Skip Cromer violates the crowd as The Burt Reynolds Death Metal Experiment at Adam Weaver’s Sound Factory benefit show this past weekend.

“Aren’t you tired of hearing the same old sh&t?” It was a question asked by Skip Cromer to his diehard TBRDME fans during his set at Adam Weaver’s benefit show at The Sound Factory. Describing the lack of his own new material, it could just as likely describe our affection for his music.

Opening up with a spoof “Star Wars”-TBRDME disclaimer intro, projected by Caustic Eye’s Rod Lanham complete with flashing porn pic, Cromer (who plays bass in Byzantine) took the stage in his Reno 911-looking cop outfit saying “I’m gonna write you a citation for having too much fun.” With only a guitar, an mp3 player and a mic, TBRDME rolled through “Envy” and “The Bastard Son” as a couple dozen Burt fans crowded the stage.

Cromer’s funny side was on display in between songs, imitating Howard Dean: “We’re gonna take the show to Mingo County, and then we’re gonna take it to McDowell County, YEAAAAHHH!!!” After that it was the anti-emo punk anthem “Finding Emo” (which you can hear @ Caustic Eye), where Burt sings: “This is not an act, this is the real me.” Then it was a couple of quick bars from “Summer of ‘69″ by Bryan Adams before Burt cussed Adams.

During “Teenage Love Ballad,” Byzantine singer and guitarist Chris Ojeda could be seen peeking into the gaping hole in Burt’s shorts, jokingly of course. He was also quick on-stage to help with Skip’s amp after it messing up during the aptly titled “Country Song,” which found distorted riffage over the country slide guitars. It was kind of an unplanned for thing, but appropriate for the sound as Burt just kept playing.

Burt thanked Don Henley for one of his new songs, a parody of “Desperado” about Paris Hilton, and Burt’s wish to see her incarcerated for life. Skip dedicated “A Pirate’s Life For Me” to his pregnant fiancee, saying “That’s how dedicated I am to my fans. I’m willing to get killed for you.”

During the song, people actually got up and walked out. You have to hear it. Burt said “Bye, thanks for your money,” as they walked out and the crowd of people around the stage turned in unison and flipped them off. It was one of the coolest things I’ve seen at a show. “Unknown Hinson is gonna kill me,” Burt added.

TBRDME broke out some cool covers, including “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd and “Freebird” by you know who, complete with insane riffage and death growl vocals. The back and forth between Burt and his fans was refreshing, almost seeming like more of a comedian than of someone in a band.

One showgoer had an unreasonable request; wanting Burt to play “God Bless WV Women.” Burt admitted he had accidentally deleted it from his mp3 player, then jokingly coming back with “Why are you busting my balls? I’m up here slaving. You’ll just have to buy the CD.”

It was great to finally see TBRDME. Long story short: I bought the TBRDME t-shirt. Cromer’s talents are obvious when seeing Burt live. Even Jessica, who wasn’t a fan going in, was impressed with Cromer’s singing and soloing. After closing with “Trans Ams, Mullets and Moustaches” Burt said something like “That’s it, I’m done.” The background music came on and we took out. And we didn’t even leave feeling violated.

— Read the Gazz article on TBRDME here and listen to “God Bless WV Women” here.

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