Sonic Temple Festival 2023: Recap + Photo Gallery
On 08th Jun 2023
Festival season for Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP) continued with Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival (formerly Rock On the Range) throughout Memorial Day weekend (5/25-5/28). The festival returned to the Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH after a three-year hiatus from the pandemic, and as always, DWP put together an incredible lineup.
Day one was closed out by none other than Godsmack (Shannon Larkin) followed by Tool (Danny Carey) — it may have only been Tool’s second live performance of the year, but they closed out the day with energy and fierce musicianship. For Queens of the Stone Age on day two (Jon Theodore), this was their first major performance since 2018 and the live debut of their new single “Emotion Sickness.” Their first album since 2017, In Times New Roman… will be released on June 16th. Closing out the second day was Avenged Sevenfold (Brooks Wackerman). This was their third performance since 2018 and their first album in seven years Life Is But a Dream… was released just a few days after on June 2nd.
For day three, Rob Zombie (Ginger Fish) and KISS (Eric Singer) gave back to back performances. This was KISS’s final Columbus show, but they will be back in Ohio to play Cincinnati and Cleveland in October. KISS played a 90-minute set and didn’t downscale from the rest of their farewell shows — they still had the risers, Singer and Tommy Thayer had solos, Gene Simmons spit blood and breathed fire (there was plenty of pyro throughout the show), and the performance ended with confetti cannons. Advertisement
Closing out the festival were Foo Fighters, now playing with Josh Freese on drums. This was their third show with Freese behind the kit after Taylor Hawkins’ passing in 2022. Before Foo Fighters was Sublime with Rome — one of the many bands Freese has played with — and they gave a shout out to Hawkins and Freese. Sublime with Rome has a new drummer as of this year, Jason Vick. Foo Fighters closed out a great weekend of rock music with a nearly two hour set.
The festival was packed with more major drummers like Abe Cunningham (Deftones), Jason Bowld (Bullet for My Valentine), Greyson Nekrutman (Suicidal Tendencies), Connor Denis (Beartooth), Elias Mallin (Filter), Gabe Helguera (I Prevail), Sam Loeffler (Chevelle), Gunnar Olsen (Puscifer), John Alfredsson (Avatar), Isaac Carpenter (Awolnation), and Adam Pfahler (Jawbreaker).
See below for our gallery of photos from Sonic Temple 2023.
