Some thoughts on Sacramento’s Aftershock Festival.

A quick sort-of review, in which I lament Fresno’s try at a music festival.

Oct 05, 2025

A quick late-day post after returning from two days at the Aftershock Music Festival.

I wasn’t there in any capacity other than a fan who bought tickets and I hadn’t intended on any kind of review.

But then I’m walking around Sacramento’s Discovery Park and there are 10s of thousands of people (including more than a few Fresnans) and dozens of bands (including big-name headliners like Deftones and Korn per the two nights I was there) and I’m remembering how Fresno botched its attempt at having a large-draw regional music festival.

We did get several good years of Grizzly Fest, I guess, including two runs at Woodward Park (in 2018 and 2019). But that also kind of makes it worse?

It’s not a straight one-to-one comparison, but as someone who wants to see cool shit for my city, the similarities in venue and concept were enough to bum me out for awhile.

Setting that aside:

For me, the strength of any music festival is the stack up of bands. They aren’t the best way to see your favorites, but they can be a great, low stakes way to see a bunch of performers that you maybe had on your radar, but would probably otherwise miss (because they don’t tour, or don’t roll through your area often, etc.).

For me, that was: Dillinger Escape Plan, Knocked Loose and Turnstile. The three played back-to-back-to back on Friday evening and had, for my tastes, the best sets for the day.

Turnstile in particular has a lot of hype right now and was the band I was most excited to see. They did not disappoint.

They seem uniquely created for these kind of massive stages, both visually and sonically. The music is loud and heavy (as is the general Aftershock vibe) but also totally accessible.

There is almost a sense of joy in watching them perform (and watching other people interact with that). It is really appealing.

Also worth mention:

Power Trip, who I had seen the last time they played Aftershock, before the death of singer Riley Gale.
Kittie, who aren’t a bad metal band at all, despite my preconceptions and a name that makes it hard to take them seriously.
Alestorm, who offer big dumb fun in singalong form.
Seven Hours After Violet, which is like a super group or something from System of Down bassist Shavo Adadjian.

Bottom line:

Discovery Park works really well as a venue. If you’re not invested in being anywhere neat the front of the stage, there’s plenty of space and shade, so despite the crowd, it never felt over whelming.

Bonus for being able to walk from our hotel.

Bonus, bonus for all the people who came in on bikes and/or electric scooters.

It’s amazing to me (and maybe it shouldn’t be) how big of an audience there is for what is essentially underground genres (or associated subgenres). Like, there was a football field’s worth of people out watching a mathcore band thrash around and make (sometimes literal) noise for 45 minutes.

Fresno photographer Rian Diener was there and has some good shots up on her Instagram if you want to get a sense of things.

Aftershock continues today with

Bandgeeeek!

Ready for more?