Pulsing mosh pits reeking of sweat, hops, White Castle “sliders” and marijuana, filled with young and old people alike proudly flinging devil horns to the heavens.

This was the panorama also known as the “Blitz Bash” Saturday, June 24. Varian, a local group and winner of Battle of the Bands in Columbus, kicked things off around 4 p.m. As true rockers, their music is best suited for a B-movie murder scene. However, the lead singer was appropriately cocky and their sound is developing into real rock.

The party really started when Halestorm took the Columbus Car Audio main stage. Delightfully ’80s in look and sound, the lead singer Lizzy Hale must be the rock love child of Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain. The set started with clear, pure rock vocals – the voice of an alcohol soaked 40-year-old seemingly trapped in a 12-year-old body. The singer greeted the audience with, “Did I mention how incredibly sexy y’all look right now? All drenched in sweat – just the way I like it.” Then they tore into a classic rock cover.

This Fires Embrace, a Christian rock group from Grove City, kept things going with surprisingly sweet melodies and throbbing metal bass and drums. Lead singer Aaron Benner was a huge presence on stage, and if awards for “Best Rock Look” were being given out, TFE won hands down. The drummer literally rocked until his hands bled – flinging blood-soaked drumsticks into the crowd.

Evans Blue then took the main stage in a pseudo-hardcore show that didn’t really rock, until a crowd-pleasing, earsplitting Pantera cover came on. Another local group, Bobaflex, seemed to be on a mission to bring back the glory days of metal with driving bass, guitar and screeching vocals. Their fans seemed to be loyal rock-nerds, the kind that drool at a rock show then go home to a ripping game of Halo.

Headliner Shinedown took the main stage just before 8 p.m. As the temperature fell, the crowd got wilder. As Shinedown shook the house with gut-wrenching lyrics and masterfully constructed bass lines, females of all shapes, sizes, and various stages of nakedness began flinging themselves upon the writhing mosh pit to body surf to the stage.

The highlight of the set was a soulful soliloquy followed by the single “Walk Through Fire” and a gorgeous ballad that had the crowd squealing along. This moving scene ended in a rock anthem that had the audience chanting “F-CK YOU!” with middle fingers flung proudly in the air, pumping to the pounding bass. When event security started ushering out bloody, drunk men, everyone knew the show was really rocking.

Following Shinedown was local group, Volume Dealer. An old-fashioned rock group, their sound is drenched in classic rock influence and atypical lyrics. Their fans are rabid rockers and their music reflects that passion.

Closing out the show was headliner, Trapt. While fairly run-of-the-mill in ingenuity, Trapt definitely can rock a house.

By that time, the audience’s ears and eyes were bleeding, but it hurt so good.

This Fires Embrace was formed in 2005 in Grove City, Ohio. They are composed of Aaron Benner, lead singer, Marc Leist, Guitar, Josh Hall, Drums, Zak Koah, Guitar, Steve Malone, Bass. Their first album “Redemption” is out now. Influences the band cites are Sevendust, Incubus, Megadeath, Deftones, and Queen. They most recently played the Blitz Bash and their next appearance is July 3 at Red White and Boom downtown Columbus.

The Lantern: What do you want your listeners to take away from your shows? Aaron Benner: That there is something to believe in – a God – something more than drugs and suicide and doubt.

TL: What inspires you lyrically and musically?Steve Malone: Oh, we have lots of sources of inspiration, Megadeath, Queen is a big one, we’re trying to bring back the guitar solo, we love the big rock guitar solo.

TL: Where is your favorite place to play?AB: We have a lot of local places we love to play. Al Rossa, The Basement, we play a lot of churches. It’s great because one night we’ll play a church and the next night we’ll play a bar and the crowd has no idea we’re a Christian band. We get great variety. There’ll be guys throwing up the devil horns rocking out, it’s cool, we’re not preachy and we’re not there to judge.

TL: What’s next for you, any big projects?AB: We just got an R.V. so we’re excited about doing a lot of shows this summer. Our big project, we just finished writing our new album so we’ll be working on that soon. We have a new single hitting national radio.

Volume Dealer is a Columbus, Ohio band founded in 2004. They released their first EP in 2005 and are currently seeking a label. They are comprised of vocalist Billy Payne, guitarist Eric McGuire, vocalist and guitarist Matt Bowden, bassist Joe Dameron and drummer Chris Owens.

The Lantern: So, let’s get it out of the way. You guys played the Al Rossa the night of the infamous Damage Plan Shooting, how did that affect you guys?Billy Payne: We played right before Damage Plan … We almost broke up actually, because it was an initial scare because we thought that was what is was going to be like every time you’re on stage. We really thought about it and we decided we had something positive going, so we kept it going, you know we just kept growing and growing so we didn’t let that affect us. It inspired my lyrics, it’s great now, so many people try to make shows positive instead of any kind of fights.

TL: What are your musical and lyrical inspirations?BP: We just really do our own thing, of course we kind of look at Tool and Mudvane and stuff like that, but we don’t really copy anybody. It’s a heart thing, our lyrics are really personal, I’ve got my work and I love doing it.

TL: What do you want your audience to walk away from your shows with?BP: Thinking that there is no way that this is an unsigned band. Getting some positivity out of it, have some fun, we just want to make people happy, that’s it.

TL: As an artist what turns you on, what gets you going? BP: I love people jumping, I love mosh pits, I love looking over at the corner at the guy who’s just like dumbfounded and he’s really listening and watching what you’re doing and I really appreciate that, I mean he’s feeling it in his heart and when I touch someone in their heart that makes me feel great.

TL: What’s next for you?BP: We’re playing the big Indianapolis July 4 show, we’ve got some big shows lined up. We’ve got a connection with Roadrunner Records right now, nothing is for sure yet, so hopefully they like it, we’re trying to talk to all the record labels right now and get something going.