Remembering Lubbock's Biggest Weekend of Rock

Get our free mobile app

I had a young lady ask me a trivia question and when I looked back at the answer, I was pretty stunned.

If you don't remember, we had X-Fest 9 and the 31st FMX Birthday Bash on back-to-back days. It's crazy that the promoter even attempted to do this, but I seem to remember both shows being close to sold out, if not sold out altogether.

This was Korn's Path of Totality Tour which was a pretty big one. The other thing I remember is that Godsmack and Staind flipped show slots because Godsmack had further to travel for the next gig. I also seem to recall something was up with the DJ sets but I'm not sure what.

I thought for the sake of discussion, I'd give the lineup as presented in 2012.

The 31st FMX Birthday Bash

Amphitheater Stage

Korn: 10:15 – 11:45 p.m.

Chevelle: 8:35 – 9:45 p.m.

Lacuna Coil: 7:20 – 8:05 p.m.

Cavo: 6:20 – 6:50 p.m.

Dead Sara: 5:30 – 6 p.m.

Pavilion Stage

DJ’s Datsik, Sluggo & J. Devil 11:45 – 2 p.m. (Dub Step Party)

New Medicine 10 – 10:30 p.m.

Janus 8:20 – 8:50 p.m.

Veer Union 6:50 – 7:20 p.m.

X-Fest 9

Mainstage

Man-Made Machine: 6:30 - 7 p.m.

Halestorm: 7:20 - 8 p.m.

Staind: 8:20 - 9:35 p.m.

Godsmack: 10:05 - 11:20 p.m.

Pavilion

James Durbin 11:20 - 11:55 p.m.

RedLight King 12:15 - 1 a.m.

So all this begs the question: will this kind of thing ever happen again? It could, but the mega-festivals have killed these kinds of things. Most of the mega-festivals have stipulations in the contracts that don't allow the bands to play in feeder markets.

The next problem is, for a lot of bands it's too expensive to make a second tour around the U.S. later to play in different places. Add to all of this that there are less active bands and we get to the point where we were before the COVID-19 pandemic with only a few bands willing to make the trip. Still, we'll keep our fingers crossed and keep working with every promoter we can to encourage shows to come to the Hub City.

Last thing, because I know it'll be a point of discussion. I would rate this weekend of rock higher than the Firecracker Five, which had Mudvayne, Papa Roach, Linkin Park, Disturbed and Slipknot, because none of those bands were really that big when they played together (they were all openers on Ozzfest). Of course, through a rear-view mirror it seems bigger, but back then each only had a song or two out, whereas Korn, Staind, Chevelle and Godsmack had tons of music under their belts.

And if you don't like that answer, more people went to each of these shows, so that makes this weekend bigger.