Rock In The Desert

So this past weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd annual Sunset Sessions Rock! This time we were back in Cali but moved the party to Palm Springs (the desert). The scenery was unbelievably beautiful, here's the view from my balcony:

Mind blowing, right? Well, if you missed the recap from last year, Sunset Sessions Rock is a rock conference that brings up and coming artists, rock veterans, radio programmers, and all kinds of music professionals together for a weekend of discovering new artists and building the rock community. 

The first day started for me at 4am (1am Pacific time) when I left for RDU and flew out to Dallas to connect to Ontario, CA. I shared a rental with a few friends from last year so we piled in and made the 2 hour drive to the resort. The surroundings blew me away immediately because of how different it was from ENC. Mountains everywhere, wide open desert, and wind farms galore!

We arrived and wasted no time getting things going. The first day started with The "Real" Social Networking Panel, which was basically an organized meet & greet. It was a fun way to get to know some of my fellow rockers and talk music for a while. Then we had a little happy hour with Serj Tankian while we listened to his new album, Harakiri, and an interview with Serj and Matt Pinfield.

Each night there were 2 mini concerts: the Main Stage Shows and the Late Night Lounge. The first night Versus The World (Warped Tour punk), Black Oxygen (alt rock), The Parlotones (alternative), and Dead Sara (high energy female fronted rock) performed on the main stage and Slatr (very talented young teen rockers), Tanlines (power pop), Big B (rock hop), and Lit (90s rockers) rocked the lounge. Our good buddies Skratch 'n Sniff worked the turntables between bands in the lounge.

Day 2 was spent mostly in the pool. It started with a Creating Change panel that focused on going green and working with charities. That was followed by a pool party where we listened to Linkin Park's new album, Living Things. We hung around the pool until the SECOND pool party where we listened to Lostprophets' new album, Weapons. Here's the view from the pool:

That night the main stage hosted Killinger (80s metal), Cheating Daylight (teen rockers with a 10 year old bassist who stole the show), The Last Nova (rock), Courier (alt rock), and P.O.D. (90s rap rockers). The lounge was rocked by Beware of Darkness (Jack White meets early Nirvana), Hyro Da Hero (hip hop fronted hard rock), 7Lions (2 singer rock), and Oedipus (rock). That night also hosted a Super Duper Late Night Lounge with an acoustic performance by The Nowherenauts.

Day 3 I was too sunburned from Day 2 so I avoided the pool for the most part. The day kicked off with a very insightful Radio Panel followed by an acoustic performance by the legendary Richie Sambora! After that we sat down for a Q&A with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins and then took turns doing one on one interviews with Billy. I had a great chat with him and was blown away by how articulate and friendly he turned out to be.

The last night of the main stage was closed out by The Royalty (indie female fronted rock), The Nowherenauts (alternative), Stellar Corpse (rockabilly punk), A Silent Film (brit alt), and Taproot (rock). The final late night lounge hosted Art of Dying (rock), Junior Giant (alt rock), and Everclear (90s alt rock). 

There was a lot of partying, I learned a lot, met some amazing people, and brought home several bands that absolutely blew me away! Can't wait to see what next year has in store...