All Music Magazine traveled to Sturgis, South Dakota to cover the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally 2020 and Music Festival. Correspondent Mark Horan of MarkHoran.Pictures LLC covered four days of music at the worlds largest biker bar, Full Throttle Saloon. With VIP access all week granted by Full Throttle Saloon as on the guest list as photographer for the venues two house bands, Lynch Mob and Blandini, Mark was also able to cover all bands on the main stage. Checkout AllMusicMagazine.com for all the days coverage.
First up that night on the main stage was South of Eden (Formally Black Coffee) which consist of Ehab Omran on vocals, Justin Young lead Guitar, Nick Frantianne bass, and Tommy McCullough on drums. South of Eden boasts they are “Just a bunch of hippies in a room”. The mantra of the band is that they are genuine and raw with all of the members being songwriters thus bringing southern rock and contemporary country together. They were good and warmed up the crowd to start the evening.
Next on the big stage was Blandini. “Blandini” is Jeff Blando lead guitar and vocals (Slaughter, Vince Neil) Paul Drennan on bass (Lynch Mob, Three Forks Road) and Will Hunt on drums (Lynch Mob, Evanescence, Black Label Society). I have seen quite a few Blandini performances but not on a stage this size or with a crowd this large. They definitely were up for the challenge. This is not surprising as their main bands always perform in front of thousands of fans, so to them this show was no big deal. You could see a different energy and they were a different band than what I had witnessed earlier in the week on the small inside stage.
Jeff Blando the vocalist and front man played to the crowd like I’d never see before. He was engaging and played a monster lead guitar. The set consisted of covers from Ted Nugent, Ronnie James Dio, Led Zeppelin, and even Peter Frampton.
Blandini may be the best cover band in the world. They have done gigs in the past year backing famous front men like Dee Snyder being Twisted Sister, Mark Slaughter being Slaughter, Jesse James Dupree being Jackyl, and Sebastian Bach therefore being Skin Row for corporate events. These are incredible musicians and always put on a great shows in any setting, a small bar or a large festival.
This night’s headliner was Jackyl. Jackyl has released 13 albums over the past 30 years. They own two Guinness world records; one for playing 100 concerts in 50 days, and the other one for performing 21 concerts in a 24-hour period. This is a hard working band and the crowd was extremely excited to see them on the main stage. Jackyl members are Jesse James Dupree lead vocals, Guitar, and Gas Chainsaw; Jeff Worley lead guitar; Roman Glick bass guitar; and Chris Worley on drums.
For a fun show, Jackyl brings in in spades. The highlight was the song everyone comes to see complete with the chainsaw solo by Jesse is”Lumberjack“. Chances are Jackyl will be playing a festival near you in the future, so get out and see this band!
Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.