YouTube Channel Profile Series: Joe Bedlam

For our last monthly feature post of the month, our newest YouTube Channel Profile is here, and it again features a spotlight of a randomly selected YouTube channel whose content is at least half devoted to local metal, hard rock, or punk artists/concerts! This month's selection is an official channel for a late lamented band who accomplished a lot and put out some really solid music in their heyday, so here's what you should know!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joe Bedlam (http://youtube.com/videosofbedlam)

Owner: A member or representative of 2008-2015 local hard rock quartet Garden of Bedlam, exact identity unclear (though note that no band member was named Joe) 

Channel Timeline: Launched on September 12th, 2010; Videos uploaded from July 2012 through January 2013

Channel Summary: An official YouTube channel for Garden of Bedlam from a six month stretch of the latter half of their active run (succeeding this earlier channel), fans can watch two live performance videos, a rehearsal clip, and a slideshow set to one of their studio tracks here.

Why You Should Watch: While not the largest source of Garden of Bedlam content on YouTube, this channel does feature some good content from shortly before their activity began winding down in the mid-2010s, and fans of theirs should take to the content on offer! I mean, as of this writing, they haven't played live in over a decade, which is hard enough to believe! 

 Our Recommended Videos To Check Out:

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Your Disgrace (live July 21, 2012): The first two uploads here come from Garden of Bedlam's headlining set at Rotaryfest's Second Stage in July 2012, in its penultimate year on a closed off section of Queen Street East before its 2014 hiatus and relocation to Clergue Park. As usual, the band is represented here by ex-Barfly/Changing Lanes frontman Erik "Buzz" Boissineau, guitarist Josh Belleau, bassist Evan Belleau, and future Wyld Stallyns/Even Flow drummer Derek Turner. The guys were filmed here playing two cuts from their 2011 album "Everything Will Die", including the title track and (featured here) "Your Disgrace". Camera work is a little shaky, but the performances are sound, and I miss hearing Buzz's powerful melodic vocals on stage! The Queen Street locale was more unique visually too than how Stage 2 looks now, but your mileage may vary.

 

Garden Of Bedlam - Everything Will Die (drum can rehersal): To help promote their Rad Zone birthday concert on Devil's Night 2012 at The Rockstar Bar, this channel uploaded a rehearsal video of Garden of Bedlam jamming "Everything Will Die" focusing on Derek. Interestingly, this isn't your typical "drum cam" video, as someone (Joe?) was actively filming Derek while holding the camera, not relying on a tripod or stationary placement, so it's quite jittery. The focus on Derek does let us see how solid of a drummer he is (I'm glad that he still performs live in different projects), though you only see part of Josh in frame for the rest of the band. The fan who shows up 30 seconds in sure got a good view of everything!

Garden of Bedlam Around the Bend: The final and most popular "video of bedlam" here is a slideshow set to their ballad "Around The Bend" (also from "Everything Will Die"), featuring ample photos of or related to the band's 2008-2012 activity, including live performance shots, promotional photos, band logos, and album covers. I do like my Garden of Bedlam heavier than this, but the song shows off Buzz's soft pure singing voice really well, and the slideshow gives a nice glimpse at the majority of their run together!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hope you guys liked this month's YouTube Channel Profile! This series will return on or around Boxing Day for one more installment in 2025, and next month, we'll be looking at multiple channels, as the first randomly selected channel only has one video period, so I picked one more channel that had only two distinct SMS-relevant video to fill things out with. As such, we're ending the year with YouTube users kekeitba (featuring a Woods of Ypres song upload) and ChrisHubbard415E (featuring two solo guitar performance videos). Stay tuned for those then, and for weekend concert previews on the SMS next! Thanks everyone!