Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Skillet, Sturgis, SD

For a first-time Sturgis Motorcycle Rally concert venue that was thrown together in a few short weeks, the Rock'n'Rev Festival at Monkey Rock is an unbelievable site for some really big-name musical acts this week.

At the urging of South Dakota Tourism photography intern Jenna Nagel, I attended the August 10, 2010 show there by Skillet, Creed, Jetstream and others.

Wow, what a facility! After years of attending concerts in all kinds of places, I can say this is the biggest and nicest stage I've ever seen. The thing must be 5-6 stories tall with massive video screens making up the entire back wall of the stage and the side wings. Here it is as teen wonders Jetstream began playing early in the evening. More on them later.

Christian rockers Skillet took the stage by storm and didn't let up all through their set. With violin and cello sounds added to the loud heavy guitars and drums, their sound is pretty unique.


Skillet includes two female members and I concentrated on shooting them. Drummer/vocalist Jen Ledger was fun to watch...

...but it was guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Korey Cooper that really attracted my attention. She is the wife of lead singer/bassist John Cooper who we met backstage before the show. Korey puts every ounce of energy she can muster into the show and it makes for great photos.





This was a really great performance at a great venue, but unfortunately did not draw much of a crowd at all. My estimate was somewhere around 500-600 people, which was a shame.

http://www.skillet.com/enter.php

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