Buckcherry in Philadelphia written by Lynn
The past twelve months or so have been very good to Josh Todd
and the boys in Buckcherry, a band that has done what few bands
usually manage to do successfully, that being to rise from the dead, and
to a greater success than they initially had the first time. With a
new plan, a few new members, new management, a new CD and a
new lease on life, the formerly lesser-known band from Los Angeles
is turning heads today, and they're hot, winning over new fans left and
right. The band's new (2006) release, "15,",has done exceedingly
well, helping them to climb up the charts and get requests
all over the country for their latest singles Crazy Bitch, Next 2 You, and
Everything>, by far making this the most success Buckcherry
has seen to date. OK, so they had a couple of hits in the late '90s when
they first got popular - everyone remember the song "Lit Up"?
But they never had a good foothold on their fame, disappearing too
quickly when issues within the band arose... and let's not forget how
fickle the general radio audience can tend to be, casting bands aside as
soon as a single hits the bottom of the playlist and gets forgotten.
Such was the fate of Buckcherry, who formed in 1995, released
their first CD in 1999, and were gone by 2002, but it's looking like
they're back, and with a vengeance.

I have to admit that when I first realized I'd be seeing Buckcherry at a
big show hosted by 93.3 WMMR in Philadelphia, the MMR*B*Q,
which also featured local band Shovelhook in addition to The Exies,
Chevelle (only shortly back on the road after having had their entire
trailer of equipment stolen in Dallas, TX on May 7th), Flyleaf
(who I had just seen three times the week before on tour with Kill Hannah - yes, still terribly addicted; I've now seen KH a total of 6
times in around 9 months...), Fuel, Evanescence, and Velvet Revolver, I initially thought to myself... "Buckcherry? That band from...
that band that...?" I remembered the name. Couldn't remember a song if my life depended on it, however. That's about how big of an
impression they'd made on me the first time. A friend of mine remembered them though, and was jealous that I was going to see them.
I simply shrugged. I did, however, familiarize myself with the new CD beforehand, and recognized at that point that I'd been hearing
them, the new stuff, all over the radio and didn't even realize it. And it was good! Any song that I find myself singing along
with has at least made <i>some</i> kind of impression on me.

The 12+ hour show at the Tweeter Center was good all around, and played to a full house right from the get-go; within an hour from
the first band playing I'd say most everyone who was going to be there, was. Naturally the sets were played in order of band
popularity with Shovelhook, the local openers, playing first, followed by The Exies, who I thought played a very good set and kept me
entertained despite the fact that I'm not very familiar with them, either. Then came Flyleaf. Then came Chevelle. Then smack in the
middle, with three to go after them, Buckcherry took the stage. I didn't really know what to expect, but found it interesting that they
played after Chevelle, considering the following Chevelle has in the Philly area. In the simplest words however, they blew the place
away. The bands that played after Buckcherry had quite a bit of work to do to follow up that performance. I have to say that, except
for the fact that they got the crowd going with those couple of songs that we all know and (maybe, if we weren't so sick of them by
now) love, Fuel was a dud; Buckcherry should have played after them, and led right into Evanescence, they were that good.



















You followed, and then they closed with their first single and most famous song, for those that remember it (OK, I remember it
now!),Lit Up. I can confidently say that after that performance there was not a disappointed face in the place... and I would not have
wanted to be a member of Fuel at that moment.

Buckcherry is currently still touring and will join fellow "bad boys", Papa Roach and Hinder for the Bad Boys of Rock Tour,
commencing on July 13 in Lansing, MI, and touring together throughout August, hitting something like 30 stops along the way.
Considering how well they went over the day I saw them, I will say that I'm not the least bit disappointed to know I'll be seeing them
again when I see Papa Roach. After all, something like 315,000 MySpace friends can't all be wrong now, can they? Check out the
band at their MySpace, and at the Official band page, and check out when they'll be playing near you. Hell, it's worth it to go just to get
to see that impressive collection of ink among all the members of the band!
BAND: Buckcherry
VENUE: Tweeter
Center at the
Camden Waterfront;
MMR*B*Q, hosted
by 93.9 WMMR in
Philadelphia



DATE: Saturday,
May 20, 2007
X4
As I already mentioned, I really didn't know what to expect from this band that
was going to be playing a bunch of songs that I knew only some of, but in all
honesty it didn't matter. Todd and his crew, guitarists (and co-founding member)
Keith Nelson and Stevie D., bass player Jimmy Ashhurst and drummer Xavier
Muriel got the entire arena cheering before they even sang one note, then totally
rocked the house for everything it was worth. Todd was animated and energetic,
moving all over the stage and later stripping down to nothing but his skin-tight,
pencil-straight jeans and his impressive tattoos, and had the audience singing along
and body surfing like crazy. Add to this a very attractive stage set including a
gorgeously artistic backdrop and Buckcherry's performance was a surprise, yes,
but also very impressive. Seems to me that they deserve this hard-fought new
popularity they've been building up, no arguement there.

The set began with the songs So Far and Broken Glass, both off the new CD,
then continued on to some older stuff like Porno Star, Whiskey in the Morning,
and Out of Line. By the time they played the popular Everything, the crowd was
screaming. Continuing on, Crazy Bitch nearly brought the Tweeter Center down
with how crazy everyone got hearing that song. Next 2