Dallas, Texas gets asked "So What?!" as an Insane, Multi-Genre Festival Prepares to be Unleashed
Texas as a state has had the benefit of being the home of some awesome music festivals, this year, another one will be carrying that banner for the state as So What?! Music Festival returns for the first time since 2017. The festival is set to take place at the Choctaw Stadium in Arlington, Texas and, social media has been ablaze with chatter about the festival!! The festival’s founder, Mike Ziemer has taken a unique approach to getting this festival off of the ground and it’s paid huge dividends to be an independent festival where other companies have massive, one-off festivals across the country.
The festival takes a unique approach with their lineup where they appeal to a broad range of musical tastes. There are artists that range from death metal, pop punk, emo and all of the way over to the hip hop side. This festival also took a creative approach by color coding the three genre breakdowns and then creating a unique character to associate with the colors. For hip hop, there’s a character with their microphone, a gold chain and green dreads. For the pop punk-ish section there’s a blue character complete with their skateboard. Finally for the metal side there’s the orange character with some pretty sick tattoos to boot.
The festival features a large number of artists that we at ConcertHopper have had the privilege of seeing live, so we’d like to take some time and mention just a few that we are excited about.
For day one, you have some heavy hitters right out of the gate. At the top of the metal side of the day you have I Prevail who we were lucky enough to see last year. At the festival where we caught them, they had the most energetic crowd of the entire festival. This is a testament to how wide-reaching their music is and how their fans react to the energy they pour out on stage.
Also on day one you have Florida’s own Wage War. This band is always a treat to see live, they have a library of songs that can appeal to most anyone, whether it be slower and more emotional songs like Johnny Cash or whether they are unleashing breakdown after breakdown in songs like “The River”. The band also makes it a point to encourage crowd participation which makes for an awesome time for all involved.
For day two, you have some more, incredible metal bands including one that has recently taken the metal world by storm. Kentucky’s Knocked Loose has seen critical acclaim for their approach to metal music, finding success among TikTok’s metal community for their song “Counting Worms” and being declared by Slipknot’s Corey Taylor as one of the bands that he sees as “the future of heavy music,” high praise indeed. As a live band, the band is known for insanely good live shows, full of energy and where the crowd gets just as crazy as the music itself
One of the examples of how awesome this lineup is comes on day two where you have the newbreeds of heavy metal like Knocked Loose beside legends of the genre like Hatebreed. One of the staples of the metal and hardcore world’s, Hatebreed is known for having some of the most passionate fans on the planet along with pushing the concept of “PMA” or “Positive Mental Attitude.” Their shows are exactly what you’d expect if you are a fan of their music, legends on the stage playing legendary songs to legendary fans.
For the final day of the festival, the band pulls no punches. Across the genres you have some big name acts and of course, metal doesn’t fall short here either. The Ghost Inside is perhaps the highlight of the day for fans of heavy music. For those not familiar with the band’s history, they were involved in a tragic and fatal bus accident on tour where their driver was killed and their drummer, Andrew Tkaczyk was airlifted to the hospital, eventually losing a leg as a result. In spite of all of this, the band has persevered, and it feels like the tragedy has instilled them with an appreciation for being on stage and for life as a whole that many others might not realize. It seems like the fans understand the history and how awesome it is to be able too see The Ghost Inside take the stage.
Crossing the aisle to other genres, we have an artist that has been defiant of genre labels for the majority of his career. Blackbear is a force of nature, a brilliant lyricist and producer, he’s had a hand in work for artists from Billie Eilish, Avril Lavigne, Kane Brown, and Maroon 5. This isn’t even including his solo work which is masterful in its own right. His stage show is phenomenal, and no detail is missed, we just hope he’ll bring his coffin-shaped piano to Texas. It should be exciting to see Blackbear at an outdoor venue (specially to photograph him since I’ve grown so much as a photographer since these photos were taken.)
It will be interesting to see how the vendors and food play out at the festival. With the show taking place at the stadium, it’s not yet clear whether the food on offer will be from outside vendors or if everything will be handled by the venue itself on that front. The festival is not lacking when it comes to sponsors though, already having some heavy weights like Pabst Blue Ribbon, Monster Energy and School of Rock on board.
We can’t wait to see this incredible festival, it should be an incredible experience for everyone in attendance and should be a great step for the music industry at large, particular heavy bands who might find exposure to fans who might otherwise not check out their music.
Tickets for the festival are still on sale and can be purchased at this link. We hope we can catch you in the Texas sunshine from May 27th to May 29th for So What?! Music Festival.
As always, please feel free to browse around ConcertHopper’s website further and to check out our articles covering a wide variety of topics. Please also check us out on social media on our Facebook and Instagram pages. Life is a beautiful thing and music only adds to that beauty, make some time to get out and celebrate beauty and life with a community of like-minded individuals at a concert soon, it’s always worth the price of admission.