D-TOX Rockfest 2012 – 5 Reasons To Go

We here at Yell! Magazine were a bit out of our metalhead element at the D-TOX Rockfest 2012 in Montebello, Quebec. Nonetheless, we had a shit-ton of fun, saw some incredible bands, witnessed some insane fans doing crazy shit, drank ourselves sober, and still managed to come away with three of our four scheduled interviews. We’ll have our video interviews with Suicide Silence, As I Lay Dying, and KoRn up soon. For now, you’ll have to deal with this review of the event, and our five reasons to go.

First, let’s say that the D-TOX website grossly underreported the travel time that it takes to get from Montreal to Montebello. The site says 45 minutes, when in reality it’s more like 1.5 hours. As a result we missed Suicide Silence’s set and missed our scheduled time to interview Mark Heylmun. Fortunately, we were able to reschedule.

Come to think of it, none of our interviews were held on time. It seems that all the bands were either late or hard to track down, but it all worked out in the end.

I’ve disguised this review of D-TOX Rockfest 2012 in the form of a list of 5 reasons why you should go. Hopefully I do the event justice. If not, the our video certainly does.

No.5 The Town Is Transformed

Montebello, Quebec, is a quaint little village on the western edge of the Canadian province. The village rests on just over 3-square miles and boasts a population of just over 1,000 citizens, which seems to consist of mostly retirees. You’d think they’d be pissed off at such a ruckus event taking over their town, but they’re not. In fact, they embrace it by rolling out their barbecues, stoves, coolers, and more to sell food and drink to the famished horde. They don’t even seem to mind tents being pitched on their lawn or broken glass on their main drag. In a way, it feels like a really cool family reunion.

No.4 No Drunk Driving

Yeah, no one likes a drunk behind the wheel. D-TOX Rockfest is a two-day event, and as mentioned above the town welcomes campers. There’s no reason to get in your car and attempt to drive home after a day of drinking cheap beer and eating greasy food in the hot, blistering sun. Besides, if you left, you’d be the only patron who didn’t smell like he slept in a dumpster the night before and took a beer/sweat shower in the morning.

While we’re talking about the drinking, let’s mention that within Montebello (outside the Rockfest grounds) there is a police presence, but they’re tolerant. Open container? No problem. Publicly intoxicated? No problem, just have friends to take care of you and don’t be a total dick. Also, drink a beer from the corner store before entering the fest grounds (or pay a visit during a band’s set that you don’t want to see), it’ll save you a few dollars. Still, beer prices on site was reasonable.

No.3 The Scene

D-TOX Rockfest has a great party vibe about it. We typically go to metal events where patrons are gruff and sour, taking their scene very seriously. At D-TOX Rockfest, there’s a lot of punk, and as such the fans seem to have a lot more fun, dancing, singing, partying, whatever. The vibe is just different.

While there was an abundance of manboob, there were enough sexy tattooed chicks to avert our eyes from such unseeable disturbances. There was also, on both nights, a team of fire performers doing their acrobatic stuff. Fun, right? We did have the chance to witness a first for our eyes (though the bands performing at the time were equally impressed and surprised), on both days no less, and I can only attribute this to punk rock craziness. What am I talking about? Crowd surfers in wheelchairs! I don’t know if I’ll ever see that again. Wonder if they sustained their injuries that put them in a wheel chair in a mosh pit?

There’s also an abundance of food vendors, the beer is reasonably priced, lots of merch stands (including Iron Fist), signing booths, lots of shaded areas to rest and recuperate (or get laid).

No.2 The Music

Why else does anyone go to a music festival? The music at the D-TOX Rockfest didn’t disappoint. With 3 stages, 2 days of music, and roughly 100 bands, you hardly had to walk far to find some ear noise. I’m not going to list all the bands, but some of the highlights include Good Riddance, As I Lay Dying, Bad Religion, Overbass (a surprisingly capable Quebec band, but they sing in French), Voivod, The Brains, Face to Face, The Exploited, GWAR, and Dream Theater. Wish we had gotten to the venue sooner to see Suicide Silence.

As you can see, D-TOX Rockfest has a predominantly punk scene, so it came as no surprise that hundreds of fest goers left the venue when Bad Religion completed their set on day one, before headliners KoRn hit the stage. Certainly KoRn was a big draw, but I don’t think they were the biggest.

No.1 You’ll Get Laid

Well, you may or may not, but there’s certainly opportunity to do so. Like I said, lot’s of hot tattooed chicks (fetish, anyone?), lots of shaded areas, lots of nooks and crannies behind trailers and food vendors. I know it’s not Woodstock, but c’mon, just about everything else is tolerated at the D-TOX Rockfest, so why not public sex. While our minds are on sex, what the hell happened to girls flashing their tits at concerts? We miss you.

Rock Hard \m/