Masquerade Madness at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania July 28, 2022, Day 2

 

 

As I arrived at the 2300 Arena for day 2 of the Masquerade Madness Festival at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania half an hour before doors were set to open, there were only a few people in line to get in. Not sure if everyone was tired or hung over from the night before, but it didn’t really matter as the day got off to a late start by almost an hour. Today’s lineup featured some of my favorite artists of the weekend, Kickin’ Valentina, Beasto Blanco, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Steven Adler. Today’s Surprise for me was September Mourning. 

Just to the side of the stage was the merch booth which was selling Masquerade shirts and all sorts of shirts and music from today’s artists and even Beasto Blanco signed comic books. In the front room of the venue was the bar area where there was a DJ set up, a pool table, Megan Miller’s Backstage Bakery cupcakes for sale, as well as signups for meet and greet sessions. Fans used this area for socializing between bands and networking. 

 

Shotgun Superstars

12:15pm-12:55pm

(Set times listed were as scheduled, not actual times)

 

Day two started with the house band, Shotgun Superstars playing Shotgun Messiah‘s “Heartbreak Boulevard”. With Annie Clark fronting this high energy band, they played cover songs from the likes of Hardcore Superstar, Crashdiet, H.E.A.T., Crazy Lixx, Kix, and Shotgun Messiah. Just as they did yesterday, these talented musicians put on a great show for the fans that were in attendance. Jay Oakley joined the band on stage to help sing part of Hardcore Superstar’s “We Don’t Celebrate Sundays”. It’s fun to see songs from the European bands played live, as many of them aren’t playing in the United States right now due to either a back log of getting Visas, or their cost. The set was cut short today by a few songs to try to make up time for the late start. 

 

 

Shotgun Superstars is:

Annie Clark – Vocals

Victor Adriel – Guitar

Erikk Marz – Guitar

Scott Clark – Bass

Stephen Polson – Drums

 

Silvertung

1:05pm-1:45pm

 

This band is a progressive metal band with a heavier sound than the last, playing an all-original set. The guitars were heavy and the drums hard-hitting. They played a brand-new song, which took 2 weeks to write, called “Integrity”.  Speed Vincent utilized the whole stage to put on a high-energy performance for the crowd and at one point even singing through a megaphone. Silvertung has been on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Radio charts 4 times. They have also received two Maryland Music Awards, “Best Heavy Metal Band” and “Breakout Artist”. Silvertung closed their set with “Ain’t That a Bitch”.

 

 

Silvertung is:

Speed Vincent – Lead vocals, guitar

Andy Romeo – Drums, percussion

Jimy Grime -Bass, backing vocals

Marc Marchetti – Lead Guitar, backing vocals

 

 

 

September Mourning

1:55pm-2:35pm

 

Formed in New York in 2009 by Emily Lazar. September Mourning is a hard rock band with a conceptual character of a Human-Grim Reaper hybrid named September. September comes out on stage wearing an all-white outfit with her face painted white to match. The rest of the band all dressed in black. The stage was dark and smoky with mostly saturated red lighting, adding to the mood and theme of her performance. With cartoon clips playing on the screen behind the band, it helps immerse you into September’s world.  They played songs such as “Falling Awake”, “20 Below”, and “Wake the Dead”. Marc Silvestri of Top Cow Productions is responsible for the cartoon side of the production. They have a hard rock/metal sound with a vocal heavy theatrical performance.

 

 

September Mourning is:

Emily “September Mourning” Lazar – Lead vocals, keyboards

Rich Juzwick – Guitars, backing vocals

Kyle Mayer – Drums

Aaron Hoover – Guitars

 

 

The Lonely Ones

2:50pm-3:40pm

 

Introducing the bands for the day was “Psycho” Steve Prestup and Jay Oakley from The Metal Summit, and Keith Roth from Sirius/XM. They also brought up a guitar that was signed by all the artists performing and that was to be raffled off on the last day of the festival along with 2 signed guitars by Alice Cooper. The Lonely Ones are a newer band, formed in 2019 and are vocal based. They have a very 70’s rock sound and look with the exception of Tommy Johnson, the drummer who was sporting a shaved head, dark eye makeup and a jet-black beard. His looks made me think he might also be in a death-metal band. Their song, “The Lonely One” really was a standout for me. It starts off with a drum beat that gets you clapping and then a vocal heavy chant comes in which makes for a catchy song that leaves you wanting more. “Eternal Sadness” is another that makes you want to sing along to it. Give these guys a listen.

 

 

The Lonely Ones are:

Marty McCoy – Guitar, vocals

Tommy Johnson – Drums

Jymmy Tolland – Guitar, vocals

Tru Payne Roberts – Bass, vocals

 

 

Kickin’ Valentina

3:55pm-4:45pm

 

The crowd finally packed in for Kickin’ Valentina which started 25 minutes late, at 4:20pm. They were one of the bands I was most looking forward to seeing this weekend. Formed in 2013, they have released three studio albums, with the most recent being The Revenge of Rock, which I listened to for over a month every day from the time I bought it. Kickin’ Valentina provides the crowd with a non-stop show of unapologetic rock and roll. D.K. interacts with the crowd throughout the show.  During the middle of the show, the stage manager shut them down for a short time due to a medical emergency in the crowd. The fan got checked out and returned later in the evening. The show continued and the crowd was singing along to their favorites such as “War”, “Freakshow”, and “Somebody New”. Kickin’ Valentina was the Freakshow nobody wanted to miss!

 

 

Kickin’ Valentina is:

D.K. Revelle – Vocals

Jimmy Berdine – Drums

Heber Pampillon – Guitar

Chris Taylor – Bass

 

 

Tokyo Motor Fist

5:00pm-5:50pm

 

For those who don’t know who Tokyo Motor Fist, they are comprised of Ted Poley of Danger Danger and Steve Brown and PJ Farley of Trixter. They play a mix of originals, and Danger Danger and Trixter cover songs. Some of the Trixter songs Steve Brown sings and PJ sings on Tattoos and Misery. Steve and PJ have played in 10 bands together since 1988 and not more than a few months passed that they didn’t play together.  This really shows in their well-oiled stage performance. Ted Poley didn’t stick any guitar picks to his forehead or anyone else’s tonight, but he did throw handfuls out into the audience. Billy Orrico of the band Angel was playing drums with the band today. Chris McCoy, Keyboardist and musical director for Ted Poley was having a blast on stage as can be seen in the photos. TMF had a thirteen-song set that had to be cut short by several songs, due to time constraints. 

 

 

Tokyo Motor Fist:

Ted Poley – Vocals

Steve Brown – Guitars, vocals

PJ Farley – Bass guitar

Billy Orrico – Drums

Chris McCoy – Keyboards

 

 

Spread Eagle

6:05pm-6:55pm

 

Spread Eagle is a hard rock band formed in the late 1980’s in New York City. Currently comprised of Rik and Rob DeLuca, Ray West and Jommy Puledda. Spread Eagle hasn’t played live together since 2017. My daughter is a huge fan of the band and apparently so are Chris Taylor and Heber Pampillon of Kickin’ Valentina, as they were all front row for the entire set. They played a mix of songs from their albums including the few songs that I knew from hearing my daughter play while we are driving, “Switchblade Serenade” and “Suzi Suicide”. These guys kicked some major ass. They are a non-stop show from start to finish!

 

 

 

Spread Eagle is:

Jommy Puledda – Guitar

Rob DeLuca – Bass

Rik DeLuca– Drums

Ray West – Vocals

 

 

Pretty Boy Floyd

7:10pm-8:00pm

 

Pretty Boy Floyd is a glam-metal band formed in Hollywood California in 1987. Their most popular album, Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz was released in 1989. These guys are the epitome of glam, from their heavy makeup to their bracelets, bandanas and leather. It’s so nice to hear them continuing to play the genre of music that I grew up on. PBF started off their set right with “Leather Boyz with Electric Toyz” to get the crowd pumped up for a rockin’ set. Steve announced before “48 Hours to Rock” that this is their party song and broke out a bottle of Jack Daniels to share. In between songs, Steve asked the fans if they were buying PBF merch at the booth or were they buying Adler merch. “Didn’t you get enough GNR merch in the last 40 years?”. Ashes could be seen bending the strings on his purple sparkle painted guitar out on the catwalk. Nick Mason played the drums with aggression and passion and Criss 6 jumped around the stage “like a bozo”(his words) catching air many times. 

 

 

Pretty Boy Floyd is:

Steve Summers – Vocals

Nick Mason – Drums

Criss 6 – Bass

Diego “Ashes” Ibarra – Guitar, bass

 

 

Dirty Looks

8:10pm-9:10pm

 

Dirty Looks recently got back together and was scheduled to play 2 shows during covid which both got cancelled. One was the original branding of Masquerade, called Ballroom Blitz, and the second was a fundraiser at DH&L fire station in Selinsgrove Pennsylvania. The fire station show was rescheduled to Selinsgrove Racetrack in 2021 where they recorded a live album dubbed Cool from the Speedway. And finally, we got to see them tonight at Masquerade. Cool from the Wire released in 1988 and is probably their most popular album out of their 19 albums. Tonight’s lineup consisted of members from the Cool from the Wire album, Paul Lidel, Jack Pyers, and Gene Barnett. Jason McMaster from Dangerous Toys joined them on vocals and Dave Beeson on guitar from the band Broken Teeth. I couldn’t forget to mention that Gene was the only one at Masquerade that actually wore a mask. There was a funny looking logo on the screen behind them, as can be seen in some of my photos that didn’t belong to the band. Jason said he would rather sing in the dark and offered to give anyone $20 that could get them to change the logo. After four or five songs, they finally put the Masquerade logo back up.  This was so much fun as I hadn’t seen them since the early 90’s. They played all their popular songs and ended the set with “Oh, Ruby”.

 

 

 

Dirty Looks is:

Paul Lidel – Guitar

Jason McMaster – Vocals

Jack Pyers – Bass

Gene Barnett – Drums

Dave Beeson – Guitar

 

 

Beasto Blanco

9:30pm-10:30pm

 

Beasto Blanco is my other favorite band of the day. Consisting of Chuck Garrick of Alice Cooper, and Alice’s daughter, Calico Cooper. This band delivers a theatrical performance that is just what you would expect from Ol’ Black Eyes’ daughter. With Christopher “Brother” Latham flailing his hair around his guitar, Jan LeGrow on Bass, and Sean Sellers on drums, this band is one that deserves tons of recognition not only for their theatrics, but for their bad ass down and dirty rock and roll! Growling bass lines, searing guitar and gritty vocals is what to expect from Beasto. They opened their set with the crowd chanting BEASTO-BLANCO, BEASTO-BLANCO!!”. Calico helps out Chuck on vocals throughout the set, and also sings “Solitary Rave” off their most recent album. Some of the theatrics of the evening included Calico wearing green handheld lasers, and a bra studded with red lasers, and Lee Valak manning the Co2 cannon. Brother Latham got to show off his talents with a guitar solo, leading into “Death Rattle”. They ended their set with “Breakdown”. If you’re living under a rock, or in your mother’s basement and haven’t heard of Beasto Blanco, give them a listen, you will thank me!

 

 

Beasto Blanco is:

Chuck Garrick – Guitar, vocals

Calico Cooper – Vocals

Jan LeGrow – Bass

Sean Sellers – Drums

Brother Latham – Guitar

 

 

Steven Adler

11:00pm-End

 

Steven Adler, former drummer for Guns and Roses was the headliner for the evening. Steven along with his band play all the Guns and Roses songs we love. Starting the set with “Nightrain” and then “Mr. Brownstone” with Argentinian native Ari Kamin on vocals, he does the songs justice hitting all the notes and even sounding a little like Axl Rose. Early in the set Steven could be seen having problems with his in-ears and then removing them. This didn’t seem to affect his performance moving through their 8-song set including a drum solo.  During “Mr. Brownstone” they brought up their friend Joey DiOrio, the general manager of Stogie Joe’s Tavern, to guest on guitar. Ari got to show off his talents by singing part of the song “Patience” Acapella with the crowd singing along. The band played a solid set of Guns and Roses hits that had the crowd on their feet and singing along throughout the set. 

 

 

Steven Adler is:

Steven Adler – Drums

Michael Thomas – Lead guitar

Alistair James – Rhythm guitar

Ari Kamin – Vocals

Christian Sturba – Bass

 

 

Masquerade Madness at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia Pennsylvania July 27, 2022, Day 1

 

 

 

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