LONG BEACH, California – "So Ronnie Radke performed a song with you guys at your Vegas show," I said as soon as I sat down with Jared Warth and Eric Lambert of Blessthefall at Thursday's Taste of Chaos stop. "Man, word gets around fast!" Jared laughed. "Well, you know, there's the Internet," I shrugged, "So — whose idea was it?"

Pay attention because here's where I explain what the big deal is: On the Vegas stop of Taste of Chaos, former Escape the Fate frontman Ronnie Radke took the stage to perform a song with Blessthefall. Funny little trade it was, because Blessthefall's former leading mean, Craig Mabbitt, is currently playing some shows with Escape the Fate as their lead vocalist. ETF have said this is only temporary, however, as Craig initially left his band to be with his child and re-evaluate his decision to pursue a career in music.

"Ronnie came up to us at one of our shows and asked us if it was cool. It's his hometown, and kids know him, so we were into it," said Eric.

Lisa Huey of Dingsomething.com caught some of Ronnie's Vegas cameo on film. Ronnie's emergence caused a tizzy in both the ETF and Blessthefall communites, inspiring speculation about the future of both bands. Voices from the Buzznet community largely concluded that although they'd like to see Radke performing again, they'd prefer it be with ETF — after he serves his sentence of five years probation for the involvement in the death of Michael Cook (the result of a brawl that took place in May '07).

Last month, Blessthefall posted a blog soliciting "serious singers."

"We have some solid choices, but we're not making it our focus right now, since we're touring and all," they commented on the current status of their search.

"In the process of looking for a new singer, have you had any terrible 'American-Idol'-like experiences?" I asked.

"Oh, there are definitely some William Hungs," Jared laughed, "And since we started looking for a singer, there are so many more videos of kids singing to our songs on YouTube."

"Hoping to be discovered?" I countered. "Yeah," Jared smiled, "We've watched most of them. It's fun." Example:



"We're looking for someone to click with our band. We're kids, we like to joke around, ya know? There have been guys that are amazing and have everything we want, vocally... they just don't click with us."


After Taste of Chaos (including the Canada dates, which are only TOC headliners), they said they'd be writing songs and locking down a new singer, hopefully. "We have five or six songs done already, so we look forward to making some more progress on that."