UFEST-Arizona Rock Radio 98 KUPD Presents UFEST Featuring: Godsmack, I Prevail, Nothing More, Fozzy, The Warning, Grey Daze and The Black Moods – Concert Review AZ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater...

Allie Jorgensen
May 13, 2023
12 min read

Review and Photos by Roc Boyum

Arizona Rock Radio station 98 KUPD hosted their annual UFEST rock concert festival at the newly renamed Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater (formally Ak-Chin Pavilion). This year’s lineup featured some of the greatest names in rock music today with Godsmack, I Prevail, Nothing More, Fozzy,The Warning, Grey Daze and The Black Moods. The festival got underway at 2:30 pm at this great outdoor venue on a beautiful Spring Saturday afternoon which was a very pleasant and rare 81 degrees in Phoenix, AZ.

Sully Erna-Godsmack

The Black Moods:

Considering that The Black Moods hail from Tempe, AZ – I can think of no other way to launch this festival into high gear than with a kick ass Arizona homegrown hard rock band. For those of you who didn’t attend this show (don’t miss this next year) and if you’re not yet familiar with the The Black Moods; let’s get this introduction done right now. They are a power trio consisting of guitarist/vocalist Josh Kennedy, bassist Jordan Hoffman and drummer Chico Diaz who are a no nonsense hard rock band that are bringing back the timeless sound of an era gone by. Make no mistake, these guys are pure hard rock who came out of the gate with a sound that hit everyone right between the eyes and continued to rock the house without any breaks or bullshit for their entire set.

Get into The Black Moods Here!

Get Into

Grey Daze are another Phoenix, AZ based hard rock band who have re-emerged to take the stage after the loss of their late great singer, Chester Bennington (Linkin Park). The band has been reunited for live shows with Cris Hodges on vocals to honor the works of Grey Daze with Bennington. The band gave the UFEST attendees a ripping eight song set of their post-grunge/alternative music from their two studio LPs and their latest 2020 release Amends that features Bennington’s vocals from their 1990’s recordings that were previously shelved due to Bennington’s untimely death. Grey Daze are keeping the music that they created with Bennington alive and hitting stages everywhere hard with their music.

Get Into Grey Daze Here!

The Warning:

Daniela Villarreal Velez

(Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals). The band currently has three studio albums to their credit and have done extensive touring across Mexico and the Americas, North and South.

Lava Records

release

Error

. The band also included a cover of

Metallica’s

Enter Sandman

which incidentally was the song that pretty much launched their career after they uploaded this song to their YouTube channel as a kick ass cover of this

Metallica

classic from 2014.

The Warning are three girls who are fearless, hard rocking and taking the world by storm, one country at a time.

Get into The Warning Here!

Next up was the hard rock band

Fozzy,

who are fronted by the dynamic persona known as

Chris Jericho

that many of you may know from his notoriety as a famed wrestler; which explains why he is so damn fit! The band rocked the Phoenix audience with a seven song set that was culled from four of their six studio LP’s and an interesting and charged up version of the

Frankie Goes to Hollywood

classic,

Relax

Jericho

would continually whip the audience into a frenzy throughout their show with his athletic moves and commanding presence. The band are all A-list musicians who delivered a driving performance that was highly entertaining and kicked-ass from the moment they hit the stage.

Nothing More:

Nothing More

asked the audience for a

show of hands

to see how many people have seen

live before. Considering that everyone was totally getting into the band, I had expected that most everyone would have raised their hands – but only about half in attendance had their hands raised. This of course meant that half of the peeps there were hearing

live for the first time which is a complete blow mind considering how renowned in the rock world these guys are, and how completely into this band the audience was.

Nothing More

and

, respectively. From their latest

Spirits

off

Spirits

jumped up on top of their metal contraption known as “

Hawkins

working the levers on the machine to evoke a melodic wailing of electronic sounds that are a musical solo; taking the listener on a cosmic interstellar ride.

Then, all of the sudden, the music stopped…..the band hammered out some sparse chords with Hawkins belting out opening lyrics to the Black Sabbath classic, “War Pigs” that really fired up the audience from the front of the stage to the far reaches of the back lawn.

Get Into Nothing More Here!

I Prevail:

True Power

LP. Speaking of the

LP, this LP is considered by many, to be their finest work to date and and hearing these songs lives, serves to validate that sentiment. Some of the fan favorites from

True Power

are “

Body Bag”, “Bad Things” and “The Fear Of Letting Go

“. Watching the band perform all the material from

True Power

was especially moving considering that the

True Power

LP might have never happened and is really a tail of their trials and tribulations!

Since the LP was created during the pandemic and took two plus years to get completed and both singers in the band needed to dig deep to find the resolve to move on from their personal tragedies; it seems that

True Power

I prevail

Brian Burkheiser

(clean vocals) and

Eric Vanlerberghe

Everyone in the band was in top form on this show which left this Arizona audience not only wanting more but the chance to see these guys on a headline tour and a full length show.

Get Into

I Prevail Here!

Godsmack:

Singer/front-man

Sully Erna

and company came out of the gate with an explosive show that was comprised of thirteen songs in their regular set and two encore songs. The material presented spanned their entire career which included the legendary drum battle between singer

Erna

and drummer

Shannon Larkin

aka “

Batalla de los tambores

.” Their 2006 LP

was the only LP omitted from their show and their latest 2023 release

Lighting Up the Sky

was the LP most represented with five songs. The band also presented songs from their highly acclaimed 2018 LP

When Legends Rise

with three classics,

“Bulletproof”, “Under Your Scars” and “When Legends Rise.”

Throughout their show,

Erna

would impart some of the meaning to their material that gave an insight to their thoughts and what a given song means to them.

To introduce the song “Something Different”, Erna reached out to the audience to talk about really connecting with them on a purely musical level; cool right? The concept was to have everyone there, experience the music on their own terms without… this fancy ass pyro and fancy ass light show (as Erna put it) ,and for everyone to just enjoy the music. They were for a moment, going for that old school vibe with the only “real” show effects coming from their lighters or cellphones lit up by the audience. He also asked for the ladies in the audience to close their eyes and think about that one guy in their past (who treated them wrong). Erna went on to say that this song is dedicated to those MF’s; which is really a big middle finger to that sorry sack of shit for mistreating their ladies by being abusive; because there’s no place in this world for that kind of behavior. Of course this is 2023 and not 1967, so the big lights and pyro came back; because we have the technology and it’s so damn cool!!!

Another awesome part of the show is the “Batalla de los tambores.” (drum battle) between singer Erna and drummer Shannon Larkin; which isn’t really a battle but more of two great musicians trading drum fills and grooves and having a blast playing the drums together!

,”

Thank you for 25 years

At the end of their regular set, the Phoenix audience continued to cheer until the band came back on stage for their final two songs of the night; “Surrender” and “I Stand Alone.” “I Stand Alone” is definitely a fan favorite and was originally a single on the soundtrack for movie Scorpion King before ending up on Faceless LP; the band’s third LP released in 2003.

At the end of the night with the band bathed in some blinding white lighting,

Erna

thanked Phoenix for being a great F..kin’ crowd.

Godsmack,

after 25 years are still one of the best rock bands out there and always give their audiences an over the top show of great music and a great concert experience!

Get into Godsmack here!

Get Into

Godsmack here!

THE DAILY PULSE

UFEST-Arizona Rock Radio 98 KUPD Presents UFEST Featuring: Godsmack, I Prevail, Nothing More, Fozzy, The Warning, Grey Daze and The Black Moods – Concert Review AZ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheater...

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