STONE TEMPLE PILOTS, FILTER, 3 DOORS DOWN ROCK ON THE RANGE

Columbus, Ohio was certainly the place to be as Rock on the Range welcomed another tremendous festival lineup over two days for the serious rock fan.

America’s premiere hard rock festival, Rock on the Range, just completed its second successful year after the inaugural festival sold out in 2007. The multi-stage music event expanded to two days in order to meet the tremendous demand for tickets and took place on Saturday, May 17 and Sunday, May 18 at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, OH. The line-up for this year’s festival, which is centrally located in the heart of the country, included the debut of the newly reunited Stone Temple Pilots, marking the group’s first performance together with the original lineup of Scott Weiland, Robert and Dean DeLeo and Eric Kretz in over seven years. Just a few of the other performances included sets from Kid Rock, 3 Doors Down, Disturbed, Staind, Papa Roach, Seether, SerjTankian , Flyleaf, Shinedown, Killswitch Engage, Finger Eleven, Alter Bridge, Filter, Theory of a Dead Man , Sevendust, Default, 10 Years, Bobaflex, Red, Airbourne, Black Tide, Rev Theory, Ashes Divide and Drive A.

We caught up with Richard Patrick, who recently reformed his band Filter, to get his thoughts on performing in Columbus, Ohio which used to be his old stomping ground.

“Oh the reality is it was one of the first gigs we signed on to do. Columbus, Ohio is my stomping grounds. That’s my backyard. My sister went to OSU and I would go down there every weekend to visit her and we’d go out to High Street and have a good time. It looks like a really well run festival and obviously my buddies from STP are going to be there, so it’s going to be good.”

We also talked with Billy Howerdel of Ashes Divide who has been a part of many festivals whether being a lighting designer or guitar tech for Guns N’ Roses or David Bowie or guitarist with A Perfect Circle to find out if he had the time to venture out and check out any bands after opening the 2nd stage.

“There’s too much going on basically. I’ve teched, you know I was a guitar tech on Lollapalooza for like three different Lollapalooza’s and it’s like high school all over again. You pick and choose who you want to hang out with.”

We also caught up with the young up and coming band Drive A, who turned some heads with the residency at The Key Club in Hollywood, Ca with their average age of 16 years old, to get their thoughts on performing at Rock on the Range.

“It’s just once in a lifetime and we’re excited for the reuion of STP too. We’re excited for the reunion, yeah STP, Killswitch Engage, there’s just so many cool bands. It’s insane to be a part of that.”

This year’s two-day event featured two stages, an expanded festival village, state of the art main stage LED screens, enhanced main stage and second stage sound and light systems and an expanded main stage field area for fans who purchased Field General Admission Tickets.