The culturally distinct genres of electronic music and rock music came together on March 18th as Global Gathering, a massive European music festival, came to American soil for the very first time. It had all the scorching heat, ridiculously inflated food and water prices, and flamboyant color-changing lights that one could ever want and it took place right here in Miami.
      

      The festival has been one of the most anticipated shows in the world for the past several years. The combination of the hot weather with excessive amounts of dancing to international beats routinely leaves the crowd feeling both exhausted and overwhelmed. This year the show featured over eighty artists including Adam Freeland, Evil Nine, Uberzone, Coheed & Cambria, Deep Fish, Avenged Sevenfold, Rob Zombie, Tommy Lee and Nine Inch Nails.

      As Roger, a member of the crowd, put it, "This is the first time I have ever been to a show in which there is just a constant musical performance on every stage with no set breaks, I mean, could this festival get any better?"
       The beach stage was a rocking scene with many of today's most popular bands. Coheed and Cambria started things off on a mellow note and started to get the crowd into the show with their hit song "Welcome Home." But it was the next band, Avenged Sevenfold, that really got the crowd going nuts. The mobs of fans chanted along to a cover of Pantera's song "Respect" and their set was pure lunacy after that.


       Lead singer M. Shadows had the crowd swirling in complete chaos, which caused many fans to become dehydrated to the point of leaving in ambulances to go to the hospital. This was one of the craziest sets I have ever seen at a show. The crowd seemed to sing along to every word that Shadows sang. After performing their hit song "Bat County," the band departed from the cheering masses to let Rob Zombie take the stage.

      I found myself wishing that Rob Zombie would finish his set quickly because all of his songs seemed to sound exactly the same. That said, his stage setup was truly amazing. He had a screen behind him playing movies of corpses and Betty Page modeling and throwing kisses to the crowd. Additionally, Rob had an enormous zombie robot rocking out and throwing smoke everywhere. All this craziness left the crowd wanting to go deeper into Rob's living dead fantasy.

       The highlight of the night was definitely Nine Inch Nails. I have never seen such a large crowd for a band in my life. I was able to get an amazing view of their set, and may I say, WOW! I have never experienced anything as mind-blowing as their performance. Who would have thought that their lead singer, Trent Reznor, would still have that unbelievable voice after all these years? Not only that, but he worked the fans into complete madness by throwing guitars, microphones and bottles all over the stage. The speakers were booming so loudly that I could feel my heart race and my body thump along with it. Their hot song, "Closer," had the hairs on my arms standing. I have never felt anything like it. They totally seized the night with their breathtaking music.


       Overall, this festival had a remarkable arrangement; everything was set perfectly and amazingly. I'm thrilled with the fact that Global Gathering selected Miami to be the first U.S. city to have this event. This is a very diverse place and thus a perfect location for such an international event.

      Email Leah your thoughts: outloud@outloud.com