Can’t anyone keep a secret anymore?
Apparently not.
The powers that be behind this year’s Kanrocksas music fest at the Kansas Speedway doled out its lineup in advance to trusted media sources…with the explicit understanding that mum was the word until 9 a.m. Friday.
In public relations parlance Kanrocksas was trying to “embargo” the news about its lineup Fat chance.
Who plays by those rules anymore?
Certainly not USA Today which broke Kanrocksas embargo at 12:01 a.m. last night.
And not the Star‘s Tim Finn who unleashed Kanrocksas early threesome of bands hours ahead of that embargo several weeks back.
How does one keep 60 bands a secret anyway?
For example, as reported only on KC Confidential weeks ago we revealed that Fun and MGMT were two of the biggies coming to Kanrocksas. But nobody swore us to secrecy on those, we got em the old-fashioned way…CIA intelligence work.
The bulk of Kanrocksas lineup was revealed at a invitation only Kanrocksas announcement bash Thursday night at the Czar Bar in downtown Kansas City.
From there advance ticket buyers learned that the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grouplove, Passion Pit and Imagine Dragons were on the bill.
I’ll leave most of the music lineup analysis to Matt Donnelly, but at first blush it looks like a solid lineup with a few notable deficiencies.
Such as no real, big time, knock-your-socks-off, heavy hitter headliners. That and a handful of acts that might have bolstered the bill – acts like the Lumineers (coming to Sandstone for The Buzz), Of Monsters and Men, Band of Horses and Modest Mouse. Or how about a couple of classics like Violent Femmes and OMD?
Word on the street is more – but not many more – acts may yet be announced.
In any case here’s Kanrocksas lineup to date. Enjoy.
Tiësto
Fun.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Passion Pit
MGMT
Kendrick Lamar
The Avett Brothers
Pretty Lights
Imagine Dragons
Miguel
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
She & Him
Empire of the Sun
Sublime with Rome
Zeds Dead
Descendents
Baauer
Grouplove
Rusko
Dropkick Murphys
Machine Gun Kelly
Son Volt
T-Pain
Borgore
Grimes
Yeasayer
A-Trak
ZZ Ward
Flosstradamus
Trinidad James
Danny Brown
Hopsin
Clockwork
Action Bronson
Mimosa
Robert DeLong
Killer Mike
Polyphonic Spree
Delta Rae
The Knocks
Three Loco
Congorock
Savoy (live)
Destructo
Manufactured Superstars
twenty one pilots
Blondfire
Churchill
Camera Obscura
Low Riderz
Anna Lunoe
Family of the Year
Aer
Air Dubai
Caitlin Rose
Empires
Langhorne Slim
The Floozies
Beautiful Bodies
Quiet Corra
LOL. Awful.
Woweewow Zippy! For a festival that wants to compete with Coachella and Bonnaroo this is not a very impressive line up. Kinda like shopping for used cars on the Miracle Mile, Noland Road, in Independence.
You guys are old
Eh, if they made it $45 for a one day ticket I might buy one day depending on hoe the schedule stacks up.
I don’t think they are necessarily trying to compete with Coachella and Bonnaroo. After all, those are festivals in different locations on different dates. Bonnaroo is in Tennessee on June 13-16, Coachella is April 12-14 and April 19-21 in California. Unless you are implying that the same group of people are going to choose between going to only one of the three as some kind of destination vacation, I don’t see the competition. Most of Kanrocksas attendees will likely be coming from the KC area. After all, the Speedway is not really camping vacation destination. It’s just a big open field, so unless you have an RV, there is not much in the way of fun “camping.” There are some artists here that I like and would be interested in seeing. I think day tickets would be a smart idea for folks who want to go home who live in the area. Hopefully, the attendance will be up this year and it will actually be profitable. It’s always good to have more music and new things to do in the KC area. I just wish the venue was in a cooler place for camping, like by a lake like Wakarusa used to be.
At the initial press coference two years ago +/-, Bill Brandmeyer said, (and I paraphrase), that he wanted Kanrocksas to become a destination festival like Bonnaroo and Coachella that bands wanted to play and fans wanted to go to.
Kudos for the lofty goal but you can’t buy or make something “cool” just because you want to. There has to be some organic vibe and mojo. A trust fund baby and a NASCAR Speedway lack both.
Is it wrong that I’m in my late twenties and don’t give a shit for a single band or performer posted on this line-up? Guess I’m finally old.
Tiesto and Dropkick Murphys are awesome. The only issue is that both those acts come to KC regularly on their own and play a 2+ hour set for 75 bucks.
So is it worth $190 plus service charges to see this? It is like the higher cost of education—most people going didn’t buy their own ticket so they could charge $400 it wouldn’t matter.
I’ll consider it.
BTW if anyone is interested Soundgarden tickets just went on sale at the midland this morning, $55.
fell on black days…
There’s more musical talent in Soundgarden than the entire Kansucksass lineup.
None of those groups represent true rock and roll. So the word rock should be taken out of the event’s title.
Rumors circulating that Kanrocksas will be cancelled at some point.