10 Big Things That Happened at 2024 Louder Than Life Festival

Another year of the Louder Than Life Festival is in the books and it was one of the more eventful festivals with weather wreaking havoc on the scheduling and some interesting happenings taking place over the four-day event. So let’s take a look at 10 Big Things That Happened at the 2024 Louder Than Life Festival

Dead Poet Society Singer Gets Butt Tattoo Completed During Performance

Sometimes it’s hard to juggle your time, but Dead Poet Society frontman Jack Underkofler did a little bit of multitasking during the band’s set at the 2024 Louder Than Life Festival.

“I fucking have an ass tattoo,” revealed Underkofler to the crowd in between songs. “But it’s not done because my tattoo artist lives in Canada. I planned that out with her. But she’s here at this fucking festival right now, so I’m going to have her finish it up right here onstage.”

With that, tattoo artist Annie Miao came out onstage as Underkofler slipped the back part of his trousers down to where Miao could complete the artwork.

Since finishing up the piece took up more than one song in the set, Underkofler brought out Badflower‘s Josh Katz to relieve him of his guitar duties so all he had to do was sing while Miao finished up.

Dead Poet Society Singer Gets Tattoo Completed During Louder Than Life Performance

Five Finger Death Punch’s Ivan Moody Takes a Fall

The injury bug managed to strike Five Finger Death Punch‘s Ivan Moody. While performing at Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival, the singer took a tumble onstage. In the process he fractured a rib and was in quite a bit of pain afterward as shared on his Instagram Stories.

“After the adrenaline wore off this morning I woke up… and I’ve got a bruise that’s running down from the inside of my armpit down to my knee, and my hand feels like its shattered… look at that. So, well see,” said Moody. It was later learned that he had fractured his rib.

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The band did manage to get in a 12-song setlist despite Moody’s injury, but the group had to bow out of their Sunday performance in Mexico City with Metallica as shared in the Facebook post below.

Five Finger Death Punch’s Ivan Moody Falls Onstage at 2024 Louder Than Life

Weather Wrecked the Friday Lineup

Organizers for Louder Than Life were well aware of the damage and destruction that Hurricane Helene was invoking on other parts of the U.S. and got out ahead of a potentially dangerous situation on Friday.

The second day of the music weekend was canceled out of concern for the safety of those attending and performing at the festival.

“Louder Family, we’re heartbroken to share this, but the weather just isn’t in our favor today. We’ve been working closely with our meteorologists and local authorities, holding on to the hope that we can open doors, but the continuous wind gusts simply make it impossible for us to proceed safely,” read a statement posted on the festival’s social media. “We know how disappointing this is — it’s gut-wrenching for us too. But your safety, along with the safety of our artists and crew, will always be our number one priority.”

Sadly, that meant that one of Slayer‘s reunion performances was scrapped. Other bands that missed out due to Friday’s weather cancellation included Evanescence, In This Moment, Anthrax, Tom Morello, Lorna Shore, Clutch, Sevendust and more.

Fans Thankful for the Transparent Festival Communication

We’ve seen weather turn things into a disaster at other festivals. Things aren’t handled well, fans get upset and share their stories on social media and there’s a lot of negative sentiment toward some of those events. That was not the case with Louder Than Life, as the festival socials were busy throughout the weekend providing transparent and timely updates that were met with great satisfaction.

After the initial cancelation of Friday’s lineup, one fan noted, “You guys have done a phenomenal job at keeping everyone updated in a timely manner, and as a fan, I couldn’t be more appreciative! Thank you Louder Than Life!” “Thank you for trying to make it happen,” added another.

In addition to the initial announcement, organizers moved quickly to offer Friday Single Day ticket purchasers to attend either Saturday or Sunday. There were also updates that reminded those attending the latter days that it would be rainy and offering tips on how to deal with the weather and what to bring. They also add a special “Dry Zone” area where fans could spend some time enjoying the bar, grabbing food and checking out merch will getting out of the weather for a bit.

Plus they notified fans of schedule changes, including that Till Lindemann who had been on Friday’s bill, would step in for Falling in Reverse who were unable to make their performance due to weather-related travel issues.

As for Slayer’s missed date, which was one of the big selling points of the festival, organizers noted, “Regarding SLAYER: We did everything we possibly could to have them play tonight or tomorrow, but there are so many moving parts behind the scenes to adding a headliner last-minute onto a day that it just proved impossible. It’s very, very rare for that to be successfully accomplished, but please know that despite that we still did absolutely everything in our power to make it happen for each of you. We wanted nothing more than to hear tens of thousands of fans screaming SLAYERRRRRR together.”

Till Lindemann Saves the Day

As stated, Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann was one of the Friday performers that had their scheduled set scrapped. But luckily, Lindemann didn’t have plans for Saturday and was able to stick around and step up when Falling in Reverse had to drop out due to weather-related travel issues.

As expected, the singer put on a dazzling show. The 13-song set was filled with a mix of his solo material and some of Rammstein’s bigger hits.

“HUGE shoutout to Till Lindemann for sticking around and giving us an unforgettable performance,” noted Louder Than Life on their Facebook page with photos of his performance. You can also catch some fan-shot video below.

Till Lindemann, “Praise Abort” at 2024 Louder Than Life

Till Lindemann, “Golden Shower” at 2024 Louder Than Life

Disturbed Welcome Contest Winner for “Don’t Tell Me” Performance

Having Ann Wilson at your disposal is not an everyday luxury for Disturbed, so the band set out to get some assistance in order to perform their recent duet “Don’t Tell Me” at Louder Than Life.

In advance of the festival, the band launched a contest to find David Draiman a duet partner. The winner, a local Louisville area woman named Katelyn Webb, had the experience of a lifetime getting to belt out the song with Draiman during the band’s show.

“Huge shoutout to @theotherkatelyn who won the @alt1051 duet contest and sang Don’t Tell Me with us,” noted the band.

Spiritbox and Friends

One of the great things about festivals is the amount of talent in one place. Spiritbox took full advantage during their Sunday performance bringing out special guests for three of their eight songs.

Poppy turned up on their recently released song “Soft Spine,” while Architects‘ Sam Carter stepped up on “Yellowjackets” and Jinjer‘s Tatiana Shmayluk joined in the penultimate song in their setlist, “Circle With Me.”

Spiritbox With Jinjer’s Tatiana Shmayluk, “Circle With Me”

Spiritbox With Poppy, “Soft Spine”

Spiritbox With Architects’ Sam Carter, “Yellowjackets”

To Be Korn-Tinued

Korn‘s Sunday performance at Louder Than Life came with a bit of a disruption. According to the Louisville Courier-Journal, the band’s 17-song set came with a 20-minute disruption after a fan was injured in the crowd.

Singer Jonathan Davis stopped down the set, telling the crowd, “We’re not playing until everyone is safe.” Once the fan was transported from the audience to on-site medical personal, the show continued.

According to Setlist.fm, the song “Start the Healing” had been listed on a printed setlist for the night, but was not performed due to the interruption. The show did feature the opening “Here to Stay” and an encore of “Falling Away From Me,” “Oildale” and “Freak on a Leash.”

Korn, “Freak on a Leash” at Louder Than Life 2024

Judas Priest’s Richie Faulkner Returned to Louder Than Life

Louisville’s Louder Than Life festival will always be something that Judas Priest guitarist Richie Faulkner remembers. In 2021, the guitarist suffered a medical emergency onstage, being rushed to the hospital to undergo heart surgery. Faulkner had an aortic aneurysm and complete aortic dissection.

Ahead of the band’s first return performance, Faulkner recalled to the Louisville Courier-Journal, “”The Reaper was on stage with me in Louisville. Ironically I was playing ‘Painkiller’ which is intense. It was the last song in our set and I started to feel like I was going to faint.”

“I have no idea how I am going to feel walking back onto that stage,” Faulkner added. “I think if anything it’s going to be a celebration for me. You know what went down for me that night three years ago, I was lucky to even get through the night. To come back and play the same festival three years later, it feels like a triumph to come back and complete the gig. “

The band’s Sunday headlining performance featured 13 songs, including the aforementioned “Painkiller” as well as the encore of “Electric. Eye” and “Living After Midnight.”

Judas Priest, “Breaking the Law / Riding on the Wind” at 2024 Louder Than Life

Louder Than Life Success at the Cash Register

It turns out that despite the weather, it was a very profitable weekend.

A spokesperson with Rare Peeps, a California-based merchandising company, told The Courier Journal Sunday that more than $250,000 in volume was sold in the first two hours of the festival Thursday, marking the “highest volume” for any Danny Wimmer Presents show in the time frame since being contracted years ago. The company expects to exceed $1 million in sales.

Organizers wrapped up the weekend on their socials with a photo displaying the mass audience attending the festival.

“That’s a wrap, Louder Than Life! You came back bigger, stronger, and louder than we could have ever imagined. You’re the true MVPs of the weekend—thanks for the epic memories. Can’t wait to do it all over again next year,” they stated.