On April 25, Tucson Electric Park became the venue for KFMA Day 2009.  Kicking off Korn’s “Escape the Studio Tour” this year’s new rock station presented the all day event with a crowd pleasing line-up.

There is no better way to enjoy a sunny Saturday afternoon than with a full line-up of in-your-face rock music.  Beginning the day with the local band We Draw the Tide, high energy music and performances on stage got the audience prepared for the next 10 hours of hard core listening.

The Kindled, whom immediately won the crowd over with T-shirts flung into the audience, personalized the stage with their monkey mascot. Playing music from their new album “Restore” this band was a mix of classical rock with heavier new rock.

KFMA day was not only the beginning of one bands tour, but also marked the last performance of PH8. Explaining to audiences that sometimes its time to move on and find real jobs in this economy, they ended their career with an amazing performance.  Stopping the show at one point to reprimand concert goers for throwing bottles at people, they resumed with fierce power.  Keeping the audience alive and showing their commitment to their fans, at the end of their set, the lead singer took a picture of the audience from on stage.

As the winds picked up and the sun begins to lose its strength, the Grammy-nominated band Red hits the stage, with impressive synchronized head banging by the front men.  Performing from past albums, they ended with the much anticipated song “Death of Me” from their new album Innocence and Instinct.

Crowds began to find their ways near the stage and the ballpark began to fill.  Escape The Fate takes audience participation into the next level as they organize the first of many massive mosh pits of the night and played their hit song “Something.”

Keeping the with a high energy performance from beginning to end Anberlin plays as the evening begins to cool down.  One of the better performances of the night, the band got a strong response, and showed off their on stage personas.  Presenting the song “Feel Good Drag” from New Surrender, the audience immediately engaged with the band.

The second to last performance of the evening was the upcoming band Hollywood Undead, a modern day boy band, as described by KFMA listeners on the board, this band started off with a heart-pounding drum solo.  On stage with their signature masks, they are not your typical boy band.  The band delivered a great performance with the most audience participation up to this point.   They played their set mostly from their album Swan songs with “City” and “Young.”

And now to the last band of the evening.  The unveiling of Korn’s silver microphone stand is the signal that the band is about to perform.  The 14 song set brought 70 minutes of crowd thrashing excitement.  One of the great points to having a well known band is the audience response.  The crowd was deafening as they sang along to each of the songs, and took over during “Freak on a Leash.” Interjecting their song “Coming Undone” with “We Will Rock You” by Queen, the crowd turned wild as they pushed their way through and eventually broke the fence separating the audience from the stage (quickly repaired of course).  Jonathan Davis was nothing less then bagpipe playing, kilt wearing Nu Rock.  An explosive performance by Korn, they fed the audience a great beginning to their “Escape the Studio” tour.

KFMA day 2009 was an awesome event with a whole day of hard rock and sunny skies.  Not a bad way to spend a Saturday in Tucson.

Photo: Daniel Gallegos

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