Festival in the Field 2003

By Eddy Metal

If you missed Churchill Downs' Festival In The Field this year, you missed out on a great time. Co-sponsors The Fox and Crown Royal hit a home run on this one. The lineup included Louisville's own Outspoken and national acts Trapt, Seether and pop rockers Saliva.

I got my lazy rump up there early so I got to see Louisville rockers gone big, Outspoken. I'm glad I did, because I thought Outspoken and Seether were the best bands there.

The day started out sunny and hot, perfect weather for a festival. But god, being the unpredictable character that she is, decided that a tornado and rain should sweep through the Downs.

Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit. But it did suck. I even got sick from walking in the rain.

Outspoken hit the stage first with a set of good rock and roll. They played their hit "Farther" and my personal favorite song by them, "Revolving." You could tell how happy they were to be there and to be doing so well with the original thing.

Next up was Trappt, a band I was unfamiliar with. They weren't bad, but it didn't suit me personally, as they were a bit more alternative/straightedgish/trendy than I care for. Plenty of people there did get into them and there was even some bodies being thrown around in front of the stage.

Then Seether hit the stage, cranking out decent radio rock music, which, though it might seem cheesy, I liked. I didn't know much about them either, but then I recognized their hit song "Fine Again" blasting flawlessly from the stage. Some singers slack off in performance, but their vocalist was hitting pretty much every note.

Headliners Saliva, from Memphis, Tennessee, finally took the stage. To be honest, to everyone I know considers them to be bubblegum rockers. Sure, they have some nice rhythms, but the simplistic lyrics come across to me as kind of weak, Especially on the song "Click Click Boom," which was their opener. The other songs they played were much rappier and not as catchy as "Click Click" but the crowd seemed to like them.

Then Saliva covered an Eighties song, "Shout," by Tears for Fears. I looked into the crowd to see the reaction and what I saw was a clear split down the middle. Half hated it and were complaining with a bewildered look on their faces and half were jumping around jamming. Personally, I would have concentrated on originals if I were Saliva, rather than Eighties covers. On top of that, singer Josey Scott was running around like a madman, sounding winded just a bit at times.

(A humorous aside: Before the show, some guy came up to me and asked for an autograph. He thought I was Josey Scott of Saliva. Other people have said I looked like him before. I should have said "nah man, I'm Eddy Scott, Josey's chubby twin from Louisville!")

Nonetheless, the show was a blast until wind and rain forced me to leave during Saliva.

Thanks to 100.5 the Fox and Churchill Downs for being so courteous to LMN.