BOARDWALK ROCK FEST DAY 2
Boardwalk Rock Fest Day 2, Ocean City Boardwalk, Ocean City, MD 5/18/25.
Coming off an amazing day 1 everyone was ready for another great lineup with acts like Alice Cooper, Shinedown, Candlebox, and headliner Nickelback all to come. Early on in the day 90’s legends Saliva stole the show. Everywhere you looked people were crowdsurfing which is a cool feat that early on in a day. They got the audience bouncing when they played “Click Click Boom” a song that has been all over popular culture over the years. Another nostalgia trip was when Lit played “My Own Worst Enemy” another song that has been everywhere since the 90’s. Although Fuel was without their original singer their new singer John Corsale was fully able to get the crowd into their set playing “Shimmer” and eventually coming into the barricade and singing into the crowd. One of the artists who stole the show on Sunday was Dorothy, a band led by singer Dorothy Martin who has extremely powerful vocals and backed by the guitar of rising legend Sam Bam Koltun. After a great set that led everyone over to see Candlebox, a 90’s rock band from Seattle. They came out to a cool intro of all the different Seattle bands. The highlight of Sunday for me was the set of rock legend Alice Cooper. It started off with people dressed as ravens intro-ing the band and then Alice coming out with a walking cane. He pretended to use the cane before throwing it into the crowd. He brought around a crutch during “No More Mr. Nice Guy” and was pointing it at everyone in the crowd and lifted it over his head in triumph. When the band played “Snakebite” Alice brought out a real life Python on his arm. They closed out an incredible show with “Schools Out For Summer” a song that has been popular for generations. Another amazing intro was Shinedown who had some bandits walk a mysterious person to the middle of stage hiding their identity with a sheet. When they pulled down the sheet it was a person wearing a full suit with a tv for a head that broke out some silly dance moves. The cool part was that the tv started off by saying Shinedown but then started showing old clips from shows like I Love Lucy. The band came running onto stage soon after and played an incredible show bringing that early 2000’s alternative metal sound to the festival. During their set it was so packed you couldn’t even walk through the crowd because everyone in attendance tried to get as close as they possibly could. When they got to “Sound of Madness” you could hear it perfectly clear all the way down the beach and boardwalk. They were given a huge ovation leaving the stage and would be a very tough act for anyone to follow. Luckily Three Days Grace is always up to the task and continued the alternative metal sound with songs that everyone could sing along to such as “I Hate Everything About You” and “Pain”. When it was time for headliner Nickelback they came out to another sea of phones as they led off with “San Quentin” a newer song from 2022 that year as a great way to start the show. They made sure to play all time hits like “Savin’ Me” and “Photograph” and closed out with “How You Remind Me” to make sure to give the fans what they want. The crowd was able to will the band out to encore with “Gotta Be Somebody” and “Burn It To The Ground” before thanking the Ocean City fans for an incredible night.
Shot and Written by Jonah van Bemmelen.
