The Black Dahlia Murder Mayhem Tour Report: Rat Fink, Costumes and Bam Margera

Ryan Knight from the Black Dahlia Murder is currently on the road with the Rockstar Mayhem Fest. He's chimed in from the early days on the road, and now here's even more 'metal minutia' for you.

Scranton, Pa.
Well, here we are, Scranton, Pa. ... in the middle of the mountains. The weather pretty much sucks today, rainy and humid as balls. I actually saw a sign [that says] 'Watch for rattlesnakes in the area.' I was later informed that there is someone on the premises whose job is to corral the rattlesnakes in the area ... interesting. My good friend Nick came out to the show today, so we hung out and did some heavy metal parking-lotting. Although it was raining, Trivium still threw a pretty crunk after party, so hats off to them. I got down to Nelly's' 'Hot in Here' pretty hard, while letting the rain -- which was running off the tents we were under -- bathe me. Word.

Day off, Cleveland
I dunno why, but I hate Ohio. I'm not trying to offend anyone that lives there, but I generally just don't like that place. I think maybe seeing the movie 'Gummo,' which was based on people living in Xenia, Ohio may have skewed my vision of the state. Me, Karim and Paddy our guitar tech went and got tattoos at a local shop in the area. I got a Rat Fink tat on the inside of my left leg. My reasoning behind the tattoo? Well besides Rat Fink just looking rad, the dude looks like he's on coke 24/7. I mean the dudes obviously a rager. Half the time he looks geeked out while driving a hot rod around. I always have a friend to party with now. Woohoo. Played 'World of Warcraft' for a few hours then went to bed. Good day.

Cleveland
Show today was good. Nothing to complain about. Mushroomhead made a guest appearance on the show today ... one dude in the band looks like he's wearing a potato sack stuffed with snakes. Whitechapel threw their party tonight, which was rad. They had sweet tea and vodka, PBR and moon pies ... it was a s----kickin' good time.

Off show, Rochester, N.Y.
We had an off-date show today with Cannibal, Behemoth and God Forbid. Some cops kept riding by all day screaming "BLACK DAHLIA MURDER!!!" We later found out they were fans, and ended up at the show. Went to this bad-ass BBQ place called Dinosaur in downtown Rochester. I can't believe this place is in [New York], the BBQ was ultimately tasty ass and much joy was had. The show went well, and afterward I talked guitar nerd s--- with Matt from God Forbid. Had a good view of the river in Rochester today, and for once I'm here when it's not 42 below zero. Upstate [New York] still creeps me the f--- out though.

Boston, Mass.
Here we are in New England. The place where a lot of old people come to see the pretty fall foliage before they high tail it to Florida for the winter. Shows in the Boston area are usually pretty rad from my experience, and today proved my assumption correct. Lots of metalheads, dirties, juggalos, xdeathcorex kids and everyone else living in perfect harmony in metal bliss. This is the way it should be. A striking differentiation I have found between U.S. metal fests and European ones are the ratio of people passed out on the ground. It's not strange to just find some drunken, dirty as s---, European passed out in piss in the main walking area around 1 PM. This instance is much lower in America, but we do have more drunkards walking around yelling "Slayer" ... which is considerably more annoying. I'd like to see more people dressing up at American outdoor festivals. In Europe it's pretty standard to see some dude dressed up as a shark, a roman guard or a dirty tampon. I did see some guy recently dressed up as a chicken, and even a guy with a Master Shake costume, so that was pretty rad. Let's get creative here.

Camden, N.J.
The parking lot today hosted a spectacular view of downtown Philly. WOW!!! There was a nice breeze, and overall we couldn't have asked for a nicer day. Bam Margera was hanging out at the show, so of course I had to do a little knob slobbering and get a pic with him. Mission accomplished! Gwar also made a guest appearance at the show, and they're always entertaining. I didn't get hit with s---, shoes, bottles, dip spit or glass on stage today. Success! People really seem to just wanna throw s--- at this festival. It must be all the devil's fuel they are drinking in the parking lot before the metal mayhem begins. God Forbid threw a ghetto-themed party complete with 40s, watermelon, chicken, grape drink mixed with whiskey, and best of all DO-RAGS. Weeeeird. My do-rag looked slightly more like half a ninja mask, but that's OK ... everyone likes ninjas.