A Great Big Pile of Leaves

Unsigned locals A Great Big Pile of Leaves opened the evening with a pleasing blend of jazzy guitars and an indie-rock approach. Anchored by three-way vocal harmonies, the Brooklyn trio (rounded out with an additional guitarist for live performances) played a rock-solid twenty-five minute set that began with “Alligator Bop”, the first song on their excellent 2010 debut, Have You Seen My Prefrontal Cortex?. Though most of the band’s set came from that album, A Great Big Pile of Leaves also tossed in two cuts from 2007′s The Firery Works EP, including “workeatsleep”, a technical beauty driven by a nicely worked finger-tapped guitar lead. “We Don’t Need Our Heads” finished the band’s six song setlist.

Alligator Bop
Vampires in Love
This is a Country Song
workeatsleep
A Few Screws Loose
We Don’t Need Our Heads

Saves the Day

“Anywhere With You” kicked things off for Saves the Day just after 7PM. The New Jersey four-piece drew singalongs from an eager crowd, all the while sounding as tight as they’ve ever sounded. Things picked up immediately with “Firefly”, frontman Chris Conley launching into the song’s instantly-recognizable first words: “I said I’d walk you home after our third round of pouring whiskey down the barrel of our guts!”

Saves the Day

Through Being Cool‘s “Shoulder to the Wheel” is always a welcomed part of any Saves the Day setlist, but it was the brand new songs from the upcoming Daybreak that were most interesting: “1984″, “Let it All Go”, and “Z”, the last featuring a stunning guitar solo. The quartet’s forty-five minute setlist included tracks from most of the band’s discography, including powerful performances of singles “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic” and “At Your Funeral”.

Anywhere With You
Firefly
Shoulder to the Wheel
1984
The End
Cars and Calories
Let It All Go
Third Engine
Freakish
Eulogy
Can’t Stay the Same
Z
Rocks Tonic Juice Magic
At Your Funeral

Say Anything

Say Anything occupied Best Buy Theater’s stage between 8:15 and 9:15PM. The six-piece, with The Starting Line’s Kenny Vasoli filling in on bass, played fourteen songs across their entire discography, digging all the way back to their first full-length, Baseball, with “Colorblind”. Though Say Anything brought intensity to the stage and routinely engaged the crowd, the Max Bemis-fronted project lacked the songs to back the band’s otherwise ferocious punch. Say Anything’s catalog ranges from trite and uninteresting (“Woe”), at best, to downright grating (“Wow, I Can Get Sexual, Too”). Luckily, the band did spend a few minutes of their hour-long set with Chris Conley covering “Crawl”, a track recorded earlier in the year by the Bemis/Conley collaboration Two Tongues. Former bassist Alex Kent returned for …Is a Real Boy leadoff “Belt”, wrapping up Say Anything’s time on stage.

Crush’d
Little Girls
Woe
Baby Girl, I’m a Blur
Less Cute
Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat
Alive With the Glory of Love
Crawl (Two Tongues cover)
Wow… I Can Get Sexual, Too
Spay Me
She Won’t Follow You
Colorblind
Do Better
Belt

Motion City Soundtrack

After a short set change, Motion City Soundtrack began with “The Weakends”, the song’s instrumental introduction building excitement in the crowd, finally boiling over with frontman Justin Pierre’s clever lyrics and equally quirky demeanor: “Quicksand is a coat of arms / looseleaf and some liquid fiction / Last Rites every Friday night / am I weaker with the lights on?” It was the next song, though — longtime favorite “The Future Freaks Me Out” — that brought the audience to full attention with enormous hooks and commanding vocals.

Motion City Soundtrack

“Capital H”, another standout track from the excellent I am the Movie, kept things rolling for Motion City Soundtrack. The five-piece sounded as strong as ever, and, with a healthy Pierre leading the charge, made a case for perhaps their best performance to date in New York City. Exhibits A and B: new cuts “Pulp Fiction” and “Her Words Destroyed My Planet”, two My Dinosaur Life songs performed flawlessly live. Lesser seen songs, like “Point of Extinction” and “Perfect Teeth”, illustrate the difficulty in picking out a Motion City Soundtrack setlist: their discography is packed with distinguished punk-pop romps. Fleshed out songs like “Hold Me Down” showcase the band’s thicker, slower sound, while the set-closing “My Favorite Accident” exemplified the band’s lighter, simple-synth-driven sound.

Motion City Soundtrack

Motion City Soundtrack’s encore began with a surprise that excited parts of the crowd while simultaneously leaving hordes of teenage girls in the dark: Nine Inch Nails’s “Head Like a Hole”. With thundering bass and rattling drums, the Minneapolis natives delivered a respectable rendition of one of Trent Reznor’s finest songs. Of course, Motion City Soundtrack didn’t leave their massive teenage fanbase hungry, treating New York City to one of their best (and undeniably most popular) songs, “Everything is Alright”, to finish the evening at 10:45.

The Weakends
The Future Freaks Me Out
This Is For Real
Capital H
Attractive Today
Pulp Fiction
LG Fuad
Broken Heart
Time Turned Fragile
Point Of Extinction
Perfect Teeth
Her Words Destroyed My Planet
A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help)
Last Night
Hold Me Down
My Favorite Accident
Head Like a Hole (Nine Inch Nails cover)
Disappear
Everything is Alright

Dignified sets from A Great Big Pile of Leaves and Saves the Day warmed the Best Buy Theater crowd, but it was Motion City Soundtrack — armed with more than hour of time on stage — that delivered the night’s finest performance. Performing nineteen songs across each of the their full-length albums, it’s tough for anyone to outshine Motion City Soundtrack. With a stellar live show built on a vigorous touring schedule, and the release of one of 2010′s best records, it’s hard to see Motion City Soundtrack slowing down any time soon. Everything is alright.

Saves the Day

In front of an eager hometown crowd, Saves the Day began with In Reverie leadoff “Anywhere With You” just after 7:30PM. Fan-favorite “Firefly” went next, much of the crowd singing along to frontman Chris Conley’s high-pitched vocals. The invigorating “Shoulder to the Wheel” followed, with the audience dancing along to the decade-old Through Being Cool cut. “1984″ — the first of three brand new songs played this evening — sounded great, building excitement for the band’s next full-length, Daybreak.

“Let It All Go” and “Z”, the other Daybreak songs tossed in the setlist, were also impressive. It’s been some time since Saves the Day has released a studio album, but if these songs are any indication, the wait will be worth it. Of course, the band’s older songs stand up well: 2001′s Stay What You Are contributed many of the night’s highlights, including “Cars and Calories” and “Freakish”.

The New Jersey quartet sounded great through their forty-five minute set, only stumbling when Say Anything frontman Max Bemis jumped on stage to butcher vocals on the penultimate “You Vandal”. Thankfully, though, Saves the Day recovered with a solid performance of perhaps their most well-known song, “At Your Funeral”. Much of the sold-out crowd knew every word: “And at your funeral I will sing the requiem / I’d offer you my hand, it would hurt too much to watch you die.”

Anywhere With You
Firefly
Shoulder To The Wheel
1984
The End
Cars and Calories
Let It All Go
Third Engine
Freakish
Eulogy
Can’t Stay The Same
Z
You Vandal
At Your Funeral

Motion City Soundtrack

Motion City Soundtrack began with a somewhat sloppy performance of “The Weakends”, frontman Justin Pierre sounding uncharacteristically weak in his vocal delivery. “Everything is Alright” similarly sounded off, and Motion City Soundtrack’s less-than-stellar performance remained a mystery until Pierre attempted to speak into the microphone, revealing his barely audible, scratchy voice — a side effect of a lingering cold. Bassist Matt Taylor stepped up to provide additional vocals throughout the evening, though, and somehow Motion City Soundtrack managed to perform a respectable sixteen-song setlist.

Of course, without Pierre at full strength Motion City Soundtrack’s live show greatly suffered. The once-lively frontman was out of character, barely engaging in his normal banter, and the five-piece raced through their set, spending just fifty minutes on stage. The band’s instrumentals, however, were tighter than ever, and song selection was top notch with more than one-third of the set drawing from My Dinosaur Life, one of 2010′s best records: “Worker Bee”, lead by the packed Starland Ballroom singing the tune’s introductory verse, was absolutely fantastic. “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” received a slight change, with gang vocals replacing the song’s kazoo-lead chorus.

“Time Turned Fragile” and “Better Open the Door”, two lesser-seen 2005 cuts, were nice, unexpected additions to the evening. Though the crowd was composed largely of Say Anything fans, most of the building sang along to songs like “LG Fuad” and and “My Favorite Accident”, and of course, “The Future Freaks Me Out”, which closed out the Minneapolis quintet’s time on stage.

The Weakends
Everything Is Alright
Better Open The Door
Worker Bee
Broken Heart
A Lifeless Ordinary (Need A Little Help)
My Favorite Accident
This Is For Real
Last Night
LG Fuad
Time Turned Fragile
Attractive Today
Pulp Fiction
Her Words Destroyed My Planet
Disappear
The Future Freaks Me Out

Even with a sick frontman, Motion City Soundtrack delivered a solid performance backed by top-tier song selection. New songs like “Her Words Destroyed My Planet” and “Pulp Fiction” are some of the band’s best live cuts, and it’s hard to complain about the inclusion of the band’s older staples — like “The Future Freaks Me Out” or “Everything is Alright” — when that material is so exciting in a live environment. The evening was wonderful; after excellent performances by Motion City Soundtrack and Saves the Day, there was no need to stick around for an uninteresting set from the subpar Say Anything.

Title Fight

Pennsylvania’s Title Fight was the first band I caught, playing earlier than scheduled on the Zumiez South Stage at 12:50PM. The four-piece’s take on melodic hardcore and punk-pop was enjoyable and refreshing in a genre that seems to be teeming with uninspired and bland acts (see: Four Year Strong, The Wonder Years, This Time Next Year). Sticking heavily to the solid The Last Thing You Forget released last year on Run For Cover Records, the band ripped through songs such as “No One Stays at the Top Forever”, “Memorial Field”, and album-closer “Western Haikus”, and properly energized the small crowd who caught their set early in the Bamboozle schedule.

The Pretty Reckless

While walking over to see The Pretty Reckless, I caught pieces of Score 24; the Long Island punk-pop band probably deserves a second glance, unlike The Pretty Reckless who were bland and motionless on stage. Fronted by sixteen year old Gossip Girl star Taylor Momsen (but really anchored by a backing band of far superior musicians and singers), The Pretty Reckless sang Gothic-inspired songs that seemed to drag without any hooks or memorable choruses. It’s disappointing but not inaccurate to sum up the band’s set with one of their own song titles: “Dull and Void”.

Relient K

Matt Thiessen-fronted Relient K played on the Sony Stage next, opening with “Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been” from 2004′s Gold-certified Mmhmm. The band sounded crisp and experienced — the way a pop band touring for more than a decade should. Despite an enormous collection of seven full-length albums, the Ohio five-piece stuck almost entirely to their latest effort, Forget and Not Slow Down, including Thiessen’s favorite song, “Sahara”, which he described as being about lion cubs being eaten by birds of prey.

Who I Am Hates Who I’ve Been
Forget and Not Slow Down
I Don’t Need a Soul
Sahara
Flare
Candlelight
Devastation and Reform

The Aquabats

The Aquabats win any award for most entertaining band of the day — skin-tight matching superhero costumes that certainly didn’t flatter a band in their late thirties; a battle of good versus evil that featured The Aquabats fighting a team of men in crab costumes; and a song about the joys of pizza and why eating slices after 9PM for so many years lead to the first issue of unflattering costumes. The veteran Orange County, California, six-piece started with “Fashion Zombies” and rolled through a string of comical songs such as “Super Rad”, “Pizza Day”, and “Look at Me (I’m a Winner)” before closing with Myths, Legends, and Other Amazing Adventures, Volume 2‘s “Pool Party”, featuring inflatable pool toys tossed and ridden into the crowd. A fun cover of “Suburban Home” went largely unappreciated, leaving me to wonder if anyone in the crowd had ever heard Descendents’s essential Mile Goes to College — probably not.

The tail end (“Flowers and Fireworks, “Cities”) of All the Day Holiday’s set on the smaller Aquarian Stage sounded solid, but it was the stark contrast of Jersey locals Float Face Down on the opposite stage just moments later that captured my attention with their surprisingly large fan base and absolutely brutal metal/hardcore hybrid. Enormous pits of hardcore dancing spanned both stages in what must have amounted to being one of the largest pits in Bamboozle’s five-year history outside Giants Stadium.

Against Me!

Under the guise of Gegen Mich, Against Me! began a thirty-minute set on the Zumiez South Stage around 5PM with “High Pressure Low”, the first of four songs from the band’s solid White Crosses, an album to be released in early June on Sire Records. The album’s title track — described by frontman Tom Gabel as a pro-choice anthem — preceded an excellent performance of “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” from 2oo2′s Reinventing Axl Rose. The small crowd, intimate singalongs, and top-notch performances by Gabel, guitarist Andrew Seward, bassist James Bowman, and drummer George Rebelo made Against Me! easily one of the day’s strongest acts.

High Pressure Low
Don’t Lose Touch
New Wave
White Crosses
Pints of Guinness Make You Strong
I Was A Teenage Anarchist
Suffocation
White People for Peace
Thrash Unreal

Saves the Day

Saves the Day began with Through Being Cool lead-off “All-Star Me” and stuck with thirteen of the band’s strongest songs during their thirty-five minute set. A string of the band’s better cuts from In Reverie, Sound the Alarm, and Under the Boards were enjoyable, but it wasn’t until the band returned to older material such as “Firefly” and “Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots” that the crowd really responded. As if to contradict 2001′s Stay What You Are, though, the band played the much more recent “Can’t Stay the Same”. Throughout the set, bandleader Chris Conley sounded great, hitting even some of the more difficult notes that seem to be more prevalent on the band’s newer songs. Unfortunately, after the blasts of energy from “Shoulder to the Wheel” and the penultimate “At Your Funeral”, “Kaleidoscope” closed the set and reminded the crowd that Saves the Day no longer writes the fast-paced anthems that they were once-known and renowned for.

All-Star Me
The End
Radio
Anywhere With You
Firefly
Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots
Can’t Stay the Same
Eulogy
Freakish
Shoulder to the Wheel
At Your Funeral
Kaleidoscope

Something Corporate

The most anticipated moment of the day had to be  Something Corporate‘s first New Jersey set in five years, and, to cut right to it, Andrew McMahon and friends absolutely delivered. The beautiful opening riffs of “Hurricane” started the band’s nine-song set with McMahon’s crooning: “Shake down you make me break for goodness sake..”. North‘s “21 and Invincible” was fun, but the return to Leaving Through the Window with “I Woke Up in a Car” was one of the set’s  strongest moments. “If You C Jordan” started to show its age — really, the song’s subject matter puts McMahon back into the late 1990s — but was still enjoyable, especially with the energetic frontman jumping on the piano’s keys.

Something Corporate

Undeniably the highlight of the band’s forty-five minute set was the ten-minute ballad, “Konstantine”. The song exposes McMahon’s soul and puts him alone in front of a piano to tell a story of lost love. A fairly simple composition, the song’s true beauty comes from its raw emotion and painstakingly honest lyrics. By the time McMahon addresses the song’s namesake character with the haunting “Did you know I miss you?” near the end of the song, it’s hard not to feel the songwriter’s entire emotional burden.

Something Corporate

“Punk Rock Princess” rounded out the nine-song set, leaving an enormous Bamboozle crowd wanting much, much more at 8PM on Saturday evening. McMahon’s elegant performance and stage presence (paraphrased, “Bamboozle, it’s a beautiful thing to play the sun out of the sky for you”) is just too charming to not want a full tour out of Something Corporate, who performed as a five-piece that also included Josh Partington, Clutch Page,  Brian Ireland, and Jack’s Mannequin guitarist Bobby Anderson.

Hurricane
21 and Invincible
I Woke Up in a Car
Me and the Moon
Fall
Space
If You C Jordan
Konstantine
Punk Rock Princess

Chiodos

Chiodos played on the Zumiez South Stage, sorely missing former lead singer Craig Owens. The band played a fairly standard set that included “Baby, You Wouldn’t Last a Minute on the Creek”, “The Undertaker’s Thirst For Revenge Is Unquenchable (The Final Battle)”, and “Is it a Progression if a Cannibal Uses a Fork”, and “The Words Best Friend Become Redefined”, but replacement vocalist Brandon Bolmer lacks the vocal qualities that once made Chiodos an enjoyable listen. The songs hit hard, but Bolmer’s mix of high-pitched screaming and singing is far too unbalanced and lacking in melody. It doesn’t help, either, that Bolmer came in following the subpar Bone Palace Ballet, a collection of songs that hardly finds Chiodos at their best considering their much stronger back catalog.

Paramore

By 9:50PM the night was almost over and only one band remained: headlining act Paramore. The Tennessee five-piece opened with a lengthy introductory jam and then moved right into “Looking Up”, the first of seven songs from their excellent 2009 full-length, Brand New Eyes. Frontwoman Hayley Williams was extremely energetic, invoking the crowd to sing along to the big choruses of “That’s What You Get”. “Playing God” sounded great; the hooks on Williams’s lines “but the way I, way I see it” are amongst the band’s most catchy moments.

Paramore

The crunchy guitars of Josh Farro and Taylor York lead the way on “Pressure”, a fast-paced cut from the band’s 2005 debut, All We Know is Falling.”Turn it Off” and “The Only Exception” (the latter described by Williams as a love song) slowed the set down tremendously, but  “Whoa” — which Williams joked was written in just five minutes, due to its simplicity — once again found the frontwoman singing huge choruses and instructing the crowd to do the same.

Paramore

Bassist Jeremy Davis and drummer Zac Farro locked together for “crushcrushcrush”, a predictable yet excellent part of the band’s set. “Let the Flames Begin” received an extended outro, before the band closed out their set exclusively with Brand New Eyes material including hit singles “Ignorance”, “Careful”, and “Brick by Boring Brick”. “Where the Lines Overlap”, a song that begs for live treatment, sounded great and was dedicated to the Williams’s recently deceased grandmother.

Paramore

“Misery Business” went last in the evening as part of the band’s encore, no surprise to anyone who has seen the band perform since that single propelled Paramore into the mainstream world-wide. A big surprise, however, came when Williams invited a random girl from the crowd onstage to sing the song’s bridge, taking a play right out of the playbook of local hero Bruce Springsteen (who often invites random kids onstage to sing “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”. The biggest surprise of all, though, came when the girl invited on stage absolutely nailed the vocal part and continued to sing with Williams side by side until the song’s end. With the exception of “Decode” (possibly the band’s weakest song to date), set selection was flawless:

Looking Up
That’s What You Get
Playing God
Pressure
For a Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
Turn It Off
The Only Exception
Whoa
crushcrushcrush
Let the Flames Begin
Ignorance
Where the Lines Overlap
Careful
Brick by Boring Brick
Decode
Misery Business

Paramore

With their seventy-minute setlist, Paramore did their headlining duties by trumping every other band through the day: Williams sounded as strong as ever through the set’s duration, evidence that her time with a vocal coach is paying off tremendously. Instrumentally, the band was as close to perfect as possible, even while running around the stage and doing flips off of each other. Paramore was genuinely appreciative of their chance to headline Bamboozle, moving up from an unknown side-stage act just a few years earlier.

Though Saturday featured a plethora of throwaway acts (including Drake, Kesha, Four Year Strong, Escape the Fate, Angels and Airwaves, VersaEmerge, The Maine, The Ready Set, The Word Alive, Of Mice and Men, Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack, Emmure, and I Set My Friends on Fire to name just a few), there were more than enough gems in the rough to completely occupy the festival’s ten hours. Even rushing from stage to stage for most of the evening, I still missed a few promising acts such as Hanson, The Bled, and Protest the Hero.

The top performances of Saturday’s Bamboozle belong to Paramore and Something Corporate, two bands who are clearly leaps and bounds ahead of their peers in terms of stage presence and live execution.

All photographs by the excellent Dan Gonyea.

Playing in New York City for the first time in their four year career, Fireworks kicked the show off at 7:30. Sticking almost exclusively to their debut full-length, All I Have to Offer is My Own Confusion, the Detroit natives played well to a very receptive crowd. The band’s blend of punk-pop is enjoyable in a live setting, with older, faster cuts like “From Mountain Movers to Lazy Losers” that really hit hard. It’s unfortunate that the band’s Triple Crown Records debut is so boring, over-produced, and lifeless; the Fireworks’s live performance shows a gritty punk-pop band with soul and heart. The full half-hour setlist:

Geography, Vonnegut And Me
I Support Same Sex Marriage
Show Me Your Vanishing Act One More Time
Closet Weather
Come Around
From Mountain Movers to Lazy Losers
When We Stand On Each Other We Block Out The Sun
Detroit

hellogoodbye

In complete contrast to the opening act, hellogoodbye was bland, uninspired, and generally disappointing during their thirty-minute set. Lip-synced vocals  (“All Time Lows”) and cheesy power-pop felt remarkably out of place on a bill of solid punk-pop acts. The band stumbled through most of their setlist, showing promise just twice: the mandolin-powered “When We First Met” and the slick “Finding Something to Do”, both new, unreleased songs that hint at a band ready to turn a corner and finally release an album of substance. The eight song set:

All Time Lows
Shimmy Shimmy Quarter Turn
When We First Met
Baby It’s a Fact
Dear Jamie… Sincerely Me
Finding Something to Do
Oh It’s Love
Here In Your Arms

Saves the Day

New Jersey natives Saves the Day provided direct support, beginning with Through Being Cool opener “All-Star Me”, the first of four tracks from the excellent 1999 album. Led by Chris Conley’s unmistakable nasally vocals, the four-piece embraced the throw-back atmosphere of the evening and crafted a setlist weighted on the band’s oldest material, including rare cuts such as “Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off to Heaven”. Saves the Day selected some of the better songs from their newer albums, as well, including “Eulogy” and “The End” from 2006′s Sound the Alarm, the band’s strongest album since the essential Stay What You Are, released at the beginning of the decade.

Saves the Day

Staples such as “Rocks Tonic Juice Magic” and “At Your Funeral” were complete-crowd singalongs, with Saves the Day newcomers guitarist Arun Bali, bassist Rodrigo Palma, and drummer Spencer Peterson clearly enjoying the songs as much as anyone in the crowd; New Found Glory’s Jordan Pundik joined the band in rocking out for fan-favorite “Shoulder to the Wheel”. Saves the Day disappointingly closed with the newer, slower “Kaleidoscope”, dismantling the energy the band had built across the last half of their set, ending with not a bang, but a whimper. The fifteen-song set:

All-Star Me
The End
Radio
Anywhere With You
Firefly
Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots
Can’t Stay the Same
Eulogy
Freakish
Driving in the Dark
Sell My Old Clothes, I’m Off to Heaven
Rocks Tonic Juice Magic
At Your Funeral
Shoulder to the Wheel
Kaleidoscope

New Found Glory

While Saves the Day certainly received a terrific crowd response, New Found Glory predictably blew the roof off of Irving Plaza. From New Found Glory track one, “Better Off Dead”, until track twelve, the entire audience sang along to every word out of vocalist Jordan Pundik’s mouth. Many of the night’s songs such as “Second to Last” and “Eyesore” were special treats, rarely seen on standard New Found Glory tours. Before finishing their self-titled album — about a forty minute set on its own — the band dedicated closer “Ballad for the Lost Romantics” to tourmates Saves the Day and to New York punks H2O, encouraging the crowd to catch the latter’s fifteen year anniversary shows scheduled for the coming weekend.

New Found Glory

Following a slight break, New Found Glory returned with a varied collection of eight more songs to stack onto the night’s set. Sticks and Stones opener “Understatement” began the singles-filled encore that also included hits such as “Head On Collision” and “It’s All Downhill From Here”. An exciting cover of local hardcore legends, Gorilla Biscuits, was appropriate and well-received by the older portion of the crowd. The penultimate “Intro” preceded the band’s biggest song to date, 2002′s “My Friends Over You”. The twenty-song setlist:

Better Off Dead
Dressed To Kill
Sincerely Me
Hit or Miss
Second To Last
Eyesore
Vegas
Sucker
Black and Blue
Boy Crazy
All About Her
Ballad For the Lost Romantics
Understatement
It’s All Downhill from Here
Head on Collision
Don’t Let Her Pull You Down
Truck Stop Blues
No Reason Why (Gorilla Biscuits cover)
Intro
My Friends Over You

Overlooking very minor missteps, such hellogoodbye’s inclusion on such an otherwise solid bill, New Found Glory’s stop in New York City was truly excellent. Saves the Day contributed to the night’s retro-feel by sticking to a set heavy in decade-old songs, and Fireworks proved that there are still worthwhile up-and-coming punk-pop acts to look forward to. New Found Glory’s execution of older material was flawless, and the relatively long encore of fan-favorites iced an already sweet cake. Other bands considering the ten-year album anniversary tour would do well to take notes from both New Found Glory’s supporting act selection and encore bonus song selection.

All photographs by the excellent Meghan McInnis.

I arrived on Saturday around noon to check out the first day of The Bamboozle, heading to the 5 Gum side stage to check out Long Island’s The Sleeping. A post-hardcore act that I’ve caught at Bamboozle in the past, the band performed with Sebastian Bach (ex-Skid Row), playing a solid set featuring some of Bach’s material in addition to The Sleeping staples such as “If Your Heart Was Broken”. Though later in the evening after fatigue set in I’d chill out to some pop-rock acts, The Sleeping were a great way to kick off the weekend with a crowd that was certainly ready to dance. The band sounded tight; guitarist Cameron Keym’s metal-inspired licks were sharper than ever, and vocalist Douglas Robinson captured the crowd.

Story of the Year were next on my list at 2PM, so I ventured to the Asbury Park main stage. Let it be known that the sound, for both Day One and Day Two, was terrible on the Asbury Park stage–unfortunate because about half of the bands I saw during the weekend set up on that stage. As I’m not a professional audio engineer, I’m not exactly sure what the problem was but the sound was never consistent: bass was either muddy or non-existent, and microphones never maintained the same volume, often cutting out nearly entirely for seconds at a time.

Despite common sound issues that would plague nearly twenty bands on that stage, Story of the Year sounded excellent for the duration of their set. It’s been some time since i caught the band on tour, but their live show had always been their strongest point; it’s great to see they’ve only improved over time. Their set:

And the Hero Will Drown
The Antidote
Anthem of Our Dying Day
Wake Up
In the Shadows
Until the Day I Die
Is This My Fate? He Asked Them

Over half of their set came from their debut Page Avenue, but the band unfortunately included two of their lesser songs from that release in “Anthem of Our Dying Day” and “Under the Day I Die” but did include two of the strongest, opener “And the Hero Will Drown” and “In the Shadows”. The new songs from The Black Swan (“The Antidote”, “Wake Up”) sounded promising, so I’ll need to check out that album soon.

New Jersey ska-stalwarts Streetlight Manifesto were up next on the opposite main stage (which suffered from none of Asbury Park stage’s sound issues). The band played extremely well, with a large selection of songs coming from Somewhere in the Between. The band pleased the crowd with “Dear Sergio”, a song that engaged many people listening who were familiar with Catch 22′s Keasbey Nights but not necassrily Streetlight Manifesto.

At 3:30PM on the Nokia Ticket Rush stage, Vinnie Caruana played a set entirely of The Movielife songs with Set Your Goals as his backing band. Though he stated numerous times throughout the set that “this [wasn't] The Movielife”, you’d be hard pressed to find a single person in the crowd who was concerned with that fact. Vinnie sang like the band hadn’t broken up five years ago, with dead-on delivery of songs nearly a decade old. Set Your Goals’s (a band I wanted to see as well but passed up on to see Saves the Day) guitarists, bassist, and drummer covered each song with precision. Cuts included “Hand Grenade”, “Pinky Swear”, “Hey”, and “Face or Kneecaps” before the near-obligatory closer, “Jamestown”. Vinnie constantly thanked the crowd for giving him the chance to play these songs, but it was really the crowd constantly thanking him for resurrecting the songs of an incredible punk-pop band.

Dressed as cops and coming out to Inner Circle’s “Bad Boys” on the PA, Less Than Jake took the Asbury Park stage at 4PM, opening with “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”. My first time catching the band live, I was quite impressed with how tight the band sounded. I’m not a huge fan of the band (perhaps getting into them late into their career), but I respect their contributions to the genre and their live show convinced me to give them some more attention. Their full set:

All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Last One Out Of Liberty City
Overrated
Gainseville Rock City
Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts
Great American Sharp Shooter
Ghosts Of You And Me
Science Of Selling Yourself Short
Look What Happened

I took an hour break between 4:30 and 5:30 to check out various tents and merchandise, picking up a great Refused Shirts For a Cure tee. SFaC is a great project; all proceeds go to the Syrentha J. Savio Endowment. The SSE provides financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford expensive breast cancer medicine and therapy; there are a lot of shirt designs, I urge you to see if your favorite band is there and to pick one up for just $12.

I caught a little bit of theAUDITION and Bless the Fall, two bands I didn’t have much interest in checking out but stayed at for a little bit while talking to some friends. Chiodos played at 5:50 on the Asbury Park stage, my next destination. The band played a balanced mix between their two full-length albums; they sounded decent, and the crowd was explosive the entire time. The full setlist:

The Undertakers Thirst For Revenge Is Unquenchable (The Final Battle)
There’s No Penguins In Alaska
Baby, You Wouldn’t Last A Minute On The Creek
Teeth The Size Of Piano Keys
Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered
The Words ‘Best Friend’ Become Refined
Is It Progression If A Cannibal Uses A Fork

I rushed over to the opposing NowWhat mainstage before Chiodos was finished to catch New Jersey locals Saves the Day, who opened up with Stay What You Are‘s “See You”. Chris Conley sounded tremendous: his voice was not only crisp and clear, but he sounded confident and in control of the crowd the entire time. When told the band had time for only one more song (the main stage times were getting increasingly backed up), he asked the crowd to pick between “Ups and Downs” and “Firefly”–”Firefly” apparently was the first thing he heard and played both that and then “At Your Funeral”, upping the count of songs from their 2001 LP to three. The full set:

See You
The End
Anywhere With You
You Vandal
Can’t Stay The Same
Head For The Hills
Shoulder To The Wheel
Firefly
At Your Funeral

It would have been nice to hear “Ups and Downs”, one of my favorite Saves the Day songs, but the band still played a great set nonetheless. The band has too much material to get picky about songs not played, especially when they picked nine great tracks anyway.

Jack’s Mannequin, another casualty of the Asbury Park stage, was next at 6:50; they didn’t start immediately after Saves the Day, so I managed to make it across the parking lot in time to get close to the stage before the band started. “Dark Blue”, with part of the extended introduction, kicked off the setlist which included a song from the upcoming The Glass Passenger (which certainly sounds promising — I was worried after a slew of less-than-stellar post-Everything in Transit tracks) and a cover from Something Corporate’s North. The set:

Dark Blue
Holiday from Real
The Mixed Tape
Suicide Blonde
Bruised
Kill the Messenger
La La Lie
Me and the Moon (Something Corporate cover)
MFEO

The band played well, but their sound was somewhat marred by the stage. Before “Kill the Messenger”, frontman Andrew McMahon commented on the weather; during the song (which features the lyrics “I’m going to send a little rain your way”) the misty rain slowly picked up. Even taking into account projection, the song had never felt so real or so powerful. Aside from the lack of staple “I’m Ready”, I don’t think I could have asked for a better setlist. “MFEO” is an incredible track that stands on its own, but it really works perfectly for closing a set, especially outdoors in the rain, in the parking lot.

Paramore played the Asbury Park stage at 8PM; almost immediately it was obvious just how poor the stage’s sound actually was, as one of the tightest pop-rock acts in the scene today suddenly sounded sloppy and uninteresting. The band kicked off with Riot!‘s “Let the Flames Begin”, following it with All We Know is Falling single “Emergency”. Either during that track or during “Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)”, a b-side from the Riot! sessions, the stage’s sound started to click back together and the band sounded incredible for the rest of their set, which was, in its entirety:

Let the Flames Begin
Emergency
Stop This Song (Lovesick Melody)
Here We Go Again
That’s What You Get
Pressure
For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic
crushcrushcrush
Woah
Misery Business

“Here We Go Again” was sans the At The Drive-In mini-cover, instead segueing flawlessly into “That’s What You Get”. Much like an hour ago watching Jack’s Mannequin amongst teenage girls barely (if at all?) old enough to drive, I felt out of place singing along to every word, but it’s always refreshing to catch other guys mouthing the words: this is great pop music, and I’m glad that these young teens are growing up on true pop-rock, not manufactured radio garbage or Britney Spears-esq bubblegum, even if the band is dominating the radio with songs such as “Misery Business”, the set’s closer.

During the aforementioned hit single, I walked out of the crowd to get to Jimmy Eat World, an act I’m almost embarrassed to admit I had never seen live. The band’s performance was unparalleled by any other act all day, and their forty-five minute setlist was incredible:

Big Casino
Sweetness
Work
Always Be
Crush
Here It Goes
A Praise Chorus
Let It Happen
Dizzy
Bleed American
Pain
The Middle

The rain was a constant mist during their performance; it was a little chilly, but incredibly relaxing. There’s not much to be said about the band’s performance other than that their live sound is a near perfect recreation of their studio albums, from the guitar subtleties to the incredible harmonies.

Snoop Dogg closed Day One, coming on around 9:30. I was a little further back than normal (near the soundboard) for his set, but he still sounded pretty good. I had never seen him live, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but he managed to hold my attention for some time. I left midway through his set to get to a party, but his full set was:

Murder Was The Case
P.I.M.P. (Remix)
Who Am I? (What’s My Name)
That’s That Shit
Gin And Juice
Lodi Dodi
Woof!
I Wanna Fuck You
Snoop’s Upside Ya Head
Beautiful
Nuthin’ But A G Thang
Ain’t No Fun
Deeez Nuuuts
Notorious DPG
Snoop Dogg
My Medicine
Sexual Eruption
Drop It Like It’s Hot

The entire day was great, as I got to see some older bands for the first time live in addition to seeing some of my favorites once again. The weather was great: I’d prefer chilly and rainy to blistering heat and humidity any day. Moreover, cell phone service actually worked, which allowed me to meet up with friends throughout the day. There was room for improvement though: I couldn’t find any time cards (something usually handed out when you walk in), and, to beat a dead horse, the Asbury Park stage sounded terrible. Scheduling was pretty solid: Set Your Goals and Men Women & Children were the only two bands I missed due to conflicting times.

If anyone has any corrections/updates to the setlists I posted (which should be accurate, but there’s always room for error), please post them in the comments.