When I attend festivals I never know what to expect. The time slots always seemed rushed and the bands always butcher their set lists leaving out some of their best songs. The M3 Festival landed on the second day of my summer concert road trip. On Friday night, I saw .38 Special and Lynyrd Skynyrd play in Raleigh, North Carolina. It was a great show and as soon as it was over I left for Maryland to see the M3 Festival.

The M3 Festival is a Glam Metal festival that is held in Maryland every year. It is a great place to see a lot of great bands together in one day. The concert is definitely worth the price as I don’t remember it being that expensive. The Scorpions were the headlines and they sounded great, but in all honesty, most of the bands sounded amazing. Glam Metal bands are often underrated by the metal community because of their mainstream appeal with MTV.

There were too many band to write up a review for each, just know that if you never gave Glam Metal bands a chance, take a look at the Top Ten I put up and give the genre a shot. Glam Metal provided a gateway for me to become a metal fan and I feel they provide the easiest path to cross over to metal from another genre since the songs are familiar to most music fans. I believe this was a stop on the Scorpions farewell tour and I was glad I had a chance to see them perform.

When I went to see Mötley Crüe I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had seen a lot of the popular metal bands from their era and most of them had been hit or miss. In fact, I had seen Vince Neil perform solo and was not impressed. The opening bands did not initially peak my interest on the bill since I did not really listen to any of them.

Drowning Pool opened the show and I was blown away by their performance. I hadn’t listened to Drowning Pool since their original singer tragically passed away. I loved their first album, but I wasn’t expecting much from the band. Of all of the bands that performed, they had the heaviest and tightest sound. I was only disappointed with the crowd because it was filled with older Crüe fans and we weren’t able to get a mosh pit going for Drowning Pool.

The other two opening bands were not impressive and I don’t even remember who they were.

The last band to go on before the Crüe was Godsmack. I was in a band that played a lot of Godsmack covers (not my choice) so I was familiar with their material. They played a very long set but it seemed like half of it was percussion solos. They wheeled out an extra drum set and other percussion instruments and had a long drawn out drum battle. I could understand the percussion element if it had been a Sepultura show since they include a lot of percussions in their recordings, Godsmack, not so much. They did sound good live unlike most bands who get a lot of mainstream attention.

Finally Mötley Crüe took the stage. They were easily one of the best live Glam Metal bands I have ever seen. Their set was full of energy and they played the whole “Dr. Feelgood” album. Vince Neil was much better singing for the Crüe than he was when I saw him play his solo songs. The Crüe are still masters of getting the crowd involved and left the audience with a memorable performance.

To help kick off the opening of our site, I have decided to review some of the most memorable concerts I have attended. These reviews will focus on national bands as I put together a package of underground bands.

I actually saw In Flames twice. The first time being at Gigantour. I did not feel as though they preformed particularly well on the main stage. They had too many lights which blocked a lot of their amps, effectively killing their sound. They played well and had great crowd response but their sound sapped a lot of their energy.

I am a huge fan of the early In Flames albums but I am not fond of the direction they are moving in. Their albums have not had a quality sound in production, everything sounds muddy. With their complex sound, In Flames benefits from a tight, punchy production. This type of production has been missing from their last few albums, and the Gigantour show which I saw them perform.

Later I had a chance to see In Flames preform again at Mr. Small’s Theatre in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I went with a friend of mine. We both had backstage passes which were not honored. This greatly soured the night, since we like to mingle with the bands after shows. We went to see Three Inches of Blood, who opened for In Flames. We received the backstage passes from them. We were told the passes would not be honored since In Flames were the headliner, not 3IOB.

Other than the fact that we were ripped off on backstage passes, the show turned out pretty good. In Flames is a much better band in a small setting, compared to the big stage. They sounded tighter, and more polished. They did not play anything off of Jester’s Race, so the song selection could have been much better. But if you are planning on seeing an In Flames concert, see them inside a smaller venue instead of at an outdoor festival or you will end up disappointed.