SEBASTIAN BACH & SNAKE OIL Kick off the 2025 M3 Festival! – Columbia, MD – 5/2/25

Sebastian Bach blew the roof off of The Merriweather Post Pavilion on day one of the annual M3 Rock Festival in front of a ton of hardcore Skid Row fans.

On a mostly sunny Friday afternoon, fans began gathering early in parking lot number 5 for the annual tailgate party. Old School Rocks Philly put on a great performance around 2:00pm. There were give-aways, free food, and lots of partying. A brief downpour passed through around 4:30pm and then the rest of the night was clear. Moving along to the entrance there were many fans in line reuniting with other friends they have made over the years of attending M3.

The gates opened at 6:30 for VIP ticket holders and 7:00pm for the rest. Fans went directly across the venue to the merch booth to get their favorite band t-shirts and swag as well as the cool event shirts. Oddly enough, the merch booth just inside the West Entrance was not open.

Opening the night was Snake Oil (Ikons of Rock), an 80’s rock tribute band from Canada who has toured extensively throughout Canada and The United States headlining and playing alongside the bands that they cover. Stash On the Radio gave the band and the fans a warm welcome to Maryland and to the 16th annual M3 Rock Festival.

Lead vocalist, Darren, does a stellar job singing your favorite 80’s rock tunes alongside vocalist Christelle who can rock out with the best female legends out there. They hit the stage at 8:00 with Darren decked out to look like Paul Stanley from Kiss, and of course, they opened with Detroit Rock City. Next, they nailed Shout It Out Loud so perfectly, one fan commented that they did Kiss better than Kiss does Kiss. These guys set the night on fire. (minus the literal fire that Kiss has at their shows)

Next Christelle replaced Darren at the front of the stage and belted out three Heart tunes looking like a young Ann Wilson. The crowd was loving these guys. KK on guitar was ripping the solos with ease, Tim was keeping time on the drums, and Darcy plucked away on the bass.

Darren returned to the stage dressed as Ozzy Osbourne to sing a few Ozzy tunes before biting the head off a faux bat. After Christell belted out a few Pat Benatar tunes, they got to show off a few original Snake Oil songs that rocked the fans hard. They ended the night with Autograph’s Turn Up The Radio.

Stash, along with Sirius XM’s Mark Strigl and Tommy London had the honor of welcoming Sebastian Bach. Baz and his band took to the stage with an original song, “What Do I Got To Lose?“. Next up was my favorite Skid Row song, “Slave to the Grind“. These guys belted through a bunch of SR hits, with Sebastian pausing between most songs to make small talk with the crowd. He teased that he has played M3 three times and still doesn’t know what it stands for, “May Third??, I Don’t Know“. Sebastian was having that proud dad moment all night as his son Paris was playing drums for them. Sebastian goofed on him saying that if he didn’t play well, he would make him go mow the lawn.

 They continued to play all of our favorite Skid Row tunes quite flawlessly. The fans were on their feet and singing along to just about every song. They played a blistering hour and fifteen-minute set that left everyone wondering what just happened. “Bruiser” Brody DeRozie was killing it on the guitar. When Sebastian introduced him, he teased him that he was born on December 29 of 1989, and that he got to party for 3 days that year and Brody probably doesn’t even remember his first 3-day bender. Then he introduced his jacked bassist, Fede Delfino, from Uraguay, referring to him as “He-Man” and said that he is the only guy he has been in a band with that can sing like Sebastian Bach, speaking of himself in the third person.

They played the rest of the Skid Row hits and a couple more originals, then did a great rendition of PainmuseuM’s “Metalhead“. Man, he really belted that one out. Finally, as you might expect, they ended the night with “Youth Gone Wild” to a packed pavilion of fans all on their feet and singing along. What a great way to end the first day of what will undoubtedly be a weekend of bad ass rock bands. It’s officially time for a lot of people to relive your youth and forget about the daily grind for a while.

M3 kicked off the weekend with 2 phenominal bands, and for those that didn’t have enough, there was Dash’s Karaoke party at The Lakehouse hotel and an unofficial after-party featuring Bad Marriage, Midnight Devils, and Rat Rod at Union Jacks. I personally chose to hit Denny’s for some grub with friends and pack it in to get ready for the next day of the festival.