Buzzfest is an annual music festival where grunge and rock bands from all over the country join together and perform their top hits for fans. This year the festival took place at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion.  With The Offspring performing as the headliner this year, the pavilion was packed with fans. 

Mirror Lake is a new upcoming band from Houston, Texas who won the opportunity to perform through a competition hosted by 94.5 The Buzz. They performed some of their newest unreleased songs and the lead singer, Avery Clay, performed a “Bury You,” a loving song that was dedicated to her mom who sat in the audience. 

Aryon Jones played next, absolutely shredding the guitar in a jaw-dropping solo in which he played the guitar with his bandmates drum stick. His debut single “Take Me Away” was a crowd hit, and the workers could even be seen singing along with him. 

The next band to play was Mammoth led by Wolfgang, Eddie Van Halen’s son. The band performed the song “Distance” in a loving tribute to Eddie Van Halen, who  passed away on October 6, 2020. The last time that mammoth played at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion was with Eddie back in 2013. The song was so emotional that Wolfgang began to cry on stage but was able to finish the song strong, and dedicated the rest of his performances to him. 

The notorious hit band from the 1990s, Candlebox, played at Buzzfest next. They performed You, Cover Me, and Left Behind. Their heart wrenching rendition of “You” left the crowd speechless and teary eyed. The colorful light display filled with different shades of blue really added to their performance. Candlebox is a Seattle, Washington-based American rock band. The band has released six studio albums, several charting singles, a compilation, and a CD+DVD since its start in 1990. Candlebox’s self-titled debut album was released in July 1993 to immediate success.

Payable On Death (P.O.D) played hit single after hit single, starting with “Alive” and finishing with their triple-platinum song “Youth of the Nation,” at that point they asked the audience to turn on their flashlights and sing along, forming a (very) mediocre choir. While their music is aimed towards people that follow the Christian faith the band did an amazing job of including people from all backgrounds in their performance, singing with a theme of unity. P.O.D. is a Christian metal band from San Diego, California. Satellite, their next studio album, extended the band’s popularity with the hits “Alive” and “Youth of the Nation,” propelling it to triple platinum status.

Chevelle stunned the audience next with their amazing performance of “The Red” and “Send the Pain Below”, causing multiple people in the audience to tear up. They really kicked off the show with their bright light display while they performed “The Red.” Chevelle gained prominence in the early twenty-first century, specializing in lyrical hard rock inspired by fellow hit rock bands. 

The star of the show, The Offspring, opened their act with one of their hit songs “Self Esteem.” The screens behind the band showed awesome displays of skulls engulfed in fire, and cartoons of skeleton soldiers. They played songs from their newest album “Let The Bad Times Roll” next, but the real party started when they performed their hit songs like “Pretty Fly For a White Guy” and “You’re Gonna Go Far Kid.” They ended with their No. 1 hit song “The Kids Aren’t Alright.”