The sleepy town of West Chester, Pennsylvania is known for three things. West Chester University, MTV stuntman Bam Margera, and loved-yet-unclassifiable rock band CKY. With Margera opening a new bar/venue in downtown West Chester, it was only a matter of time before CKY played the room known as The Note, but it wasn’t that easy. Guitarist/Singer Deron Miller quit the band in mid to late 2007 and the band was relatively unheard from for that period of time, until Hellview III was announced, the latest installment in a series of shows based on the songs "96 quite bitter beings" and "escape from hellview." Previous years at the Electric factory featured crazy costumes and props, but this year was a bit more low key except for the two hour performance. Hellview I took place at the Electric Factory in 2003 with the second installment at the same venue two years later. Hellview III was in a room ¼ the size but was every bit as intense.

Opening the show was the Moxy, a band that looks as put together as the Backstreet Boys who are unfortunately the newest signees to Bam Margera’s Filthy Note records. The Moxy took the stage to little fanfare and rightfully so. If Margera’s obsession with HIM couldn’t be anymore obvious, he signed a band that sounds like HIM for children, albeit with an extremely attractive female on vocals. Their songs were boring and contrived, standard chord progressions that a 14 year-old kid learns at his first guitar lesson but drowned in computerized distortion. Production and keyboards would have been a welcome addition if they didn’t sound like they were layered on top of an already awful song by a Casio bought at best buy.

The most unfortunate thing about the Moxy was their appearance, something that usually wouldn’t be that big of a deal. Singer Greta looked like she raided the closet of Tsunami Bomb’s frontwoman Agent M, guitarist Taylor emulated Jack White down to a T, other guitarist Ahmed was a spot on impersonator of professional wrestler D-Lo Brown (by the way dude, if you’re not in Black Sabbath the devil horns get a little old), bassist Louie must have just waken up from a coma he went into on the Lower East Side in 2001 after an audition for the Strokes while the other two guys looked like generic dudes they picked up at Guitar Center.

Greta mentioned briefly that CKY guitarist Chad Ginsburg is producing their debut album, which was a shock. Ginsburg is known for being anti…pretty much everything, so this is still surprising. The truth is not even Rick Rubin producing the Moxy with the assistance of pre-murderous Phil Spector could save this band from the small town known as Generica.

After the Moxy finally departed the stage, the chants of SEE-KAY-WHY came out in full force while their just as famous roadie Mark Hanna set up the band’s equipment under the massive Longhorn skull hanging from the ceiling. The house lights died and a wash of creepy horror movie music came over the P.A. signaling CKY. Back from the dead? Sort of. Better than ever? It seems so.

Besides a small North Jersey warm-up show two days prior, this was CKY’s first public appearance in over a year but you’d never know as the band tore into “96 Quite Bitter Beings” from their debut, Volume 1. A song known mostly for it’s use in Drummer Jess Margera’s brother’s skateboard videos and MTV shows, the crowd at the Note exploded at the sound of that frantic main riff. The band sounds way tighter now than they did in 2003, most likely due to the 2005 addition of former All That Remains bassist Matt Deis. From “Beings” the band went into “Attached at the Hip” before getting through “Escape from Hellview,” “Sink Into the Underground” and “Rio Bravo” all with pauses in the middle to take requests from the crowd.

Miller’s voice sounded alternately like freshly churned butter and barbed wire as he did things vocally that were only hinted at on previous CKY tours. In the absence of CKY, Miller’s been recording with his new death metal band World Under Blood and some of that influence seeped into his vocal delivery. The surprise of the night was a new song that appears on CKY’s as-yet-untitled forthcoming album (to be released in March according to Miller but April according to Ginsburg). “Hellions on Parade” starts out like a normal CKY song with straight riffage and an easy time signature, but once the song’s verse kicks in it’s a new side of the band which is much more interesting than their 2005 flop An Answer Can Be Found (“This new album is way better than the last one”- a visibly intoxicated Ginsburg).

Most of the non-musical entertainment of the night was supplied by the volatile Ginsburg who was drunker than anyone at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday who spouted off facts like “We’re still on Roadrunner so we haven’t fucked everything up” and “Me and Deron are getting along just fucking dandy!” Ginsburg also cued up Cher’s “Believe” on his sampler inciting a mini disco from the crowd as well as Miller. The highlight of Ginsburgs antics? The man lit his own beard on fire. If that’s not rock n’ roll, what is?

Playing mostly songs from Volume 1 and 2002’s epic Infiltrate Destroy Rebuild, the band tore the roof off of the Note in a way that I seriously doubted could happen after all this time, a pleasant surprise from a band who at one time was the most interesting thing in underground rock music. CKY closed with a version of “Close Yet Far” which was a lot more rabble rousing and epic than the recorded song, a fitting end to an already stellar evening.