GREEN JELLY : THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE JELLY TOUR with SPECIAL GUESTS FROM THIS DAY FORWARD & BATTERING HAM

Updated: Jun 8

GREEN JELL: THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE JELLY TOUR

At SWAN DIVE In LAS VEGAS

Insanity, madness, traveling freak show, a circus all this and more is what you get when you go see a GREEN JELLY show. You never know what you are going to get as they are constantly coming up with new and creative ideas to entertain their fans, and this tour I believe tops all previous ones I have seen. The Swan Dive in Las Vegas decided to take on this extravaganza, and what a night of fun.

But first let's get to the openers and BATTERING HAM. This Las Vegas trio self describes as a punk, metal, comedic band who does not take themselves seriously. They call their music “weiner-core”, and that was truly evident throughout their set. The is Craig Swanson, Chad Crowder and Nick Garcia, and they have carved out a following on the local underground party scene.

During their set they had a female robot come out with balloon weiner hats to give out to the crowd - with songs about wieners and poop you knew sonrhting like this had to happen. The band played songs with titles such as "Sex Working Robot", ":The Dong Show", "George Takei vs Your Anus", "Suck My What?", "And Hot For Preacher", which was a really good satirical Van Halen cover but with let's say... different lyrics. Overall this band delivers a fun filled show and from what I saw are great musicians. You can see a sample of what these guys sound like HERE and on Spotify HERE.

Next up was the band FROM THIS DAY FORWARD, an emo / metalcore sounding band who noted that this was the opening night of their tour with Green Jelly. I really liked this band and the energy they brought to the stage.

The band hails from from Omaha,and can't find too much out there about them beside they have a couple singles out this year, you can check out more music and blurbs HERE and HERE,

GREEN JELLY just returned home from a brief European tour and decided to do another brief tour of the USA. The band said they left LA at 7am and headed to Vegas, but in Baker CA their bus had a breakdown, and it took 5 hours to get it repaired and get back on the road. Because of that it pushed back by the start of their show by about an hour. OOOFT. It pushed back the start of their show by about an hour, because before they could go on, they had to get all their props prepared, and this time they had more props than ever before. They had blow up props of everything from three 'lil pigs, a unicorn, a giant Buckie's Beaver, Sponge Bob's entrance, a dolphin... and on and on. Add in all the puppet heads that they pass out to the audience, who then are instructed to put them on and participate in different activities - such as a pool noodle beatdown, where fearless leader Bill Manspeaker instructs them to get in the center of a mosh pit and for everyone else to surround them and beat them with pool noodles.

Green Jelly is the brainchild of Bill Manspeaker, who formed this group of misfits back in 1981. At the start of their show he asked that the lights in the venue be turned off, and they remained off until the very end, so this show was performed in the dark. Pure chaos. He did have everyone to get out their cell phones and turn on the light (which was the only light in the venue) but that illuminated the mosh area amazingly well. During their show the members of the band would walk off the stage and into the crowd, but with it so dark no one really knew they were sometimes standing next to them!

But the biggest insane thing at this show was the nonstop pool noodle beatings by anyone who stepped into the mosh area. Bill said he bought every pool noodle Walmart had, and the genius thing was, no one got hurt but had a blast. Bill is a master of ceremonies as he directs all the action including when the band plays or stops, as he even insults his own band by yelling between songs, “Green Jelly SUCKS”. I could tell that EVERYONE was having a great time, in what looked like an adult McDonald's play pit.

No other show I have been to had the entire audience participate in this kind of craziness. This is a one of a kind band, and a one of a kind show, led by a one of a kind mad genius. LOVED LOVED LOVED this year's The Good, The Bad, and The Jelly Tour! There is a lot of tour to go, so check our tour dates and everything about Green Jelly HERE.

Green Jelly photos Harold Mountain / JustAFanPhotos