50 tee shirts. I’m slightly miffed because, how in the hell can you make Papa Roach larger in font on a concert poster than the Melvins, but whatever. Not sorry to the P-Roachers out there. Unforgivable. And, not going to lie, some of these bands I don’t even know, nor do I feel compelled to.

Tix went on sale 11/11/22 and we’re a day late and a dollar short because everything’s sold out with a current waitlist. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t want to write about it or start thinking about the 2023 concert season now that 2022 is starting to come to a close.

I’m not a festival person, per se. I don’t like big Ticketmaster/Live Nation, I don’t like the focus on merch sales, and I got a lot of snark for people doing something to make it Insta-worthy. (Unrelatedly, don’t forget to follow @siliconeandvinyl friends! Kidding, I’m kidding…) I think this might be one of those things, but I don’t know, I also can appreciate the comradery of sweating your ass off in a drunk pit all day waiting for System of a Down to play. And maybe that’s your jam, too! In which case, you should probably know about it if you don’t already.

As 2022 wraps and we’re gathering around our Festivus pole and airing grievances, what shows were you thankful to see this year? What are you hoping to catch in 2023?

@siliconeandvinyl