Bam Margera as Fuckface Unstoppable at Crocks, 13 December 2013

Bam Margera is better known for what he did on a skateboard and in front of a camera than for anything he sang. Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1979, he joined the skate team at Element in 2001.

He was one of the stars of Jackass, the MTV series that ran in 2000 and 2001. Viva La Bam, his own show, followed from 2003 to 2005.

In December 2013 he arrived in Thunder Bay with a band, and the band’s name was one most newspapers would not print in full. Fuckface Unstoppable had formed that year, with Margera on lead vocals. Its line-up included Brandon Novak as co-vocalist, Margera’s older brother Jess on drums, a second drummer, Alex Flamsteed, and the guitarist Matty Janaitis.

A wedding and a tour

The band’s first album, Stórfréttir Í Reykjavík, came out in 2013, and its title is Icelandic and names Reykjavik. Margera married Nicole Boyd in Reykjavik on 5 October 2013. The tour was announced eight days later, on 13 October, and the Thunder Bay date was posted three days after that.

The tour ran from Peoria, Illinois, on 30 November to Montreal on 18 December. Wilson, a rock band from Michigan, travelled as co-headliner. Seattle and Spokane came first, and the Canadian half began in Calgary on 9 December, followed by Edmonton, Saskatoon and Winnipeg on the 12th.

The night at Crocks

Thunder Bay was next, on Friday 13 December, the first Ontario date of the tour.

The room was Crocks, at 16 Cumberland Street South, a short walk from Lake Superior. Loffredo & Associates presented the show with H.I.T Management. Doors were at 8 p.m., and there were three ticket levels: a limited early-bird price of $20, general admission at $25 and a VIP meet and greet at $40.

Next to the $45 asked for Akon in 2015, it was a modest night out. Wilson were billed as special guests, with Uhussie and Bay Street Bastards as the local support. Running order and set times were not published.

What the band played

A review of the Sault Ste. Marie date, the next night, described the set as a long chaotic party from wall to wall. It mixed covers of Turbonegro and Bloodhound Gang with the band’s own songs, and the crowd fed off the constant back-and-forth with Margera. That review is the best guide to how the tour sounded.

Jess Margera had a longer musical record than his brother, as drummer of CKY, the rock band he co-founded in 1998. The CKY video series, which Bam made with friends, began with Landspeed in 1999. Two drummers on a club stage make for a very loud evening.

The Michigan guests

Wilson formed in East Lansing, Michigan, in 2010 and later moved to the Detroit area. A five-piece rock band, it had a first album out in 2013, so the tour was also a promotional run for them. Two more albums followed, in 2015 and 2018.

Billed as special guests, they sat one rung above the two local acts, Uhussie and Bay Street Bastards. The two touring bands were on the same itinerary from Peoria to Montreal, seventeen dates in under three weeks, and Thunder Bay was the twelfth of them.

A television name in a rock room

Most acts on the Crocks calendar came up through touring or the charts. Margera came through skateboarding and television, and that changes what a ticket buys. A VIP tier at $40 fits a name known from the screen first: the meet and greet was part of the appeal.

After Thunder Bay the schedule went on to Sault Ste. Marie on the 14th, then Toronto, St. Catharines, Ottawa and Montreal. From Calgary to Montreal took ten days, with one night in this city in the middle.

The band’s second album followed in May 2014, and that same year Margera co-created and hosted a television show, Bam’s Bad Ass Game Show. Thunder Bay caught the act early in its life, in the year of the first record and before the second existed.