After three days we finally got it right when arriving at the parking lot. We only had to wait about 15 minutes for the shuttle. On our way there we even saw my friends in Saliva checking in. We walked in just in time to catch the last 10 minutes or so of Icon For Hire. These are a band I’ve been wanting to bring to Mechanicsburg and even moreso now after seeing them rile up the crowd on main stage at BRRF.
The weather was extremely Bi Polar on Sunday as it was hot then raining then hot again. After Icon For Hire we headed to the Iheart stage and were lucky enough to catch a good bit of No Resolve’s Set. They were super energetic. I was super duper impressed w/ these guys and another band I’m looking to bring to town.
The first band of the day that I was super excited to see was my boys in Otherwise. They just played Lovedrafts a few months ago and blew me away w/ thier set. I’d seen them before but it’s been awhile and they have not lost a step, in fact they are better than ever. One of the highlights of the set was the bands blistering cover of Blind Melon’s “No Rain”. For those that remember Blind Melon was a huge part of Woodstock 94 and seeing that song covered at a big festival was a real nostalgic thing. The band also whipped out their brand new single “Full Disclosure” w/ the Chorus “If You got something to say, say it to my fucking face”. The band ended thier set w/ the first single “Soldiers” and in a wonderful moment brought out about 20 first responders to stand on stage during the entire final song. This was an incredible moment that was one of the most memorable of the weekend.
I headed over to the Iheart stage again to catch a bit of the band GFM (Gold Frankinscense & Myrrh) a female fronted metal / industrial type band. I was only able to catch a song or two of them however from what I saw they put on a hell of a show and had a nice size crowd so people knew they were coming and has some buzz.
From there I went back to the Main stage as I was super stoked to see Nonpoint again but first up was Lacey Sturm the former Flyleaf singer coming out to do her solo set. There were rumors of a Flyleaf reunion swirling in the weeks leading to the festival. It seems that reunion will be coming in 2023 and hopefully they do end up at BRRF 2023. Lacey still has her voice as she ripped through a short set which included opener “I’m So Sick” the debut single from her former band Flyleaf. The set also featured 2 other Flyleaf classics “Fully Alive” and set closer “All Around Me”. I was walking around a bit during her set in order to be front row for the next band Nonpoint.
As we stood and waited for Nonpoint to hit the stage, the main area really filled up and the rain began to fall. The Poncho’s started coming out in full force and the band also began thier walk on the stage ripping into the brand new single “Ruthless”. Lead Vocalist Elias declared to mother nature that we wanted the rain to stop. The set was pretty heavy on the Debut record including “Back Up”, “What a Day” and a song they don’t play often “Tribute” w/ God Forbid Vocalist joining them. They gave the crowd a choice between that and “In the Air Tonight” and up front the crowd was voting for “Tribute”. Towards the end of the set directly after “Tribute” the rain did stop leading Elias to claim “We did that, you guys did that. We can stop the rain together”. Closing out the set w/ “Bullet w/ a Name on it” and seeing the crowd jumping and pits opening for the final time of the day for them. Incredible set.
I headed back over to Iheart to check out Dying Wish and damn were they intense. I was again only able to catch a few songs but I was extremely impressed. I can’t wait to get them in the area at some point. The Reason (Ha, wait til you see what I did there) that I only caught a song or two was I did want to go back over to catch Hoobastank. These guys are old hats at this and in a way I felt were an odd fit. They did the usual songs like “Crawling in the Dark”, “Same Direction” and “Out of Control” all real crowd pleasers. The fun part was when they played thier huge hit “The Reason”. Vocalist was very aware of this song not fitting on a heavy metal festival. He said they werent sure if they were gonna play it or not when they were making thier set list. During the song he continued to encourage the crowd to open up the pits, which they did and it was just an ironic moment. Another one of those fun moments to remember.
With a six hour drive we made the decision to head out but not before I watched Hedpe’s full set. They also just played Lovedrafts and absolutely crushed it and I couldnt wait to see them again. As I was heading to the Iheart stage I heard Lacey sturms voice and I figured they had her on the radio in the tent. As I made my way over I peaked in and saw her and her guitarist on the acoustic stage, I over heard a guy say “there was a mistake on the tickets so you can just head into the tent” so I did just that and ended up front row only about 10 feet from Lacey. She played about 3-4 songs before they told her it was time to stop (as Hedpe was about to start). It was a real pleasure to see her so up close and such a wonderful suprise.
I then really headed over to see Hedpe. They had a huge crowd and had them going crazy the entire set. The full crowd was singing along to “Raise Hell” and “Bartender”. It was so great seeing Jahred so happy and into the show. Talking about smoking Weed and drinking Jameson. They threw in some Bob Marley and had the crowd vibing then dancing, then moshing. The diversity in this band is incredible from the screams to the raps and then to the singing. They closed out the set (and my BRRF) w/ “Renegade”. I know its sort of common to catch some bands you havn’t seen before when at a big festival but there’s certain bands I have seen and refuse to miss when I’m in thier presence. Hedpe is one of thsoe bands.
That marked the end of our time at BRRF of course missing some great bands on Sunday night including Saliva, Lamb of God and Disturbed. I was very happy w/ our time at the event…