White River Amphitheatre to get into an Uproar
Published 6:01 pm Wednesday, September 21, 2011
The White River Amphitheatre will resound with music one more time next Saturday when the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival invades Auburn for the venue’s final music festival of the season.
The Oct. 1 edition of the annual heavy metal touring festival features headliner Avenged Sevenfold, supported by Three Days Grace, Seether, Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate, Sevendust, Black Tide, Art of Dying and Hell or Highwater.
For Black Tide, the Uproar Festival marks the second time the Florida-based quartet has invaded Auburn, with its initial trip to White River coming on 2008’s Mayhem Festival where the then up-and-coming band played the second stage in support of its debut album, “Light From Above.”
Now the band is on Uproar supporting its sophomore album “Post Mortem” – which was released Aug. 23 – and it couldn’t be happier, according to bassist Zakk Sandler.
“Everything is going great,” he said. “This is the tour we want to be on. This is the dream tour for having a record drop on. It’s great getting out there and seeing the fans again.”
Since releasing “Light From Above” in 2008, the band – which features Sandler, guitarist/vocalist Gabriel Garcia, guitarist Austin Diaz and drummer Steven Spence – has clawed its way through the metal ranks, earning accolades from such prestigious music publications as Rolling Stone (Best Rookies of 2008) and Kerrang! (Best International Newcomer).
“Light From Above” peaked at No. 73 on the Billboard Top 200 album charts and sold more than 11,000 copies in its first week. In addition, the album spawned three singles, “Shockwave”, “Warriors of Time” and “Shout”, all of which were featured on various video game soundtracks, including “Guitar Hero”, “MotorStorm: Pacific Rift” and “NHL ’09”.
In addition to the success of its recorded works, Black Tide found success on the lighted stage, earning dream gigs sharing the stage with legendary metal bands such as Metallica and Iron Maiden.
As big as those shows were for the band, Sandler is excited to be playing with the bands on Uproar.
“I’m always excited to see Avenged Sevenfold,” Sandler said. “I’ve always dug what they do. The same thing with the Bullet For My Valentine guys. I was listening to them while I was in high school, so it’s really cool to be out with them and get to play with them every night.”
The Uproar Festival gets under way at 2 p.m.
