Tuesday, February 13

CKY rocks the LBC

By Jimbob Hume

On Sunday February 4, pro skateboarder Bam Margera made his lead singing debut with Philly band CKY at Mum's nightclub in Long Beach California. Yes, you heard right. Besides skateboarding, acting, and writing, it seems Bam has diversified his interests even more. Two of Bam's sponsors, Adio Footwear and Volcom, put on the show during the ASR trade show.

The show started around 6:00 and so did the heavy drinking. By the time Blockhead went on the place was almost filled up. The guys in Blockhead all work in the shipping department for Adio and boy were they excited to be up on the stage. They gave it their all with a great performance and are reportedly currently working on a forthcoming album due out mid March. The Blockheads are Jeff Meinardus (vocals, lead guitar), Mike Crawford (vocals, guitar), Gabe Messer (bass), and Kyle Janovick (drums). Next up, Volcom Entertainment band Relish, but first the beloved VIP room. One of the best parts about the nightlife at the ASR show is the VIP room. I was not able to score VIP passes to the Alkaholics/DC party the night before so I had to take full advantage of my VIP status for this show. How does one take advantage of VIP? Simply walk right up to the bar (no long lines for VIP drinks), order a drink and lurk in the corner while watching the craziness go down. It looked like Bam was taking full advantage of his VIP with free drinks to prep for the show.

VIP has its privileges.

I partook in the craziness a little too much the night before at the DC party. There they had little DC beach balls tied to the ceiling in various places. A coworker of mine thought it would be funny to tear these down from the wall and throw them at various people in the bar. He then convinced some poor sap to grab a ball and "boot it" at a group of people across the room. After a couple of successful kicks, the random guy was asked politely by the owner and a bounce to leave the premises and we sat there untouched. I almost forgot about the show.

Relish started up as I wandered out of the lounge. Relish is a moody girl-rock band, from Southern California. The band is Michele Walker (vocals, bass, guitar), Laurita Guaico (guitar, vocals) and Lynnae Hitchcock (drums, vocals, accordion.) They played some well-received hits from their 1999 self-titled album. Next up, was the main event: Bam Margera's lead singing debut with East Coast power rockers CKY. Bam is not normally a member of the band, but he made a special guest appearance for one night. This show was thrown together last minute by the guys at Volcom and Adio as a special event during the ASR trade show. I was surprised Bam could stand at this point, let alone sing, but he accomplished both, and did a damn fine job at it. The band's songs have been the backdrop for the wildly popular CKY and CKY2K skate videos. Bam's brother Jess Margera is the drummer for CKY so Bam is familiar with the songs and the singing came naturally to him. They started out rocking and the crowd started rocking along with the band in seconds. Crowd surfing was back with full-force at this show. At all of the emo/indie rock shows, people are typically too cool to get rowdy, so I thought it was a lost art. Not here. The owner of Volcom, Richard Woolcott, was leading the charge, both crowd surfing and head banging. CKY is bringing back good rowdy rock and roll shows. Guitarist Chad Ginsburg climbed up on the speakers and rocked with the crowd, he even jumped off the speaker and gave a good old rocker mule kick. Bam sang along with regular lead singer, Deron Miller, on most of the songs. Drinks were thrown everywhere by raucous people in the crowd. CKY puts on a good show that is not to be missed and they have the energy to keep going even without Bam. Bam is turning into a rock star with appearances on MTV's "Jackass" show and in his own CKY2K video.

This party would not have been complete without another trip to my beloved VIP lounge to keep in the spirit of things with one last minute drink. People stayed rowdy until the management forced everyone to leave. If CKY comes to your town, don't miss out. CKY is Deron Miller (Guitar, vocals), Chad Ginsburg (guitar), Jess Margera (drums), and Vern Zybrowski (bass).