Vicious Rumors
- Bleeding Priest
- 10 hours ago
- 4 min read
March 12, 2026
DNA Lounge
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco was jumping on this Thursday night. We had two Metal shows happening on either end of town. On one side we had Vicious Rumors and on the other there was Solicitor/Trencher/Phantasmal Abyss and others. Did I dare go to both? I dared!
I hit the Vicious Rumors show first at the DNA (upstairs) being that it was an early show. I knew it was going to be a long night of loud music so I decided to show up just late enough to only catch Vicious Rumors. I can’t handle 5 + bands in one night anymore, sorry.
Vicious Rumors sounded great. The sound in the small upstairs room at The DNA can be a crapshoot but it was on point tonight. Seeing Geoff Thorpe up there rocking out always puts a smile on my face. I’m glad he and Vicious Rumors are still at it.
I was equally glad to see Larry Howe behind the kit. Regardless of what I think of the guy’s political views and his somewhat unhinged social media presence, he’s still a huge part of the band’s sound and deserves to be up there. He still has the fire and chops for days. Larry’s the right man for the job and should remain a member in my opinion. He just needs to shut the fuck up!
The rest of the band were in top form. I don’t know how Geoff does it. Every time I turn around there’s a new member but they’re always top notch. Where and how does he find all these guys? It can’t be money because I can tell you firsthand that being in Vicious Rumors doesn’t pay.
Shit, I did two European tours and countless local gigs with them and never got paid a dime. I blame myself though for not being more assertive. I have zero regrets. Geoff gave me the huge opportunity of going to Europe for the first time and playing Wacken…for the first time. For me it was the love of their music that kept me hanging around for a couple of years. I’m sure that’s what drives all the other members who have come and gone as well. Vicious Rumors’ music is classic and timeless.
I stayed for maybe the first 8 or 9 songs and got a chance to hear some gems such as “March Or Die”, “Digital Dictator”, “Abandoned” and “Only Live Twice”. The latter was one of my favorite songs to play with them. In addition they played some ripping, more recent numbers as well. As much as I wanted to stay I had another show to hit.
Since my review of this show is so brief, how about I tell a very entertaining story from my time in the band.
We were on tour in Europe with Savatage and Blaze Bayley. We were sharing a bus with Blaze. He had a lot of rules. One being no drugs of any sort on the bus, including pot. Being that we were paying equal share for the bus, after a couple of weeks we said “FUCK THIS!” Geoff started being very strategic about when and more importantly HOW we got stoned. There was to be absolutely no drug paraphernalia on the bus!
Geoff being the ever so industrious fellow that he is was a wiz with making pipes out of apples. We got into a regular habit of smoking up in the upstairs back lounge of the bus with all the windows open while Blaze was on stage. It was working out just fine until…..
I’m not entirely sure who did it but I think it was me. After a heavy session of smoking I haphazardly put the apple back on the fruit basket. Later on that night we were chilling in the upstairs lounge when all of a sudden we heard Blaze from downstairs shout “Bloody Hell, GEOFF!!!!”. Geoff went downstairs to see what the issue was. I was thinking “Oh shit, Geoff fucked up”.
Amidst the shouting I heard Blaze say, in his most dramatic voice, “Geoff, you made a bong out of a pear!!” It was an apple but who’s keeping score. That was the most Bruce Dickinson-like I had ever heard Blaze. If he had sung like that in Iron Maiden maybe he would have lasted longer…maybe.
What I was told by one of their crew was that Blaze actually bit into it and it was all charred black on the inside, hence the “Bloody Hell!!!”
As a result Vicious Rumors were kicked off the bus the next day with a lot of tour left to do. It took a few days for Geoff to work his magic and miraculously find our own bus. Again, I don’t know how Geoff pulls this stuff off but he’s got the magic tongue apparently.
Before we got our own bus we had to rely on fans and friends to drive us to the next couple of gigs. We literally rode in fans cars. Like 3 or 4 separate cars. And these were long distances, crossing borders. It was crazy. But in true Vicious Rumors fashion we survived, persevered and finished the tour.
I don’t want to come off like I disliked Blaze. We got along really well actually. He seemed to really appreciate that I was (and still am) a fan of his old band Wolfsbane. He loved to talk about Wolfsbane and I loved listening. I think he found it refreshing that I wasn’t asking “what was it like being in Maiden?”
Anyways, on the last day of being on that bus we were clearing our bunks and stuff. I went back in one last time to do an idiot check. I went to my bunk and found a neatly folded vintage Wolfsbane t-shirt on my pillow. I think that was Blaze’s way of saying bye to me. Pretty classy move actually.
–Bleeding Priest
