M3 ROCK FESTIVAL 2010 – As I was a part of the many thousands of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal fans at this year’s M3 Rock Festival in Columbia, Maryland this past Saturday, I came upon a realization… that Heavy Music is alive and very F’n well in 2010. Fans from teens to Old School Metalheads were in attendance at this Heavy Music event and they were not at all bashful at letting their excitement be seen or heard. The excitement for music that moves them, grooves them and makes them all feel like one gigantic and united family. Music, regardless of genre, should and most often does, ignite and bring out the emotions in all of us. How thrilling and satisfying it was, to witness thousands of Heavy Music fans at the M3 Rock Festival, celebrating together, (very peacefully too I might add), some of the greatest songs and bands that time has not forgotten.
We are a rowdy and straight forward bunch, us Heavy Music fans. Yet our rowdiness comes with jubilant horns raised in the air, a handshake, a high five or a slap on the back to our fellow fan. While I was amongst the massive M3 Rock Festival crowd on June 19th, I shared stories, anecdotes and countless quips with what I thought were strangers. After a couple of days have passed since this memorable day in my Metal life, I’ve come to the realization… that these strangers were never really strangers at all. They were passionate and loyal Heavy Music fans, just like myself. We were all family on June 19th, at the M3 Rock Festival. A proud, loud, loyal and raucous family at that.
We all live during a time of war, economic instability and political mud slinging that engulfs the headline news each and every moment. For one day, thousands of Heavy Music fans along with more than a dozen bands and countless vendors, created a world where politicians could never bullshit with or dare enter without running away with their heads caught between their legs. A world where spending eight dollars on a cold beer brought a smile to my face. A world where thousands of us could escape to, away from the crap that our cable network news shoves down our throats continuously. A world where us Heavy Music fans proved once again to society, we did not come to conquer, burn and pillage a community that accepted us in. God Bless the world of Heavy Music and Columbia, Maryland.
As days, weeks and years shall go by, I’ll never forget this 2010 M3 Rock Festival. I shall never forget the bands I Rocked to, the evil humidity that enveloped the air, the beer that went down like candy water and my fellow Heavy Music fans as well. I was truly in my element at the 2010 M3 Rock Festival and so too were thousands of other fellow fans. The state of Heavy Music has never been more defiant, loud and resilient… the 2010 M3 Rock Festival proved this to me, both bands and fans. We are really one big happy and Heavy Music lovin’ family. Metal be thy name.
I will be writing a series of posts that feature this 2010 M3 Rock Festival in the days and most likely, weeks to come. There are many stories to still tell, from the bands to the vendors that made this day ROCK… for me.
STONE.
Back in October of 1991, Ugly Kid Joe released their debut EP – As Ugly As They Wanna Be. 1991 was a year smack in the middle of the Grunge Music invasion… Ugly Kid Joe didn’t seem to care in the least. The mix of Hard Rock, Funk Metal and Heavy Metal had me more than interested in Ugly Kid Joe, I bought As Ugly As They Wanna Be and it served me right – back in 1991. Parodies aside, I could care less about what the titles of Ugly Kid Joe’s albums were making fun of… it was the funky heavy grooves of their songs that mattered most to me. Everything About You was a song that sounded unlike anything I was into back then, (Thrash, Death, Speed and mainstream Heavy Metal was what I was used to). When I first heard Everything About You, the first bands that came to mind that I was familiar with, in the Funk Metal genre, was Living Colour and Anthrax when they did I‘m The Man. White Zombie for certain had some Funk happening in their Metal back then too, yet this Ugly Kid Joe was not the dark side of heavy Funk either. This band was not as flamboyant as Faith No More, there seemed to be more of a street level accessibility to Ugly Kid Joe back in 1991-92.
Obviously the freshness of Ugly Kid Joe caught on with MTV and FM radio, it had to. Ugly As They Wanna Be and America’s Least Wanted 
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