Recap of Rise Above Festival, Bennington and Cornell Tributes
Given that the Rise Above festival was inspired by the suicide death of Seether frontman Shaun Morgan‘s brother, it was only appropriate that this year’s edition, which took place over the weekend in Bangor, Maine, paid tribute to Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington and Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell.
Prior to the weekend Morgan announced that the festival would be dedicated to the two rockers who died by their own hand, issuing a statement after Bennington’s death on Thursday (July 20) that, “Losing another great rock voice to suicide is absolutely tragic and heartbreaking. It’s exactly why we are doing what we set out to do this weekend — to build awareness for this mental disease.”
Morgan and Seether dedicated their performance of the song “Rise Above This” to Bennington and Cornell, while Stone Sour honored Bennington with “Through Glass” during its set.
Cornell, meanwhile, was the subject of homages from Theory Of A Dead Man, which performed Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun,” and Crobot, which included Audioslave’s “Cochise” in its set.
Gary Graff is an award-winning music journalist who not only covers music but has written books on Bob Seger, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen.
