Photos: Shane Gardner aka Rock N Roll Socialite  

M3 The worlds most bad ass festival for all things 80s rock and roll. This year M3 celebrated with the nation on the nations birthday the Fourth of July weekend. You know there’s gonna be killer tunes and lots of hair when you come to Maryland for M3. 

Friday started off with The Iron Maiden’s kicking off the festival. If you haven’t seen The Iron Maiden’s you’re missing out, it’s the best of both worlds, kick ass Iron Maiden songs with kick ass females rocking out the tunes. This was an amazing way to start off the weekend. 

Next up was Tokyo Motor Fist which has Ted Poley of Danger Danger and Steve Brown of Trixter. Mixing up the setlist with original songs and a few of the songs from each band like “Bang Bang” from Danger Danger and “Give it to me good” from Trixter. 

Slaughter was next on the stage, I’ve heard some say that they felt that Marks voice was off that night but I felt that he sounded great. I think the sound guy had some of the vocals way to loud the first night. Slaughter killed it on stage with songs like “Mad about you” and of course “Up all night”.

Since this was the first night of M3, you know that it has to end with Kix, but before Kix hit the stage since it was the Fourth of July we had to have some fireworks. Then Steve Whiteman and the guys from Kix ended the night like they always do with bad ass tunes that make not only you dance but get Steve moving and a Groovin on stage. Kix pulled out some deep cuts this time along with the songs like have been a stable for Kix. 

Also on Friday I got to help my boys in The Metal Summit, talk to Hurricane a little that day, Hurricane would be playing the next day. But all in all Fridays M3 was great, I think people were excited about having live music back and being able to hang out and see old and new friends. 

Saturday started early in the afternoon. With our boy Chip and Enuff Z’Nuff opening up the day.  Hurricane who we interviewed the day before were playing today as well. The Original BulletBoys killed it not only onstage but also in the interview that I helped with The Metal Summit guys. It was great to see the band back together and they sounded amazing and really truly felt the friendship and togetherness backstage with them as well. Another highlight of the day was Steven Adler and his band. Singer Ari Kamin is such an amazing frontman and the band that’s in front of Steven is amazing. Accept and Queensryche killed it and stole the night away. I only got to hear about 2-3 songs of Accept before going to the double tree hotel to help Metal Summit interview Scott Griffin from Riley’s LA Guns. Accept from what I hear destroyed the stage, The little bit that I heard sounded bad ass. Unfortunately the clouds opened up and it staring to rain during Queensryche which made lots of fans leave early to get out of the downpour. 

Sunday at M3 I feel was the best day of the festival, the lineup was stacked and good old friends and new friends were aligned. Little Caesar opened up the day with their style of gritty/dirty rock and roll. Little Caesar was one of 4 interviews that myself and the Metal Summit would be doing this day. Now in my opinion the best band was Pretty Boy Floyd. I might be a little bias because behind the man Steve Summers his band was backed up with my friends. Eric Griffin (murderdolls) Ashes(DevilDriver) and Nick Mason (Living Dead Drummer). Again myself and the Metal Summit interviewed Ashes and found out that they only had 3 days to practice with this lineup, but it was super tight and like I said was my favorite set of the whole festival. Pretty Boy Floyd played “Leather Boys with Electric Toys” album in entirety. This day had so many killer sets from Faster Pussycat, to Lita Ford who still sounds and looks amazing. Lita got me happy because I got to hear “Cherry Bomb” and “Close My Eyes Forever.  To Great White, Warrant, which they did a tribute to the late Tawny Kitaen and Night Ranger ending off the amazing festival. We ended up hanging with Ari who came out to sing the National Anthem for the 4^th. Myself and Metal Summit sat down with him and talked a little. M3 was also blessed to have Mark “Weissguy” Weiss who’s hands down one of the best rock photographers ever, working with anyone and everyone from the 80s. 

Overall the festival was bad ass and rocked so much. It’s what everyone needed from dealing with 2020. The sun was out and the heat was coming from both on stage and from the sky. It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. The fans were happy and exited, the staff were happy and friendly. It was a great experience and can’t wait for next year’s M3 to come back and be even more bad ass. Eddie Trunk was a blast as always to see and hear from this time bringing both Jim and Don with him from That Metal Show. 

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

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