Hollywood Undead’s mix of rap, rock and metal was an early hit here with the audience and started their set off with a “What’s up Pomona?” along with some expletives I won’t print here.
Many in the group wore masks to start their performance and colorful T-shirts like “I f***** hate Limp Bizkit” or “Rep Yo Hood.”
The Hollywood group pretty much stuck to performing songs off their album “Swan Songs,” which had lot of the fans rapping along.
An unintentionally comical moment in the festival came earlier after a U.S. Army staff sergeant introduced the hip-hop and rock group Street Sweeper Social Club who I thought were explosive live with tremendous energy.
The U.S. Army, who were one of the sponsors of the event, played the national anthem on the main stage before the SSSC group, which features rhymer Boots Riley from the hip-hop group The Coup and Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine among other members, came out.
Riley, after the band performed a cover of M.I.A.’s hit song “Paper Planes,” said the government took taxpayers money and used it to bail out the banks and “… kill others in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The audience, many of which had cheered the national anthem, went a bit silent.
Riley then asked the audience if they wanted to join his group, which led into their song “The Oath” and subsequent cheers.
Atreyu’s metalcore sounded great on songs like 2008’s “Falling Down” and 2004’s “Right Side of the Bed” and the audience really seemed to be into them.
Also well received was Aesop Rock on the second stage with his hype man Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz but I had to miss Atmosphere because I had to file my story before 5 p.m.
I’ve personally seen Atmosphere at least five or six times but I felt really bad about missing their set because Slug and Ant always put on a good show.
Despite the overall good feelings from the audience , some members were upset water was $4 and I so far have avoided paying $5 for a soda or a powerade.
Wolfmother, which has all new members except for the singer, were great live and played extended jams for many of their songs including the single “Woman” but I could not catch all of their set as I was trying to update my story for Sunday.
I also missed After Midnight Project (who I REALLY wanted to see live because I like what I’ve heard of them) but they sounded good from what I could hear in the parking lot.
