Music Madness has been fortunate enough to see and cover a couple of Buckcherry sets recently. The first set was during day two of Bangor Maine’s Impact Music Festival. The size of the crowd no doubt spurred them on. Because of this, they delivered a set that was one of the highlights of the day. Frontman Josh Todd paced the stage like a lion in a cage. Guitarist Stevie D. and bassist Kelly LeMieux hammed it up and animatedly played to both the crowd and photographers. Guitarist Kevin Roentgen and drummer Francis Ruiz did their best to anchor down the band but even they got a bit wild at times.
The second set was at the Wolf Den at Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. The band was a bit more restricted as to their movement because of a smaller stage. However, their show was still tremendously entertaining! The stage has a backdrop of rocks (are they real?) which gives the impression that the band is playing in a cave. The theater allows VIPs and casino high rollers in first as it was a free show. They allow those who are lined up to trickle in at around 8:10, after the band had started. To the band’s credit, at 8:00 they hit the stage hard while playing to a half full venue at best. Needless to say, after they started letting the queue in, the venue was packed. Buckcherry’s adoring fans rocked, swayed, and pumped fists in the air all night long driving the band on.
Their set at the Wolf Den was mostly similar to the set at Impact Festival. The band performed a tremendous version of Nine Inch Nail’s “Head Like A Hole”. The familiar songs “Lit Up”, “Sorry” and of course “Crazy B*tch” are staples of their show. At the Wolf Den show, they pulled out a brief but hard hitting version of Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose” to the delight of most in the crowd. Josh Todd danced like a wild man during it. Buckcherry ended their main set with “Crazy B*tch”. They infused their big hit with snippets of Kool And The Gang’s “Jungle Boogie” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary” thrown in for good measure. The band left the stage once they wrapped up “Crazy B*tch” leaving folks to think that was all. Wrong! Back to the stage they came and finished their show with a killer version of “Say F*ck It”.
Buckcherry will be on tour through the rest of the year. They will be performing the Central and Western US through the end of September. Then the band heads overseas to Australia and Japan for the first half of October. They end their touring year with a tour of the UK during the first part of November. See this band if you can! Click here for dates and locations …. Buckcherry Tour Dates
