ICP: Mighty Death Pop Tour – Review

Wow, this may turn out to be a long one.  So let me start off with this. If the tour is coming anywhere near you – go buy your tickets now, buy the VIP.  Then prepare to have a great time.  You will be surprised, even if like myself, you have been to many shows.

Highlights:

• Moonshine Bandits – Beef Jerky – The perfect snack at a show, and on the way home.  I gave out samples from my bag and everyone enjoyed it. Perfect texture and spice!

• Legz Diamond and the Purple Gang – not only do their first live performance. The music translated to a live show perfectly – costumes that where spot on.

• Kung Fu Vampire’s over all stage prescense – Playing to the camera is always nice on us photographers

• Insane M’F’n Clowns…. Changing up the set list made this a whole new show. Songs that have been some of my favorite songs for years now not only played but with costumes and theatrics to go along with them!

After Show Comments:

TJF’s Hazin – “Mighty death pop tour a wild and wicked success. Go get your tickets now. Faygo Armageddon for VIP’s is intense fun. Don’t miss out ninjas. I was overly impressed from start to finish.”

TJF’s Blackie – “Had a blast at the ICP show. All performers kicked ass. Met some cool ninjas. Soaked in faygo. Today was a good day.”

Jessyka – “I had SUCH an amazing time tonight!!”

Rusty Lee – “Man I had the freshest night in a long time”

Chey – “my first pshycopathic show… BLOWN AWAY. i have a whole new outlook on fam.. never felt soo much fuckin love from one crowd of people.”

Missy – “Being on stage for the Armageddon was incredible!!!!!”

Don Cronic – “Whoop whoop legs diamond and the purple gang were dope”

So since the tour was announced some of our readers have been very critical about the choice of acts on the tour.  I actually read the facebook comments, tweets, and interact with our community and I will say this. It was easy to see at the show very quickly how peoples attitudes changed, some of my close friends even when Legz Diamond and the Purple Gang performed their tracks, when Kung Fu Vampire made the place erupt with energy, and when Moonshine Bandits put on a live show that had even the harshest critics moving in the crowd!  Not to mention the new songs in the ICP set list!

I am a bit of a plan in advance guy, and have been burned in the past when going to shows as far as access or organization goes – I always have to drive a ways to hit a show, however everything fell into place for this show. Psychopathic and Subnoize both contacted me day of show letting me know I was invited. Not a fan of “Day Of” Policies but it all worked out and  Psychopathic hooked me up with a photo pass, and let me do pics on stage during faygo armageddon.   I did not have to wait for the list to be turned in, the photo pass was there waiting for me.  Made it in the venue before the first act, and was warmly welcomed by Psychopathic, Subnoize, KFV, and AMB.   Huge Shout out to everyone involved with all of them as well as the local staff and security. Great night!!  Everyone had a blast!   “Do you have anything nice to say” a quote from Kodi with psychopathic when bumped into her, and my response, is…   All nice things!!

Val Air Ballroom once again had a Grand Canyon between the stage and the barricade which is nice when your trying to dodge crowd surfers and trying to find that one epic shot of the performers.  AMB took the stage and had a super short set it seemed, but all good tracks. They looked good, and sounded good.  There was no local opener, which is when I usually get the camera dialed in, so not as many pics of AMB as I would like as I spent most of their set getting used to the Brutal, Extreme, and unpredictable stage lighting.

Before long, they where announcing the next act, so I hit the photo pit fully expecting it to be Kung Fu Vampire, but the announcer was talking about Legz Diamond, Jump Steady, and Sugar Slam… wait, what?  They came out to the stage dressed amazingly to fit the part of the Legz Diamond recent release. They performed a stunning set for their first live performance, if they had not said that I would of thought they had been doing this the whole tour if not longer.  The songs they played translated perfectly to a live performance, I and many others where surprised at the announcement, and then greatful to see this go down.  At on point they threw money with guitar pics into the crowd. Since the area between stage and barricade was massive, multiple bills fell on the floor, and rather then saving one to check it out later, I picked up what didn’t make it into the crowd and handed it out.  One of the comments on our facebook that night was that he instantly went over and bought the CD from the merch booth after hearing them perform.

AMB ventured out through the crowd shaking hands and talking to people which is always nice to see at a show.  Then they started to announce Kung Fu Vampire, as I got to the photo pit KFV took the stage and was joined by Jeremy Pollett on bass and Chris Paxton on drums, which is something new for shows I have seen of him. It brought so much more to the table.  Not only did we get the high energy KFV performance, but with live music which takes any show up about 10 notches in my opinion.   KFV plays for the crowd, he doesn’t just go through the motions like some performers, you can see it in his eyes and movements, he is having a great time and isn’t afraid to drop in a couple poses for the camera!  Half way through his set he was commenting that the security looked bored and everyone should crowd surf. The rest of his set, the local security got a work out for sure.  Great work Russ and the rest of the guys up there on a job well done. Unlike most shows I only seen one person kicked out, Juggalo Shows are always less violent then the main stream media would like you to believe.

After KFV’s set he went back to his merch table and cut deals, autographed items, and hung out with his fans!  Moonshine Bandits hit the stage with a long intro of amazing mixes by DJ Chopstiqs, followed by a fast paced and wildly fun time. There was even a white shiny moon!  A totally different genre of music, but such a great live show.  I am a fan of most music flavors, however some of the local nay sayers and critical personalities quickly got into this fast paced and good feeling musical hybrid of styles.  I am looking forward to seeing them live again – this was my first time, but certainly not the last!   A perfect blend of country and rap mixed in a way that is enjoyable for fans who tend to stick to either genre.   On stage theatrics involved…. well nothing but a pair of socks and some whitey tighties, jumping up and down!  Crowd response was wild, for what is now burned into the inside of my eyelids.

So before ICP took the stage, I had to get the camera protected in what I am calling the Camera Condom.  Unlike most photographers I dont cover myself in a huge sheet of plastic, the camera gets protected for obvious reasons, was the first time with this new case so took some adjustments to get it all straight.  Right from the start the clowns came out super strong – a mini tribute to the FBI to take the stage, and then right into tracks off of the Mighty Death Pop!  We are all used to the wicked clowns joining J and Shaggy on the stage, as well as the zombies.  What got my goosebumps out was when Burning Up started playing, Devils came out in great costumes and pitch forks.  Prom Queen was also done in epic fashion.  For some odd reason if you have read this far into my review and you have not seen ICP live, do yourself a favor and make sure it happens on this tour.  Forget the lyrics if thats why you are skeptical, forget the FBI bull shit.  The crowd and fans are a blast. and honestly its like a big family reunion at every show.

So no VIP pass on this show, and no media allowed during the VIP portion on this tour – however those who attended got a nice lil package of merchandise, got to meet Violent J, and Shaggy, get some autographs, snap some pics with them, however all that stuff is just a bonus when you buy the VIP package. Without a pass I was allowed into:  FAYGO ARMAGEDDON – How the long track Bang Pow Boom can go so fast I will never understand. This wasn’t my first Faygo Armageddon, however having the camera was a blast, also tried to capture it on video for you ninjas, see below.   So much soda to spray and rocket into the crowd in so little time, there is always a speech now given to the VIP’s to take it slow so the faygo lasts till the end of the song (I got the same speech at hallowicked, 2011, 2012, and multiple cities on the past couple tours).  However this is the first show where they staggered letting the VIP’s on to the stage that I have seen, rather then just letting them go out single file to join in the fun, 4 or 5 where let onto the stage roughly every 30 seconds to a minute.  At the back of the pack, the video is pretty short and for that I apologize, however this is by far the most fun you can have at ANY concert ever.  This ending to your night will stay in your head for years.

I still remember faygo dripping faces flashing in my mind from each time I have had the pleasure of doing this.  I always, I mean Always forget to bring extra shoes.  Outside I stripped naked in the parking lot and changed into dry clothes, packed up the camera equipment, and drove back home across the state in socks. I can not even begin to explain the pure primal excitement that faygo armageddon is, if you are a seasoned show goer who loves being up front in the crowd, that is nothing even remotely comparable to the feeling of being up on the stage. Go get your VIP passes.

A huge thank you to Psychopathic Records, Suburban Noize Records, Kung Fu Vampire, but most importantly the entire TJF Community – as we creep up to the 175k mark on facebook, I cant express enough how much fun it is having all you out there glancing at my pics, reading what I have to say and showing endless support and love for the site!    This is probably the first review in a long time where I don’t rant about some type of staleness, so for those of you who like the critical onslaught I have published before, I really don’t have anything to drop like that.  Stage lighting was brutal which is a photographers worst night mare, but that’s typical at most shows,  Strange Music is the only ones who do lighting perfectly in recent years.  Other then that the only stale part is that Local Juggalo Fatal Frankie attended his last show here, as he is moving.  I failed to snap a pic of him at this show which makes it all that much more stale.   You’ll be missed!   -Hazin

Dates will be added to the tour at a later date, currently the plan is to pick up the tour after the gathering and it should go through Hallowicked. Stay tuned to insaneclownposse.com for details Tickets and VIP can also be found on their website.

I’m usually my  harshest critic, Photos below are all taken with a Canon EOS 5D MII or a Nikon S8200, I’m not overly impressed with them, but hope you all like some of them. I had a abnormally high amount of exposure problems, and then working the camera and attempting to not only adjust it but see how it was doing after getting it all protected proved harder then I would of imagined, quite a few epic moments couldn’t be processed. Live and learn though.  Enjoy!