Chesaning Showboat, Hinder, Papa Roach, Buckcherry, July 14, 2007

The Chesaning Showboat ushered in a new era this year. The addition of the Bad Boys of Rock Tour gave the festival one of its most successful years in recent history. Featuring rock groups Hinder, Papa Roach, Buckcherry and the Exies the show drew a crowd of more than 6800.

Kicking off the show was the Exies. The group has two full length albums out and a hit single with the song Ugly. The crowd seemed to really enjoy their brand of rock and roll.

Buckcherry followed up the Exies and brought their excess fueled music to the table. Powered by the songs Next to You and Everything. Buckcherrys frontman Josh Todd gave the crowd energy, and stories of substance fueled excess that ended the set with their first hit single Lit Up. The Song is about a 16 year old Todd and his first experience with Cocaine. Hence the chorus " I love the cocaine." The other hit single Crazy Bitch went over extremely well as the band added in a rendition of the Stroke by Billy Squier. Buckcherry quite possibly could have been the most high energy performance of the night.

The title of best entertainers had to belong to Papa Roach. Jacoby Shaddix and company proved why they are one of the few nu-metal bands still in the business. Playing cuts off of all of their albums Papa Roach seemed to have the most well put together set. The set Flowed between old tracks like, She Loves me Not and new tracks like Scars and Getting Away with Murder.

Jacoby ventured out into the crowd for a song, circling the venue and ending up back on stage with his cohorts. The high point of the set was Last Resort off of 1999's Infest. The crowd really got into the nu-metal anthem. After a brief intermission Hinder took to the stage.

Drawing from a very obvious Steven Tyler reference, singer Austin Winkler performed with a scarf and bra draped mike stand. Hinder is well known for being one of the bands brining back excess to the rock scene. They are notorious partiers and from the sound of Winklers voice this night was no exception. Playing their album Extreme Behavior, Hinder put on a good old fashioned rock show. Songs like Bliss, Room 21 and Nothing Good About Goodbye warmed up the crowd for the hit Better Than You. A breakup song that gives the rest of us hope that you can always do better, the song has been a staple on modern rock radio as of late.

Hinder treated the crowd to some rarities as well, they debuted the song Thing for You at the show. A piano was wheeled out on the stage for the song Running in the Rain, a b-side to the album. A updated version of the Steppenwolf song Born to be Wild was also in the set. Perhaps the biggest response of the night was the mega-hit Lips of an Angel. The crowd was a field of blue lights. Evidently cell phones are the new bics. The crowd sang along to every word. As the show wrapped up the group invited everyone to go home and Get Stoned.

In a decade where the normal rock star looks just like you or me, it's nice to see the Bad Boys of Rock bringing back the rockstar life of excess.