The heavy metal and rock music Aftershock Festival is back in Sacramento. The four-day concert has continued to grow, despite a blip during the pandemic.
As of last year, the festival moved from a three-day format to a four-day format in 2021, with over 20 bands slated to perform each day starting this Thursday.
According to Visit Sacramento, the festival generates millions of dollars for the local economy as concertgoers descend on the state capital. It's estimated that this year's event will bring in about $30 million into the city and the region.
One of the bigger bands performing Thursday is the alternative metal-gothic rock band Evanescence.
Sacramentan and Evanescence guitar player Tim McCord met with CapRadio's Randol White, filling in for Insight host Vicki Gonzalez, to talk about his musical career and what guests can expect from the festival.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
On famous Sacramento venues Tim McCord played at when starting his career
Starting from the mid-90s to the mid-to-late 2000s, pretty much [played at] every venue you can think of.
Back in the 90s, there was the old Cattle Club that became Bojangles, the Crest Theater, the Boardwalk. There was a pool hall in Old Sac called Stretch Eight for a while that used to host a lot of local shows.
So did a lot of shows there — and really whatever venues were available back in the day.
On how McCord joined Evanescence as the bassist
I started playing when I was maybe 16, playing guitar and then played in a handful of local bands through the years.
And then, I don't know, I was about 25 or 26 and I got a random phone call from the Evanescence manager saying, 'Hey, is this Tim?' 'Yes, it is.' 'How would you like to play for Evanescence?' And I thought it was a joke.
Like I had never met anybody in the band. I had never seen them live before. I didn't really know anything about the band other than they were a massive, very popular rock band. And it [was] at the height of their very first album that was a smashing success.
And I was like … Why me and why bass? Because at the time I was a guitar player, and he let me know that … I [was] a recommendation to him by a booking agent when I did one show in LA in a band I was briefly in called Quitter, where I was the bass player, a booking agent was there in the audience and decided, 'hey, that guy is pretty good,' and remembered me for a recommendation later on when Evanescence was looking for a bass player.
So I got the phone call for that. I flew down to LA to do an audition, which was just me sitting in a room with the band and talking to them … I just sort of hung out with them for about 20 minutes and just talked to them like I would talk to anybody, and I got the job to become their bass player.
On what audiences can expect from the Evanescence live performance on Thursday
We play the music true to the albums usually, but live rock and roll is a different thing. It's live, you know, you get caught up in the moment. You throw things in that aren't there.
I play with a slightly different feel than what's on record. And Troy, the other guitarist, and I, we have a few moments where we set aside like, 'okay, right here, we're going to do something really cool that's not on this record and not planned out or all of that.'
So it's definitely a different feel ... so the live show versus the album, in my opinion, is really, really interesting.
On McCord's opinion on the success of the festival
Rock music sort of took a nosedive over the last decade or so, and I'm really, really glad that it's on the uptick now.
Aftershock Festival and Danny Wimmer Presents, they do such a great job with everything. Danny has a knack for picking out every awesome rock band that is currently active.
So it brings rock fans or metal fans, heavy music fans from all over the states, all over the country. I've seen people on the internet talking about flying over from different countries.
