The Mountain Music Festival is a semi-annual event held in the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg, Tennessee that had been previously known as Monsters on the Mountain as it is brought to fans by the same people who host the Monster of Rock Cruise. The Monster family reunion took place the weekend of August 23, 2024 this year with the two-day event taking place on August 24 and 25. The festival was kicked off with a pre-party that grew from an intimate gathering to an event almost as large as the festival itself.
And, for those lucky enough to start the weekend even earlier, an unofficial gathering was hosted by Scott Courtwright and held at Jason Aldean’s restaurant giving fans a chance to catch up with each other before the main event.
Sadly, we missed the Thursday evening reunion as we were given a rental car with a different agenda that turned our scenic eight hour travel day into well over thirteen hours of travel hell. But, sometime after 1am on Friday morning, we arrive in Gatlinburg to quiet streets and heart warming accommodations just up the road from the Gatlinburg Convention Center where the festivities would soon begin!
VIP check-in began in the afternoon with shopping in the rock market and a live Eddie Trunk radio show to soon follow. I started my Friday early helping direct our VIP guests to pick up their goodies and answer as many questions as I could before spotting my first “monster” at the Soto & Bieler show in the ballroom’s Summit stage. It is always good to expect the unexpected whenever Jeff Scott Soto and Jason Bieler are given a stage and an audience. We truly do have them to thank for getting us kicked out of the dry town of Pigeon Forge and uprooting the festival to the much more accomodating Gatlinburg.
So, what do you do to top flipping off Christmas, one may ask…well, apparently just after the media have stepped back from shooting the third song, let’s just say that Jason’s zipper came down and someone was trying to reenact an event of Olympic proportion (and yes, we caught it on video)! Oh, and they also performed some of our favorite Saigon Kick and songs from Jeff’s extensive catalog, along with some odd covers that only make sense to them as always. And, what’s this we hear now about SOTO Kick? That sounds like quite a party! I guess these two just weren’t spending enough time together.
Stoney Curtis started things off on the creekside stage that night, but we didn’t get a chance to capture the action. And then, the evening continued with more puns or buns as the story goes, when Mac Sabbath delivered up some of their favorite fast food humor on the Creekside stage in the convention hall. Those who weren’t familiar with the fast-food bashing ensemble of metal parody, found themselves asking if this was a joke…I guess they just didn’t read the menu or catch the twisted lyrics delivered by the mischievous frontman Ronald Osborne from behind his grill.
I unexpectedly found myself in the splash zone, but still enjoyed capturing the antics of the Ronald as he fried up some rubber chickens while Slayer MacCheeze (guitar), Grimalice (bass) and the Cat Burglar (drums) rocked on to the tunes of Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and KISS with a side of french fried humor.
The evening continued on with some much needed straight-edge rock ‘n roll straight out of Memphis with Tora Tora. While sound issues were a challenge early on by the time we got “Amnesia” we’d forgotten about the feedback and couldn’t help but sing along. Some felt these guys got robbed, but we were lucky enough to get an encore from frontman Anthony Corder who performed an acoustic set the following day.
Wig Wam took the stage soon after on the creekside stage which could be found just to the right of the mountain stage where Tora Tora played allowing for a quick change-over between bands. Sadly sound issues continued in the middle of “Wig Wamania” and they had to cut their set short by a couple songs, but our Norwegian friends made the most of it. They put on one hell of a show and could be seen all weekend having a blast meeting their fans. In fact, both Wig Wam and Great White gathered for a photo experience that day where fans could get a professional photo to download after the festival included with their admission.
Those looking to have a drink, get some fresh air, and listen to a new artist could be found on The Terrace checking out an acoustic set from the Gavin Evick Band. Fronted by Gavin Evick with Gavin Hades and Logan Blake on guitar and Steven Saints on percussion, the band performed a mix of originals along with covers from Skid Row, Ratt, Quiet Riot, and others. And while we missed their second acoustic set, their most memorable performance was at the fully electric all-star jam on Sunday evening.
We returned to the mountain stage for the final show of the night with Great White where the largest crowd of the day gathered beyond the area designated for the show. Despite being a pre-party the VIP area which was segregated from the rest of the general admission crowd was already quite full. It was mostly standing room with a row of seats in the rear allowing fans to rest. And a catwalk split the crowd allowing many a chance at a “front row” view. The general admission crowd postured for a spot on the barrier and filled the seats and the aisles while other VIPs took advantage of the view from the upstairs VIP lounge which offered up chairs and snacks and a great view of the show from a distance.
It was a full day of fun by the time Great White ended things with their biggest hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” but for many, that was not where the evening ended. Some made a stop on the Terrace for Karaoke, but the majority who wanted to stay out later, walked over to the nearby Shamrock’s for some karaoke and drinks, and while I had hoped to say a quick hello and have a nice relaxing wind down at my hotel, it seemed that wasn’t in the cards.
We’d heard and seen videos of bear sightings at the two previous festivals, and even learned some things about bear activity from park rangers in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but I had yet to see one. That was, until that Friday night, when I decided to walk home from the bar alone. Thankfully, some of my friends were across the street and warned me of the visitor at the Super 8. He seemed far away, so I got out my zoom lense before finding myself walking backwards with a crowd as this big guy decided to cross the street and pay us a visit!
Dare I say that I got so accustomed to seeing bears that weekend, that I was no longer surprised by Sunday evening when another crossed my path. But on Friday, we were all cussing and yelling and thankful to have made it back to our rooms safely. So, as you can see, they weren’t joking when they told us there’d be monsters on the mountain!
Continue reading our recap from the official first day of the festival which featured Joan Jett as the headliner.
Coverage by Editor and founderKara Marie Uhrlen on 9/11/2024. All event photos © Kara Uhrlen and The Pure Rock Shop.
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