ROCK N ROLL EXPERIENCE - Viva La Bam Tour

Bam Margera has become a pop culture icon, & he gained his popularity from the MTV show Jackass, that I personally considered to be the vehicle for Johnny Knoxville, who I always thought was the main star of that show, but there's been alot of guys from that show that made a career for themselves, & some would say that Steve-O & Bam were the stars, but to each their own...the point is, Bam Margera became a star from that show & it gave him the momentum to get his own show entitled Viva La Bam, which showed Bam & his buddies doing all kinds o' nutty crap, & this fame gave Bam the opportunity to push some of his favorite bands..the biggest one being HIM, & I STILL blame him for making that band huge here, & regardless of my personal opinions about how Bam pushed his musical tastes on an unassuming collective of sheep that adore him, Bam's star power is strong enough to allow him to have his own concert tour with bands that he hand picked!

The opening night of said tour was in Baltimore & the first thing that struck me was, Cradle of FIlth were the headliner's of this show & a few months back COF played this same venue, the only difference's being, it was on a Saturday night & it was a COF headlining show, & COF sold the venue out, whereas the Viva La Bam show, which was not solely a COF gig, sold well, but did not sell out...infact, there was ALOT of breathing room at this show & I'd say it was a little better than 1/2 sold out, but it was a far cry from the previous time COF played there...I am still not sure if it was because the show was on a Monday night, or if the die hard COF fan's wanted no parts of the Bam Margera scene, I mean COF's stage show was slightly condensed & their set was a little shorter, but they still played a strong set & yet the crowd was NOT the same as it was only a few months ago, & what I mean is, the COF crowd was alot darker, they dressed up, & looked like a COF crowd, whereas this crowd had some fans who were obviously there to see COF, it seemed like there was maybe just as many Gwar fans & Bam fans there as well which made the diversity noticable amongst the crowd. I'm not sure if that even makes any sense, but that was just the first thing I really noticed regarding the crowd.

I got to the show after the first band, Vains of Jenna had already started, so I missed out taking pics of them...basically, the doors opened at 5:30 PM & that's just a little too early if you are leaving from work & have to fight city traffic to get to a show, so logistically, the show should have been a little later in the evening, but again, I think they were banking on the kiddies showing up, so it was what it was & Vains of Jenna was my personal fav's of the night..they play sleazy hair band style rock in a modern way & they look every bit the part of rockstars from their shaggy hair, their tatt covered arms, right down to their skin tight black jeans..this is what is missing in rock n roll today..they not only sound cool, but they look cool!

CKY were next on the bill & I basically decided to omit them in my mind...you might ask why...to be honest with you, I've seen them before & they are ok...they are another band that I blame Jackass & Bam for..if those 2 things did not exist, there would be no CKY & for better of worse, they do what they do, they are ok, but I just didn't care about their set, it was all about Gwar & COF for me!

Gwar were next on the bill & I kept thinking to myself, wow...how in the hell can ANY band follow Gwar? Gwar's stage was set up with loads of plastic coverings because the band makes a mess of things, & if you've never been to Ram's Head Live, it's an upscale venue that's quite plush, & the venue was covered in plastic for the event, & needless to say, Gwar covered the venue & crowd in multi-colored fluids, Oderus had his giant phallis in full display, & the entire band put on the full Gwar experience which included a new attraction..the band had a guy come out dressed like Vin from Viva La Bam & Gwar basically destroyed him & pulled his body apart & inside of his chest was a Bam Margera head that sat on the bands drum riser for the rest of the show. Watching the security guys try to stay clean during the Gwar set was funny, & the clean up after their set was one thing I was glad I didn't have to help with! Gwar destroyed everything & in all honesty, they should have been the headliners simply because of the mess they made on & off stage!!!

Sooo, Cradle of FIlth were the headliner's of the night & following an extensive clean up of multi-colored ooze, Dani & the boys took the stage under a cover of darkness & the stage set up was fairly simple..they had drum riser, some steps that Dani could walk up & there was some barbedwire in the background as well as a video screen that showed videos that highlighted each song. The band added a few older songs to the set & cut a few newer ones, & it's interesting to note that Dani Filth might look really tall onstage, but look closely..he sports huge platforms & is actually not that tall at all, but his stage presence makes him seem larger than life! I saw a rep for PRS guitars bring the band a brand new guitar for the tour & I have to admit, the sound mix for the COF set was excellent...you could hear every single note & I think that often times the band is overshadowed by Dani, but I have to note that the musicians in COF play their asses off & it's easy to ignore them & simply watch Dani, BUT, make sure you watch the band play..they pour their hearts into their playing & every musician on that stage gave it their all! I still say that following Gwar on a bill is kinda like suicide, I mean COF were great, but if you see this tour, after a Gwar performance..wow, it's just a hard act to follow! I have to add too that Cradle of Filth has one of the prettiest keyboard player's in heavy music..she's a gothic beauty & added alot to the stage show both musically & looks, but there's no denying that the crowd was captivated with Dani, & after the show, Dani was the first band member to come out & greet the fans which I thought was pretty cool, because you never know what a band thinks of their fans & it's clear that Dani likes meeting his fans & respects them, as does the rest of the band. As a whole, the Viva La Bam tour was a success, but the billing is really weird, I mean you've got a glam band, a goth band, a band that kills the pope & a band that is just plain goofy, but in retrospect, that's what makes this tour soooo cool, it's beyond diverse!