Amnesia Rockfest 2015 Day 1: Linkin Park, Offspring + More

Thousands of metalheads and punk rockers gathered in Montebello, Canada, for this year’s Amnesia Rockfest. Outside of the festival grounds, it's set up like a college town, with food and drink spots, a collection of pubs and most concertgoers had beers in hand while walking down the street. Inside, the festival was filled with more booze, numerous poutine spots (the national dish) and a total of five stages.

Over on the Loto Quebec Main Stage, Linkin Park headlined with a jam-packed setlist which included favorites “Papercut” and “One Step Closer” to “Burn It Down,” “Faint” and “Numb.” Fans bounced and sang throughout the energetic set filled with remixes and varied intros and outros crafted for each track. The set ended with the explosive “What I’ve Done” and “Bleed It Out.”

The Offspring took the stage beforehand for a very special performance as they played Americana in its entirety. Frontman Dexter Holland humorously said to the crowd that they were going to play “the good songs and the not so good songs.” They belted out popular staples from the album such as “Staring at the Sun,” “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)” and “Why Don’t You Get a Job.” It was the first time the band played “She’s Got Issues” since 1999 and the second time they’ve played the track ever, as well as the first time they’ve played “No Brakes” since they year the album came out in 1998 and it was the live premiere of the tune “The End of the Line.”

Other heavy hitters that took the Loto Quebec stage earlier in the day included Sublime With Rome, Deftones and Bad Religion. Philip Anselmo also hit the stage hard with his crew Down.

Over on the Jagermeister Stage chaos ensued as Ministry headlined. The notoroious and always interesting Skinny Puppy performed beforehand. Earlier in the day, Australian band Parkway Drive gave one of the most crushing performances of the festival and performed their brand new track “Vice Grip” off of their upcoming album Ire. Coheed and Cambria, Atreyu and the almighty Carcass also performed destroyed.

The Jager Stage had one of the most interesting lineups as The Dillinger Escape Plan played without frontman Greg Puciato who allegedly had border issues, getting into Canada. Lead guitarist Ben Weinman wittily introduced the band as “Animals As Leaders” and even though most of their set was instrumental, it was one of the most enthusiastic and obliterating of the day.

Punk rock was in full swing at Amnesia Rockfest as The Exploited, Cro-Mags, Sick of It All and Descendents took hold of the Tony Sly side stages. A special moment of the day was the performance of CKY after a bit of a hiatus. The crowd was hungry for infectious tracks “Sink Into the Underground,” “Flesh Into Gear,” “Attached at the Hip” and “96 Quite Bitter Beings.” With the departure of original frontman Deron Miller, some may have bitter feelings, but singer Daniel Davies did the songs justice and had the backing of longtime members Chad Ginsburg, Jess Margera and die-hard CKY fans behind him.

Check out our photo gallery of day one of Amensia Rockfest 2015 above!