Date: Jun 12, 2017,
The town of Columbia might not seem like a hotbed of rock’n’roll mayhem. As fine a place as it is, unless you happen to come from Maryland, you could be forgiven for not even knowing where it is.
But over two days once a year Columbia, Maryland, becomes more metal than Sunset Strip in its high-haired heyday as rockers and rollers descend to live it up and shout it out loud. The 2017 vintage featured a line-up that looked like a who’s who of the golden era’s big players. And how much would you love to see a bill featuring Kix, Loverboy, Winger, Faster Pussycat, Ratt, Dokken, Warrant and Vixen?
OK, not everything ran super smoothly. The parking situation was dire and the heat nearly unbearable (oh you poor things! – Donington veteran Editor HoJo). But even so, this year’s festival was still one kick-ass couple of days.
There’s truly nothing like singing along to Kix’s ‘Cold Blood’ or seeing RATT pound it out together with 15,000 like-minded souls. 2017 was M3’s ninth year and the family bond that‘s been created really is something special. People who attend love the music they’re seeing, of course, but they come to Columbia just as much for the overall vibe of being part of a great ‘old school’ metal community.
Me? I was luckier than most as I was helping out with press duties this year. Yes, I was bummed not to be able to see all the bands, of course. But what made up for it was that I got to meet some of the coolest people ever and be in some small way part of the organization of this fantastic event.
I spent hours inside the press area with people I barely knew, but by the end of it I felt I could now call these people my friends. That’s the vibe that M3 gives off. It’s just so damn friendly. There aren’t many festivals where you can just ‘run into’ the artists, as I did with Warrant, but at M3 the bands love being able to walk around and simply hang out.
Of course I didn’t deprive myself of all the fun, though, and my highlight of the festival has to be Faster Pussycat’s inspired performance. Due to severe illness Taime Downe was hospitalized and couldn’t do his gig. But rockers are made of stern stuff, and FP weren’t about to let their fans down. Drummer Chad Stewart stepped up to the plate and took on vocal duties for most tracks, and in the true spirit of the festival a few of the band’s rock friends came to the rescue too. Share Ross of Vixen, Ted Poley from Danger Danger and Jason McMaster of Dangerous Toys all sang lead at one point or another, making this a truly unique and memorable performance.
If this year’s festival is anything to go by, the 2018 edition of M3 is something you need to get in your diary right now. Imagine planning a Stateside holiday from Europe to coincide with this little beauty! Maybe you’d all better start saving…
You can check out the M3 Rockfest website at http://www.m3rockfest.com
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