What opening day at new Huntsville music festival South Star was like

South Star’s opening day had plenty excuses to suck.

The new Huntsville music festival’s John Hunt Park grounds were muddy from several days of rain, the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Rain continued through much of the fest’s Saturday’s debut.

Alabama, of course, is a college football crazed state. On Saturday, the latest Game of The Century, a 6:30 p.m. showdown between Alabama and Georgia, overlapped with the sets of South Star’s three closing acts, pop star Gwen Stefani, rock band Shinedown and rapper Ludacris.

Also, kickoff for Auburn’s game against Oklahoma was 2:30 p.m., the same time South Star’s opening got pushed back to from a planned 1 p.m. open, so organizers could bring in truckloads of the same mulch-like mix baseball stadiums use for outfield warning tracks, to try to mitigate muddiness on the festival’s site.

Twelve days before legendary alt-rock band Jane’s Addiction’s scheduled South Star performance Saturday, one of the fest’s most appealing bookings, Jane’s canceled the remainder of their reunion tour, after an instantly viral onstage altercation between band members.

Despite all that, South Star’s opening day came nowhere close to sucking.

The fest presented a strong day of live music to an all-things-considered solid turnout, which looked to me around 17,000 to 20,000. Those fans arrived at South Star ready to have a good time, messy weather be damned. And a good time was most certainly had.

Unfortunately, day two of South Star’s debut wasn’t to be. Sunday at the festival was canceled that morning due to muddy conditions onsite. Sunday’s lineup was to have featured 10 acts including pop-punks blink-182, shapeshifting songsmith Beck, ska-rockers Sublime and, the lone north Alabama band performing at South Star, Billy Allen + The Pollies. It’s worth noting Louder Than Life — a four-day rock festival in Louisville featuring the likes of Slipknot, Slayer, Korn and Mötley Crüe — canceled its Friday shows due to weather.

Sure, South Star’s Sunday cancelation was a bummer. But Saturday was a real win for Huntsville as a market, building on groundwork laid by key recent additions, including Orion Amphitheater, Mars Music Hall and the Huntsville Music Office. South Star’s debut gave a glimpse at the bigtime festival C3 Productions, whose credits include Lollapalooza and Bonnaroo, is making reality in Huntsville.

THE ARRIVAL

Advance parking prices for South Star, which ranged from around $40 to $60 per day, raised eyebrows from seasoned music festival attendees. But free parking was also available about a mile away from the festival site, including at venerable Milton Frank Stadium, where I parked. From there, it was a 30-minute brisk walk in.

As fans who’ve been to medium to large festivals know, opening time entrance lines tend to be long, due to security. At around 2:45 p.m., I fell in at the back of the South Star line that stretched nearly to neighboring Joe Davis Stadium, before splitting into 12 or so lines in the field adjacent to the festival’s entrance. From there, took me about 30 minutes to get in.

Saturday’s opening band, Seattle rockers Candlebox started at 3 p.m. Often, if you’re caught waiting in line outside an outdoor concert after it starts, even if you can’t see the band from there you can at least hear them.

But Saturday outside South Star, a couple of dudes with headset mics, P.A. speakers and religious spiels obscured the sound coming out of the festival for those anxiously waiting in line to experience South Star. Candlebox’s tuneful grunge, forsaken and rebuked.

The last 15 minutes in line, things moved quicker. The staff I encountered at gate security were efficient and pleasant. OK, we’re in.

THE LAYOUT

The South Star layout featured two stages spread across a layout that looked roughly the size of a couple football stadiums. A grassy, muddy terrain. Reflecting Huntsville’s aerospace legacy, a rocket engine was on display, as well as a planetary sculpture with South Star’s logo.

The Supersonic Stage was straight ahead from the festival’s entrance. Across the way to the right on a slight downslope, the Camelia Stage. Big stages with video screens on each side of both stages.

In the middle of the festival, a row of food trucks, the merch tent and a paved golf cart width path going to the back. Across from the food trucks, a covered area with picnic tables for fans to consume ballast and find shelter from the precipitation.

On the way to Camelia Stage, a row of flushable portable toilets (a quietly revolutionary festival upgrade), and then closer to the stage, a galley of more food vendors selling tacos, barbecue, etc. There were a couple “hydration stations” on the festival’s perimeter for fans to refill water containers.

Back over to the left of the festival’s site, the Miller Lite All Star Sports Hall, an open-aired plus-sized sports bar with an earth floor underneath an airplane hangar roof, provided Auburn and Alabama fans at South Star a place to yell at two XL-sized screens.

THE MUSIC

Although I missed the opening of Candlebox’s Camelia Stage set, got to bask in “Far Behind,” the band’s Pearl Jam-meets-Skid Row signature hit. Singer Kevin Martin was howling and dialed in. Candlebox’s current lineup, anchored by B. J. Kirwin’s simpatico drumming, does the source text right.

Next, on the Supersonic Stage, were Gin Blossoms. One of the things that struck me about South Star’s artists are none are washed up. Vocals, music, performances — all still good.

During Gin Blossoms’ 3:45 p.m. set, singer Robin Wilson was in fine voice, and is deft with a tambourine, a dying art among rock throats. Songs like “Found Out About You” and “Hey Jealousy” displayed Gin Blossoms’ acumen for Tom Petty/Byrds jangle-pop.

Juvenile’s 4:30 p.m. set was fun and feisty. Back over at Camelia Stage, the New Orleans rapper and his slick 400 Degreez Band, turned a muddy field into a dance club. Juvenile’s gravely flow, and relatable rhymes shone on Cash Money Records classics like “Juvenile on Fire.” As he rapped his signature 1998 track “Back That Azz Up,” plumes of weed smoke rose above a gyrating mixed crowd of revelers. Even portly parents and skinny tweens in attendance couldn’t resist pantomiming Juvenile’s frisky lyrics. Many thousands of asses, both real and imaginary, were backed up.

My favorite set of the day? Hands down, Rage Against The Machine/Audioslave guitar hero Tom Morello’s 5:15 p.m. Supersonic Stage performance. Opening with excellent new solo single “Soldier in the Army of Love,” Morello and his tight, talented three-piece band immediately got the crowd head-bobbing. After that song, he quipped, “We’re Jane’s Addiction,” referencing Morello being brought-in to pinch hit for Jane’s after that band’s aforementioned implosion.

At South Star, whenever Morello launched into instrumental cover medleys of Rage thrash-funk gems — like “Testify/Take the Power Back/Freedom” — it sounded like a t. rex battling a triceratops. It also set the wet festival field on fire.

Morello’s son, longhaired Roman Morello, is a rad guitar sidekick for dad. Playing a three-pickup black Les Paul, Roman sliced out Black Sabbath style riffage like he’d just sold his soul to the Devil backstage. Roman also did an admirable job singing Chris Cornell’s parts, no easy feat, to Audioslave’s melancholic 2003 hit “Like a Stone.” As a black-and-white image of Cornell, who died in 2017, displayed on a screen behind the band, Morello’s interstellar guitar solo was especially poignant. You could tell he was connecting with Cornell in another realm.

Morello’s cover of MC5′s proto-punk classic “Kick Out the Jams” provided a more raucous tribute to another dearly departed friend, MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. Revolution guitars and call to arms lyrics lathered the crowd. There was also a twang-rock cover of “The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen, who Morello has also worked with. This version of the song, which Rage also covered, called to mind skyscraper-sized Drive-By Truckers.

Playing his iconic guitars, including that blue super-Strat scribbled with “ARM THE HOMELESS,” Morello unfurled his innovative techniques. Working his guitar’s toggle switches, working a slide and wah, and even unplugging his guitar cord and percussively smacking it against his other hand, Morello evoked a cyborg of Jimi Hendrix and Public Enemy turntablist Terminator X. During an instrumental run through Audioslave corker “Cochise,” his percussive technique built into the song’s explosive main theme. Supreme six-string wizardry.

When it came time for an extended guitar solo though, Morello showcased moodier playing, including an atmospheric interlude that called to mind Van Halen’s “Cathedral” before segueing to a slow blues that channeled Led Zeppelin’s “Since I’ve Been Loving You.”

Morello joking introduced his penultimate song as, and I’m paraphrasing here, “an old Alabama folk song you probably learned in school.” Not. The band launched into Rage Against The Machine’s headbanging “Killing in the Name,” the crowd chanting that song’s iconic “Now you do what they told ya” refrain. The set closed with a rocked-out rendition of John Lennon’s “More to the People.” The perfect adieu after an hour of fight-the-power, guitar-power.

The next set at South Star was by Atlanta rapper/actor/State Farm pitchman Ludacris. Backed by a DJ and sidekick rapper Lil Fate, Ludacris prowled the Camelia Stage wearing shades, earrings, Jordans and a chain that together probably cost several times more than my car. Ludacris’ flow is sleek, nimble and tuneful. His vocal tone, deep. Stage presence, charismatic and composed. The rhymes, clever.

The guy’s just a star, see his recent star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Ludacris’ South Star set highlights included “Welcome to Atlanta,” “Area Codes” (the intro of which shouted-out Huntsville’s 256)” and “Act a Fool.”

Would I have purchased tickets to a standalone Ludacris concert before this? Nope. But I might now because his South Star set was a jam. Ludacris is great at what he does, and I have a deeper appreciation of his music now after seeing him perform live. That’s one of the coolest things about a well-curated music festival like this. Good stuff fed to curious ears.

Likewise, I’ve never owned a TLC compact disc or cassette. But back in ‘90s when MTV was still music television and not reality television, TLC videos were in the mix with the Guns N’ Roses, Metallica and Black Crowes vids I sat in front of the TV waiting for. Back then, if the song and video were good, I kept watching. And TLC’s stuff had that, so “Waterfalls” is nearly as baked into my soul as “November Rain,” “Enter Sandman” and “Remedy” are.

TLC’s 7:15 p.m. South Star set lived up to my nostalgia. Opening with flirty ‘92 hit “Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg,” backed by a DJ, rhythm section and hot-dude dancers, TLC ruled the Supersonic Stage in front of a swelling crowd. The group’s two surviving members, T-Boz and Chilli delivered their iconic sultry and silky vocals. When they did “Creep,” it was slinky AF. “Unpretty,” a blue-strum knockout about the perils of pursuing physical perfection to please others, rang as poignant as ever.

During TLC’s set, the group’s late great rapper Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes were piped in digitally. During those segments, T-Boz and Chilli and their dancers focused on visually articulating the lyrics, making the best of a glaring “Crazy” hole in TLC’s “CrazySexyCool” triumvirate. A jazzy “Waterfalls” kissed the South Star crowd farewell.

The last band on the Camelia Stage was early aughts active-rock-radio rulers Shinedown, who hail from Southern rock’s most fertile ground: Jacksonville, the Florida womb of Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special, Blackfoot and Molly Hatchet.

Shinedown gave South Star some arena rock oomph. The rest of the festival’s production was video screen stuff, but Shinedown’s set had fireworks and pyro, a proper rock show. The band featured the festival’s most frontman-ish frontman, Brent Smith, whose dramatic performance and vocals felt like a Southern version of Freddie Mercury via Extreme’s Gary Cherone, displayed on songs like Shinedown’s Pink Floyd via Queensryche hit “45.”

There’s a difference between best and favorite. While Tom Morello was my favorite South Star performance, Gwen Stefani, who closed out the night on the Supersonic Stage, was easily the best. Still fit, flamboyant and in fine voice at 54, Stefani delivered the kind of superstar performance Huntsville has rarely experienced since Elvis Presley’s legendary 1976 and ‘77 shows at the Von Braun Center.

Whatever protein shake Stefani, a Fullerton, Calif. native, slurps, we should all consume. At South Star, her vocals were noticeably improved from her early days with ‘90s hitmakers No Doubt. Smoother, more tuneful, more soulful. All while putting in enough onstage steps to explode a Fitbit.

Backed by a troupe of dancers and an all-pro band, Stefani ran through a blitz of solo and No Doubt hits spanning from ska-pop to cabaret to synth-pop to alt-rock: “The Sweet Escape,” “Bathwater,” “It’s My Life,” “Underneath It All,” “Just a Girl,” etc. Stefani’s guitarist, Liso Lee, was a particularly potent onstage foil. In between couplets, Stefani repeatedly shouted out Huntsville and Alabama.

Stefani closed her set with a hot triptych. No Doubt’s self-prophesying Spanish-tinged smash “Don’t Speak,” riff-ska raver “Spiderwebs,” and cheerleader-pop solo hit “Hollaback Girl.” During her South Star performance, it was obvious what separates her from many pop princesses. Gwen Stefani truly loves entertaining the hell out of her fans. It’s not just a means to be rich, it’s what she was born to do.