Event: Inkcarceration 2023
Dates: Friday July 14th through Sunday July 16th
Venue: Ohio St. Reformatory in Mansfield Ohio
Headliners: Limp Bizkit, Pantera, Slipknot

My first Inkcarceration Festival. I must start this one off with a not one of my finer moments’ stories. Like I said this was my first Ink trip, I had only ever been to Blue Ridge and we stayed in a hotel, so this was also my first Camping experience at a festival. I was told the way to go was show up Thursday and get camp all set up, then you can party that night and be ready for day one of the festival. Getting into camping was a breeze, they really didn’t even check that much stuff. The whole process took me maybe 10 minutes from arrival until I got to my actual camp spot. Camping was neat, you had a stage set up type deal which was right next to the cafeteria that also housed the showers. The Camp Store featured your necessities like towels, combs and most stuff you’d need to help you along the weekend. I really enjoyed the set up. Now, remember I mentioned that “Not so great moment”? The Pre Party on Thursday night turned into me damn near ruining the whole weekend. I’m going to blame it on the alcohol, even though it was 100% my fault. I had too much, plain and simple. It happens, it’s not a big deal but when I had too much, I had TOO MUCH. Here’s all you need to know. I was wearing my Ugly Kid Joe shirt (that’s going to come up again) and I partied w/ people I do not recall, wandered around the campgrounds aimlessly and needed a security person to help me find my tent because I had no idea where it was. In my defense, the campgrounds were huge and it’s possible that it would have taken me awhile to find my spot sober, but I digress. So, at whatever time it was I stumble into my tent. By the way, it’s too small. My air mattress I purchased takes up the entire tent. I was not a pro at this. I find myself awake around 9:00AM. I’m feeling very very rough, naturally.

I’m now hung over in the hot sun staring at three roughly 11 hour days of heavy metal music. Maybe I should go later in the afternoon I tell myself. No, Vended opens the main stage and I really want to see them. I mean they play at 11:55AM so I’d have to get my ass in gear and to the bus by like 11:15 just in case because I have no clue how long it’ll take the bus, nor how big the place is for me to navigate so I want to leave myself some time because if I’m going over this early I don’t want to fuck up and miss Vended. The bus was super quick, my stomach wasn’t a huge fan of the ride but luckily it wasn’t a long trip. Rolling up on the site is pretty surreal as you see the whole thing really. It’s almost overwhelming the first time. In a very good way. You see the Yard stage, the prison and glimpses of the redemption stage as well as many vendors. It makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or maybe that was just knowing the ride was over and my guts would settle a bit, hopefully. At any rate I did arrive in plenty of time and started my day at The Yard seeing exactly who I intended on. VENDED has been called a lot of things, but bad is not one of them. They absolutely have a sound to their own, though yes vocalist Griffin does resemble his father Corey of Slipknot but that is where the comparisons end in my opinion. Oh well, we could compare the fact that they both have incredible live shows but Vended is a bit more low key in your face if you will. The band blasted through a scorching 30 minute set that opened the main stage perfectly. Ironically his dad will be closing the same stage on Sunday night.

Griffin Taylor of Vended opening up the Main stage at Inkcarceration 2023

I did head over to the Inked stage to catch a bit of A KILLERS CONFESSION. Them being from Ohio and being a good band of course they had a real solid crowd for so early in the day. I’ll admit I had a bug up my ass about them and though they looked cool I was a bit disappointed in the new masks as it seemed like Mushroomhead light to me. I understand Waylon was a huge part of the head but, I don’t know I just liked his painted face thing more. The band kills it live though every time, that I won’t argue. Back to the Yard for MOTHICA. I had heard one song by them and really enjoyed it but man they really did something for me live. I was super impressed. They were a highlight of the day for me. The band Kublai Khan was supposed to perform at the event but was announced as not able to a few weeks prior but this was the spot they’d have played on the inked stage. How cool it would have been to see them that early in the day. Anyway, the next big band up was HATEBREED. I challenge you to find a more consistent band live then these guys. They go through all the hits like set opener “To the Threshold”, “Live for This”, “Destroy Everything” and closer “I Will be heard”. Pure adrenaline at 99 miles per hour these guys are every single time. Vocalist Jamey Jasta screaming and smiling his way through the set. The dust was flying high from the mosh pits during Hatebreeds set as it always is. I took a few breaks on this day because, well you know hung over and such. So I didn’t see every single band or anything, but I do remember around this portion of the day I was dragging ass already.

Side note: it was around now that I started getting people coming up to me and saying, “hey Ugly kid joe shirt, how are you feeling today”?? This happened at least 10-15 times throughout the weekend. I recognized not one person and did not recall one second of seeing them before. Apparently, I made a real ass of myself the night before at the campground. Thankfully they all seemed to enjoy it. Next up on the Yard was one of the bands I had been really looking forward to as it was a reunion of types for COAL CHAMBER. The band had been dormant for awhile and made their return to the big stage right here. The familiar sounds of the “Halloween” Theme song came over the crowd and then They opened w/ “Loco” and were off to the races right away. The Nu Metal early 2000’s legends blasted through 11 songs and included “Sway”, “Big Truck”, “Fiend” and “Oddity”. They had not missed one beat as they had the audience in the palm of their hands the entire 50 minutes or so.

This was the portion of the day that last night really hit me and I took a real slow approach to the next hour or two. I decided to go lay down a bit inside the VIP Tent while Suicide Silence played on the inked stage. I was able to catch them on the big screen inside the tent which is kind of neat knowing that insane show your watching is happening right outside. I relaxed still while Highly Suspect played on the Yard stage. They are a band I just don’t get the vibe of on a metal festival. To each their own and I do love that one song which is always super fun to hear live but other than that it was nursing my wounds time. It was also around now that I had spoken to my wife and she suggested I just go back to the campground and relax and recharge for day 2. I said I cannot do that, to which she replied, “why not” and then the answer: “because it’s Bizkit night”. The cool part is she knew exactly what that meant and I will say that if it was any other day of the festival I probably would have gone back to my camp site for the night, but I couldn’t let ole Freddy D down, could I? There was still a bit of business to attend to before the Limp train took the stage. P.O.D. were the headliners on the Inked stage. I feel like they are overlooked as nobody seems to talk about them all that much but damn do they put on a show. They ripped through “Southtown”, “Youth of a Nation”, “Alive” and more. From my recollection they were given a few extra minutes as well. So that closed down the Inked stage and we still had two more acts for the day. First up was a band I had never seen live: VOLBEAT. I went way up on the hill to watch them and it was a sight to see. The Danish, rock and metal band really hypes up the crowd with their performance. “The Devils Bleeding Crown”, “Seal the Deal” and set high light “Lola Montez”. Absolutely ripped. Sitting up on the hill was awesome to because seeing them from afar allowed me to see the full set and production. I recommend seeing these guys live for sure. Now came the unusually long wait for the Best band in the land. After about 40 minutes a dude in a big white afro wig came onstage and started asking questions. Smelling some marijuana he said. He then kicked right into “Dad Vibes” with his faithful DJ Lethal. Upon completion of that the rest of the band took the stage and Limp Bizkit started the set off with their signature cover of “Thieves'” by Ministry. Stopping it in the middle to make sure every single person in the place “got the fuck up”. They did, from front to back everyone I saw was jumping.

Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit closes off Night 1 of Inkcarceration 2023 .