Sonic Temple 2023
Columbus, Ohio — A weekend of kings watching kings
Tool, Deftones, Puscifer, KISS, and the emotional return of the Foo Fighters made Sonic Temple 2023 one of the most memorable rock festival weekends in recent memory
In 2023 I made the pilgrimage to Sonic Temple Festival in Columbus, Ohio, a city that sits at a strange intersection of music history.
The home of The Shawshank Redemption. And the place where Dimebag Darrell was murdered on stage.
Rock history lives there in strange ways.
Sonic Temple is a multi day festival run by the same people behind Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky and Aftershock in Sacramento, California. They know how to run a rock festival. The logistics are tight, the lineup is massive, and the crowds show up ready to lose their voices.
This particular trip, I decided to be a little gluttonous.
Instead of roughing it like a normal festival rat, I splurged on the top tier VIP package. The kind where the financial damage happens up front, but after that everything becomes smooth sailing: free food, free drinks, shaded lounges, and comfortable seats for all three days.
It was wildly expensive.
And absolutely worth it.
Three days of rock and roll with unlimited food and drinks.
That is not a festival.
That is rock and roll aristocracy.
But the real reason I was there was the lineup.
For one weekend some of my favorite bands were all sharing the same bill: Tool, Puscifer, and Deftones, along with bucket list acts I had somehow never seen like KISS and Rob Zombie.
And then there was the big one.
Foo Fighters.
This would be their first major show back after the devastating death of drummer Taylor Hawkins. For a while there was real doubt about whether the band would even continue.
Then the announcement came.
Josh Freese.
For people who follow drummers, that name carries serious weight.
Freese is arguably one of the greatest modern rock drummers alive. His résumé reads like a crash course in alternative music history: Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle, Devo, The Vandals, Weezer, and studio sessions for more records than anyone can reasonably keep track of.
If rock music needed a utility player who could walk into any band and immediately deliver at the highest level, Josh Freese was always the answer.
He also happens to be responsible for some of the funniest Instagram posts on the internet.
So the math worked out like this.
A Perfect Circle drummer.
Playing with a childhood favorite band.
At a festival where Tool and Puscifer were also performing.
I didn’t really have a choice.
I had to be there.
Day One — Tool
The weekend began with Tool. They played what you could call their bread and butter set, but when the bread and butter includes songs like Stinkfist, 46 and 2, and The Pot, nobody complains. They also played Invincible, which has one of the best live breakdowns of any modern rock song.
As someone whose creative life has been heavily shaped by that band, I’ll just admit it plainly.
They were great.
Maynard James Keenan had noticeably high energy that night, possibly fueled by the knowledge that one of his favorite bands, KISS, would be playing the same weekend. The band sounded tight, confident, and locked into the sound they have spent decades refining.
Day Two — Rob Zombie
Day two kicked off with Rob Zombie, a performer I had somehow never seen live.
You get exactly what you expect musically: Living Dead Girl, Dragula, the hits.
But the real attraction is the stage show.
Giant robots. Alien monsters. A full B movie horror circus happening behind the band.
I do wish they had waited until dark for the set because the visuals would have been even better, but seeing Rob Zombie headbang next to a giant robot on stage is still something I’m glad I got to witness.
Puscifer
Next came Puscifer, Maynard’s wonderfully strange side project.
They were touring on Existential Reckoning, and the show might be one of the most theatrical live performances in modern rock. The entire set feels like performance art mixed with satire.
Synchronized dancers. Aliens. Men in Black style characters appearing throughout the show.
And at the center of it all is Carina Round.
Her voice floats above the chaos with a haunting beauty that feels almost otherworldly. Watching her perform live adds a whole new dimension to the music. There is a grace and intensity to her presence that pulls the entire show into a different emotional space.
Puscifer is something Tool cannot be.
Where Tool is disciplined and intense, almost sacred in its seriousness, Puscifer is playful, sensual, theatrical, and strange. It allows Maynard to explore places musically and emotionally that Tool simply cannot reach.
It is satire. It is melody. It is performance art.
And somehow it still sounds incredible live.
KISS
Then came KISS.
A band I never thought I really needed to see live.
Until I saw them live.
Suddenly I felt like I had stepped directly into the movie Detroit Rock City.
Gene Simmons was doing the full Gene Simmons routine: spitting blood, wagging that enormous tongue, breathing fire like some ancient demon summoned directly from the seventies.
Paul Stanley, still somehow half rock god and half motivational speaker, flew across the crowd on a zipline while delivering speeches about the eternal power of rock and roll.
It was theatrical. Absurd. Completely over the top.
And I am very glad I got to see it before they finally shut the whole machine down.
But the strangest moment of the night happened off to the side of the stage.
Standing there quietly.
Watching.
Maynard James Keenan.
Watching one of your favorite singers watch his favorite singer is a strange experience. Watching a person who influenced you watch the person who influenced them.
A spiral.
Very Tool.
Deftones
Next came the Deftones, arguably one of the greatest bands ever.
Earlier in the day I had the chance to go backstage and briefly meet a few of the guys, including Steph Carpenter. His calm, relaxed demeanor stands in perfect contrast to how crushingly heavy the band can sound.
Deftones live on this cliff edge between brutal heaviness and melodic beauty.
They’ve been occupying space in my ears since I was about fourteen years old. They are a band I have lived a lot of life alongside.
They’ve never been a massive radio band the way some of the other festival acts were. They never relied on a string of huge mainstream hits.
And yet they still draw massive crowds.
Because their fans know every word.
Soft songs. Heavy songs.
Does not matter.
Deftones feel like something sacred.
Like they belong to the fans.
Not the industry.
Ours.
Day Three — Foo Fighters
Finally it was time.
Foo Fighters.
The album The Colour and the Shape practically lived in my CD player during middle school, but the band toured so constantly that I always assumed I would eventually see them somewhere by accident.
Then Taylor Hawkins died.
And suddenly I realized I had made a mistake.
I had passed up dozens of chances to see them.
I had accepted the possibility that I might never see the Foo Fighters.
Then came the announcement.
They were coming back.
Starting with Sonic Temple.
And behind the drum kit would be Josh Freese.
An odd pairing on paper.
But an exciting one.
The band launched into their set with the energy of a group reclaiming something. They have so many radio hits that even if you have never listened to a Foo Fighters album front to back, you still know half the songs.
But I was there for three moments.
My Hero.
Performed first with just guitar as a dedication to radio legend Matt Pinfield, standing on the side stage. Quiet at first, then slowly building until the band exploded exactly when the emotion demanded it.
Then Monkey Wrench, an older hit with massive harmonies and one of those choruses that thousands of people can scream together without missing a word.
The nostalgia monster was eating well.
And then the moment I had been waiting for.
Everlong.
One of the greatest songs of the modern era. A song I had waited nearly thirty years to hear live.
And when it finally happened, it was everything I hoped it would be.
Everlong is haunting. Beautiful. Complicated.
A love song.
And somehow also a goodbye.
Standing there hearing it live, after everything that band had gone through, carried a weight far beyond the music.
It was magic.
The Weekend
The entire weekend was pure self indulgence.
And I did not feel guilty about it for a second.
I had worked hard. I bought the ticket. And for three days I lived like rock and roll royalty.
Great seats. Backstage access. Free food and drinks.
My favorite bands playing one after another.
I watched the kings of rock perform.
And at times I watched the kings of rock watch the kings who came before them.
There was something cyclical about the whole experience. Artists inspiring artists. Generations passing the torch. Influence spiraling outward.
It was a strange and perfect weekend.
Exactly what I wanted it to be.
If you enjoyed this festival write-up, there’s more where this came from.
Read more field notes from the road and the pit.
• When We Were Young Festival 2023 — Las Vegas
A chaotic emo reunion that almost got blown away by the wind.
• Tool at the Sphere — Las Vegas
Danny Carey talks about the future of the band and the possibility of a new album.
• Artist Spotlight — Jacob Roanhaus
A conversation about Tool posters, creature creation, and the strange places art can take you.
Written by Kris West
Spiral Out Podcast
www.spiraloutpodcast.com
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