I found myself travelling to a gig comprising a Numetal opener to a headline of CKY. I also find myself surprised it’s not 2003 and I’m not 18… And here was to start my review full of nostalgia and comparing old vs new. The gig was filled with a surprising wide range of ages, and a band synonymous with skating and gaming being relevant today really appealed to that nostalgia after 25 years of music. However, having left the gig I was left confused as to why I wasn’t swept up in a haze of rose-tinted sentimentality. But considering the aftermath, the reasons all come together.
BlackGold Bringing the Energy
BlackGold kicked off the show and their energy and determination to get the audience involved really brought the energy up for the night. Playing their modern take on the nu metal style and hyping the crowd with a mix of their own songs blended with some hip hop classics, the audience were dancing, bouncing and moshing with a weekend energy that superseded the expectations of a Monday evening.
A standout performance and worth an effort to see them at any show, I was pleased to see that the quality of BlackGold’s recorded music was matched in their live set.
CKY’s Popularity
CKY was born of the late 90’s grunge and skate scene, with drummer Jess Margera being the brother of Bam Margera (yes, that Bam). This lead to a lot of synergy between the Jackass crew and the band, with songs featuring on the show, and many of the Jackass crew getting involved with the CKY specials that were essentially artistic skater focussed versions of the Jackass concept. With their main hit, “96 Quite Bitter Beings” being featured in the hit Tony Hawk game series, the band was cemented in the skate scene that has seen their longevity. Their tracks have roared through countless rail-grind montages and backyard ramp wipeouts, turning CKY into a cult staple for anyone who grew up with a skateboard in one hand and a camera in the other.
Having toured with a number of old favourites from Skindred to Alien Ant Farm, I was excited to see a band that was selling out shows so many years later. The controversy after CKY front man Chad Ginsburg fought with Dryden Mitchell over Chad’s behaviour had received relatively little press and so it is fair to say that the packed audiences had put this aside as a clash of personalities rather than an underlying problem.
Off with a snap!
The crowd gave a warm welcome to the band as they came to the stage. A few bars in Chad stopped the show as he had already broken a string – a sign, I thought, that they were not holding back. Having switched guitars, they bounced back to powerful grungy riffs. However, we hadn’t gotten to the end of the second song when disaster struck – another broken string.
This was the point at which I noticed that the band didn’t really have any crew – one person who seemed more of a friend than specifically a tech. With two guitars and two broken strings, Chad had now run out of guitars. The hyped up crowd chanted “CKY” and kept the energy going whilst the band frontman sat on the stage restringing a guitar. It was an odd and surreal moment, but due to the excitement in the room, the 5-10 minute break to restring a guitar – “the floating bridge makes this a bitch” – meant that we glossed over the moment to get back into a great night of music.
Hitting the classics, “Sink into the Underground” sounded as fresh as it did over 20 years ago, with their beautiful melodic “Close Yet Far” being sung word for word around The 1865. A particular highlight was bringing a random audience member on stage to rap the iconic “Bam Magera’s Freestyle Rap”, which he hit not just word-for-word but with a real style and performance.
I was excited that they went on to play “Bite it you scum”, the GG Allin Cover from their 2019 “Too Precious to Kill” EP. It was here that the evening took a turn as another string break put a halt to the show. It was quite clear that they would have just ended the night but for the fact they hadn’t played their iconic “96 Quite Bitter Beings”. After another long wait to replace another guitar string, in which quite a number of people left, the band smashed out their eponymous hit; the anticipation hit hard and the crowd erupted in excitement. With what felt like a brief ending to the night, the band played Turbonegro’s “All my friends are dead” promising to be back with less problems.
Not The End
I wish that a couple of broken strings was the end of the saga. However, the next day, Blackgold released a rather unapologetic statement that they would no longer be touring with CKY due to the “narcissism” of Ginsburg and that the band and the whole touring crew did not want to be around it.
As a long time fan of CKY, I didn’t want to jump to conclusions from the previous incident of Alien Ant Farm. However, two similar sets of accusations two years in a row, is perhaps symptomatic of a band with nearly 30 years of experience can tour and run out of guitars after two songs. Maybe it’s my personality, or just the fact that the band were so important at that time of my life, but making mistakes and having the odd issue on stage is something I would happily have overlooked, especially as their live performance was generally exceptional – I would encourage people to see them live knowing they will have a good time. However, having the humility to learn from your mistakes, being respectful of the people behind the scenes that make shows like this happen and honouring loyal fans is the basis of what the music industry should be about.
In summary, I’m disappointed with where things are at, but if you have bought tickets to their tour, you will have a great time if they can keep the equipment in one piece.
