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Music

Call it Livestock for a day

While the rockfest is on hiatus, its promoters are staging BFD, a show featuring up-and-coming bands.

By RICK GERSHMAN
Published April 28, 2005

[Getty Images photos]

3 Doors Down, above, gets top billing at BFD, which also features the band Papa Roach, below.

	Papa Roach

TAMPA - Mike Sierra swears that Livestock, the 98 Rock-sponsored music festival that enjoyed a 15-year run in eastern Pasco County, will live again.

But not this spring. Zephyrhills Festival Park owner and promoter Sierra this year canceled the weekendlong show known for its raucous music and behavior, citing "storm trooper" tactics by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

So the radio station, WXTB-FM, instead is throwing BFD, a daylong concert Saturday at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa.

As for what BFD stands for, well, we're content to consider it Bright Future Day, because this replacement forgoes long-established draws from Livestocks past, such as as Foo Fighters, the Offspring and Anthrax, in favor of up-and-comers.

Top-billed is 3 Doors Down from Biloxi, Miss. Its hit Kryptonite is still popular five years after its emergence. And its 2002 single When I'm Gone has had just as much staying power, especially with military families identifying with its main lyric of "Hold me while I'm here /Love me when I'm gone." Here Without You, off the same album, also has maintained consistent air play.

But figuring to be top draw with the teens and early-20s concertgoers is Breaking Benjamin, omnipresent on 98 Rock, MTV2, Fuse and just about everywhere else young rock fans enjoy music. So Cold is the track that's so hot, and Sooner Or Later is rising fast.

Guitarist Aaron Fink and bassist Mark James Klepaski gave up a major-label contract and mainstream radio play with their band Lifer to join Breaking Benjamin. They explained that BB vocalist Ben Burnley's songs all sounded like hits, so they took a chance on the fledgling independent group. No one's arguing now.

Splitting the difference is Papa Roach, the group now familiar to reality-show buffs as the showcase for drummer Dave Buckner, married to Celebrity Fit Club contestant Mia Tyler. (She's a plus-size model, sister of actor Liv and daughter of Aerosmith rocker Steven.)

Outside of addictive TV about addictive celebrities, Northern California-bred Papa Roach is best known for a string of blistering alt-metal hits including Last Resort, She Loves Me Not and the more recent Getting Away With Murder.

From that point BFD's lineup really gets intriguing.

Tallahassee's No Address is a fast-rising young band with one of the catchiest rock tunes on radio, When I'm Gone (Sadie), which is on the band's major-label debut Time Doesn't Notice. If Notice has more tunes as catchy, expect No Address to put Tallahassee on the map.

Speaking of Florida bands, Alter Bridge was formed from the original lineup of Creed, combining guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall with vocalist Myles Kennedy.

Absent, for better or worse, is vocalist Scott Stapp, whose penchant for pretension, melodrama and endless Christlike poses earned Creed as many detractors as fans. Debut album One Day Remains hasn't attracted the Creed fan base or earned many new listeners, but it will be interesting to see how the live show comes off Stapp-less.

Rounding out the lineup is Los Angeles' the Exies, which has earned a smattering of modern rock radio play over the course of its three albums, and Dark New Day, a quintet composed of veterans from numerous bands.

BFD with 3 Doors Down, Breaking Benjamin, Papa Roach and more, 1 p.m. Saturday, Ford Amphitheatre, Interstate 4 at U.S. 301 N, Tampa. Gates open at noon. Reserved seats $30-$47. No lawn seating for this show. (813) 740-2446 or (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100.

[Last modified April 27, 2005, 10:13:08]