This year from Friday, August 3 through Sunday, August 12, thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts will rally at Sturgis, SD. There’s no way we can tell you all about it in just a few paragraphs, so be sure to get the full scoop here. Specific venues also have information.
In prior years, we’ve written about the various group rides you can take. We’ve told you about vendors and downtown attractions. This year, we’ll just mention the music. The folks who arrange these things have obviously done their homework and found stellar lineups.
At the Buffalo Chip, Pop Evil kicks off the rally on Friday. Pop Evil is a hard-rocking, post-grunge band that started in Michigan back in 2001. It won the Radio Contraband “Song of the Year” award for “Trenches” in 2013.
The Iron Horse Saloon® features the free-admission Dennis Kirk Main Stage, where Miss Intent will play Friday. If you like tunes from Pink and Journey, you’ll enjoy this all-women cover band. It will be followed by Blacktop Mojo (a small-town Texas rock band with a new album, Burn the Ships), Adelita’s Way (a hard-rock band based in Las Vegas released their fifth album, Notorious, last year), Dirty Sexy Riot (women in tats, lace, and leather rock burlesque), and Black Stone Cherry (a hard-hitting Southern rock band from Kentucky).
Foreigner is reuniting for the fortieth anniversary of their Double Vision album and will play at Buffalo Chip’s Wolfman Jack Stage on August 4. All the original members and all the current band members will be there. This is one of those events you’ll remember when you’re so old that your best rocking is in a rocking chair! Preceding Foreigner will be Rising Sun, an up-n-coming, alt-rock band.
Saturday at the Iron Horse, beginning at 2 p.m., you can catch a free concert from Cody Cooke and the Bayou Outlaws, from Outlaw Nation’s Southern Revival tour. The band is outlaw country, honky-tonk, Southern rock. And right after that, you can hear Asleep at the Wheel (ten-time Grammy winning country music band from Austin, TX), Butcher Babies (heavy metal out of LA), 10 Years (an alternative metal band from Knoxville whose eighth album is (How to Live) As Ghosts), Dirty Sexy Riot, and Nelly (rapper, singer, songwriter) beginning at 10:30 p.m.
Theory of a Deadman will follow the Buffalo Chip TT American Flat Track Grand National Championship Races on Sunday. Theory of a Deadman is a Canadian band that’s won lots of awards and had three Number-One hits: “Bad Girlfriend” and “Lowlife” and “RX (Medicate).”
At the Full Throttle Saloon, Blackberry Smoke will play on Sunday, August 5. Blackberry Smoke is a Southern rock band out of Atlanta. Their fifth album, Like an Arrow, hit Number One on the Billboard Country and Americana/Folk charts.
At the Iron Horse, Outlaw Nation will present Stone Senate. Stone Senate has been compared to The Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. They’re a contemporary Southern rock band.
Following Stone Senate will be Asleep at the Wheel at 4 p.m. That evening, catch Chris Hawkey (country music from Minneapolis, MN) and then Tyler Farr, country singer and songwriter.
Lynyrd Skynyrd will perform at Buffalo Chip on Monday. The “godfathers of southern rock” have a longstanding love affair with the Sturgis rally and the rally crowd loves them right back. Absolutely do not miss the Farewell Concert of the world’s best biker band! Phil Vassar will perform first. Vassar was a songwriter first, winning ASCAP’s Country Songwriter of the Year. Then he hit gold with his first, self-titled, album. He’s had nineteen hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. “Just Another Day in Paradise” and “In a Real Love” were both Number One songs.
Trace Adkins appears at the Full Throttle on Monday. You might know Trace Adkins from one of his Number One singles: "(This Ain't) No Thinkin' Thing", "Ladies Love Country Boys", and "You're Gonna Miss This". Or maybe you saw him win All Star Apprentice in 2013, or in an ad for KFC, or acting in movies like The Lincoln Lawyer.
The Outlaw Nation tour at the Iron Horse at 2 p.m. will feature Dan Johnson and the Salt Cedar Rebels, play Southern rock with heart. Asleep at the Wheel, Alien Ant Farm (a California alt-metal band), LIT (a heavy metal band from CA best known for “My Own Worst Enemy”), P.O.D. (a Christian nu-metal band from San Diego), and Buckcherry (hard rockers from LA) follow. Wheeler Walker, Jr. will play on the Indoor Stage beginning at 11 p.m. Walker is an outlaw country singer whose new album is Ol’ Wheeler.
Bufflo Chip offers Aaron Lewis on Tuesday. Lewis is both an alt-rocker as founder and lead vocalist for Staind, and an outlaw country singer as a soloist. But he’s just the beginning. The Marshall Tucker Band will mark the rally’s halfway point. Yes, the Marshall Tucker Band.
At Full Throttle, Black Water Mountain, a rock band from Houston, will perform for the Outlaw Nation tour at 2 p.m. David Allan Coe (the “outlaw’s outlaw” who plays country honky tonk with a hard-rocking spirit), Chris Hawley, The Lacs (a hip-hop duo from Georgia), and Uncle Kracker (singer and songwriter of country and rock like “Follow Me”) will follow at the Dennis Kirk Main Stage and at 11 p.m. Wheeler Walker, Jr. will encore.
That’s just half the festival’s lineup. We’ll cover the other half another time. And, we’ve only included acts from three major venues, which are shown on the official rally website. Almost every tavern and campground has laid on entertainment during the rally—some free, some with cover charges, and some with advance or at-the-door ticket sales. Plan ahead, but leave some free time for unexpected treasures.
Yet, there’s no denying it: Unless you plan to ride exclusively around the Southern United States, you’ll face some chilly winters. And even before it...
