Review: Rockin' Thunder fest literally lives up to its name

Saturday's lineup featured Three Days Grace, Bif Naked, Grandson and more at Edmonton's Exhibition Lands Racetrack

But these are strange, stormy times, where adaptation to twitching Mother Nature is just a thing — and so it was the second-annual iteration of this open-air, radio-rock fest carrying the torch of many an EdgeFest and Sonic Boom before it turned out to the loveliest of nights, culminating with a banger show by Three Days Grace. Local punk-pop heroes Calling All Captains were pushed off their opening slot by the biblical deluge, which meant ever-lovely national treasure Bif Naked opened the weekend an impressive mere 10 minutes late, given the flood chaos.

Citing her first gig here at The Bronx back in 1990 playing with Gorilla Gorilla, Naked noted, “It was the thrill of a lifetime, but I was a disappointment to my parents like so many of you,” she laughed, exchanging cute jabs with her guardian angel bass player Peter Karoll. “She’s had three marriages,” he noted, she slapping back with, “It was an accident!” After dedicating Lucky to nurses, she tied for the day’s banter, yelling, “Don’t look at my bum!’

walking up the thrust ramp. And her classic, singalong Spaceman had me smiling, daydreaming of David Bowie, wrapping up with I Love Myself Today. Love you (and, ok, myself), Bif – never change!

Next up was an early festival peak: New-Jersey-born Canadian rapper grandson, who immediately showed who he was, saying hello to the crowd with an articulate takedown of just-praised gambling site co-sponsoring the fest, growling with a grin at the harm gambling does to young men. It was glorious, and the set that followed was a thing to behold, a series of viciously spot-on, energized bangers like We Did It!!! Bells of War and the amazing God is an Animal: “Give me damnation to hit the top of the food chain.”

Damn! His lyrical acumen was tight all over, including on Stigmata, which he sung with Rage Against the Machine energy in the style of a Telepod blending of Bugs Bunny and Betty Boop, saluting the queer and immigrant communities and throwing a furious missile at Alberta’s wretched Bill 25, grandson got the day’s only mosh pits going, noting, “We are happy to bring these resistance songs to your home.” But all of this with a keen sense of humour, including asking us, “Make some noise if you have no idea what the f— is going on right now!”

It was seriously amazing, the four-piece, all-in-black rockers especially killing it for the explosive cover of Bob Dylan’s Masters of War, saving the best for last on Blood // Water, pit back and circulating. Legendary show, merch sold out fast, damn it. As the awesome site crew kept literally brooming water away from the pathways, next up with the band responsible for all the cowboy books and Daisy Dukes out there (though not outnumbering Ride the Lightning T-shirts), The Glorious Sons.

Kingston, Ontario’s next big things with some very Hip guitar now and then but more of a rockin’ Springsteen-y aura, these guys showed off the genre diversity of this year’s fest. They could literally play any festival, including Big Valley Jamboree, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, or even Edmonton Cat Festival, thanks to a bunch of late-set yowling. Really amazing lyrics, delivered in a pretty straightforward southern rock style, the six-piece’s 19 songs were shoehorned in by John Denver’s Country Roads, singer Brett Emmons asking, “You ready to party?”

Thumper Panic attack got things juiced up three songs in, and The Ongoing Speculation into the Death of Rock and Roll was a sizzling country rocker, Emmons smashing his head back away from the mic now and then, both he and his guiatrist brother Jay performing barefoot. Mercy Mercy has some two-stepping happening in contarst to grandson’s mosh pit, and My Poor Heart was delightfully gospelly, tired of being along, looking for a little more sleep. Feelings anthem White Noise had the beautifully-written Spirit to Break follow, then the highway-revving Hardest Drug set the stage for a few songs about that by Three Days Grace later.

Emmons noted Lean On My Love came out of a home-town bowling alley fight, while the pure country Mama (including “down by the river” in the lyrics), saw the singer chewing on the harmonica for a bit. Kill the Lights had the best lyrics of the entire day: “We can’t f— tonight, I work a double tomorrow, and Emmons got to a little Axl Rose caterwauling for you Stay Young and even more so on Everything Is Alright, surely the day’s mantra. Calling All Captains did a killer make-up performance to a decent crowd on the side stage, then opening with Dominate and the singalong Animal I Have Become, the two-lead-singer outfit Three Days Grace put on a hell of a show, a terrific demonstration of reconciliation.

As original singer Adam Gontier and his onetime replacement Matt Walst traded off singing duties, I smiled and noted this is like having two pairs of boots resulting in both lasting longer. Dressed like as if the Marvel Cinematic Universe had a superhero team of emo rockers, I Am Machine got things scary and industrial to fit our horrifying AI Era, which also fit in with Gontier’s literal Terminator arm as a mic stand. The first band with an active screen behind them as the sun slowly set, the thrashy-jangly Pain led into Gontier reciting the band’s history, including, “In 2013, I left the band.”

The crowd booed and the co-singer shook his head, “F—in’ happens every time.” The Mountain (a very good workout song), led to probably my favourite song of the entire day, Kill Me Fast, and utter “if you know, you know” heartbreak song. Next up, surely nicely timed for some, I Hate Everything About You, which Gontier noted was the “anthem for a lot of breakups, a lot of divorces, a lot of jail sentences.”

The fist-pounding, cathartic release of anger accompanied by so many smiles was such an interesting thing to be inside of, this same gritty energy on deck later in the night for Just Like You right after World So Cold, which hit exactly as the sun set at 9:58 p.m. Walst’s awesome Painkiller (not Judas Priest’s) saw pills and drugs on the screen, then the singalong Never Too Late and finally Riot, Gontier bringing his young son out on stage to hold the Terminator arm, which accidentally summoned all those millions of mosquitos hanging out in the new ponds at the haunted racetrack.

Beautifully, Calling all Captains played another set as everyone made their way out the gates. Honestly, after Def Leppard, Joan Jett and Weezer last year I wondered how 2026 would hold a candle. But with a less stratified ’80s metal vs. ’90s indie setup than last year, Rockin’ Thunder’s torch is burning brightly.

Just feel free to bring rubber boots and a raincoat, and maybe two of every kind of animal; you never know. The festival continues Sunday with Paul Langlois, Buckcherry, Mammoth and Creed. You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber.

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