Brand New / Thrice / mewithoutYou @ Philadelphia 12/7

I just reviewed this tour’s stop in Atlantic City, so please see that article for extensive comments about the show, as there is very little to note that is different from the two shows.

Brand New’s set list in Philadelphia:

Limousine
Welcome to Bangkok
Not The Sun
Archers
No Seatbelt Song
Shower Scene
Oh Comely (Neutral Milk Hotel Cover)
Luca
Sowing Season
Millstone
Tautou
Okay I Belive You But My Tommy Gun Don’t
You Won’t Know
Degausser
Jesus
Untitled

Brand New / Thrice / meWithoutYou @ Atlantic City 12/1

The House of Blues in Atlantic City is always an interesting venue: the crowd is usually full of drunk males in their mid-twenties, and the crowd usually doesn’t know too much about pits, instead just pushing into each other over and over. While this was certainly true this cold December evening, it didn’t do much to distract from three bands who played extremely solid sets.

meWithoutYou opened the evening to a crowd that didn’t know much of their material. They played much from Brother, Sister, including songs such as “C-Minor”. It is my opinion that their spoken-type vocals are usually very strong lyrically, but the delivery gets boring on the albums after awhile. Luckily, the band is completely tight live, and singer Aaron Weiss performs with his entire heart, seemingly holding conversations on stage with people who aren’t there. Drummer Richard Mazzotta didn’t stop through the entire set, as the band seamlessly transitioned from each song to the next. The band played for about a half-hour before exiting from the stage, thanking the crowd numerous times for listening to them as they did.

Thrice took the stage next, surprisingly opening with The Artist In The Ambulance’s “Stare at the Sun”. Although most of the crowd was certainly in attendance for Brand New, Thrice and Brand New fans tend to overlap, so the crowd was very into Thrice as well. “Firebreather”, one of Thrice’s heaviest songs to date, followed before the band kicked into 2002’s “Kill Me Quickly”, an extremely energetic tune that certainly kept the crowd moving. The band didn’t slow up, continuing with “Silhouette”.

Some technical difficulties would follow through the set, beginning with setup issues before the band played “Digital Sea” live. It was extremely peculiar to see singer Dustin Kensrue on stage without a guitar–he instead used some sort of digital effects box and microphone. The song is certainly much stronger live than on the album, and Dustin’s energy and passion for it seem to be the clear reason. The full setlist:

Stare at the Sun
Firebreather
Kill Me Quickly
Silhouette
Digital Sea
Burn the Fleet
The Artist in the Ambulance
Flags of Dawn
The Whaler
Don’t Tell and We Won’t Ask
The Messenger
Deadbolt
The Earth Will Shake

I had never heard Vheissu b-side “Flags of Dawn” live; the band played the song incredibly, however–certainly better than the song is recorded. In fact, aside from “Firebreather”, all of the evening’s Alchemy Index songs were new to me live, and I was very impressed. Guitarist Teppei Teranishi took over keyboard duties when needed–and did so perfectly.

Surprisingly, the band played four cuts from their 2003 major-label debut , including “Don’t Tell and We Won’t Ask”, a song Dustin introduced the song as a song “[the band] all love[s]“. Thrice played staple “Deadbolt” before ending with “The Earth Will Shake”, which may be my favorite Thrice song. The song has always received great treatment live, but something about the song this evening made it even heavier than normal. Perhaps the bass and drums were simply clicking perfectly, or Dustin’s vocal delivery was better than normal, but the song sounded the best it ever has.

Thrice did play thirteen songs as direct support to Brand New, but the band certainly needs to get out on a headlining tour to support their latest disc so that they can play for a longer time. An incredible setlist, and arguably the best performance of the evening, Thrice could not have performed any better at their first show ever in Atlantic City.

It took much longer than normal, but Long Island’s Brand New finally took the stage late into the evening. Opening with “Welcome To Bangkok” the band put out a great vibe and played extremely tight. “Sowing Season” and “Millstone” followed before “Sic Transit Gloria..Glory Fades”, each song sounding very tight. The band utilized two drummers and some extra percussion instruments for the end of “Millstone”–a trend the band hasn’t bucked since starting it about this time last year.

The band actually played eleven of the twelve tracks from The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me:

Welcome To Bangkok
Sowing Season
Millstone
Sic Transit Gloria..Glory Fades
The Shower Scene
Me Vs. Maradona Vs. elvis
Luca
Archers
Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself (Morrissey Cover)
Not The Sun
Deguasser
Jaws Theme Swimmng
You Won’t Know
Limousine
Jesus
Untitled

It was great to hear “The Shower Scene”, the best song from 2001’s Your Favorite Weapon. “Me Vs. Mardona Vs. Elvis” was exceptionally powerful this evening for some reason, and “Limousine” was as strong as ever. Guitarist Vin Accardi and a guitar tech wrestled during “Archers”–I guess his guitar part isn’t quite that essential.

Jesse performed “Why Don’t You Find Out For Yourself” from Morrissey’s amazing Vauxhall and I album before the full-band played “Not The Sun”, the only song from their 2006 effort I had yet to hear live. Along with a few other songs from that album, I could do without hearing it again live.

Unfortunately, the band only managed to throw in a few Deja Entendu songs, leaving out some excellent songs in the process. The encore was essentially a waste–a weak version of “Untitled” was the last song of the evening, leaving a bitter taste in the mouth of fans who had hoped for a few more songs from something other than The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me.

Following Thrice’s performance this evening wasn’t easy by any means, but Brand New did their best. A few more older cuts would have helped a lot, and even effectively performing an encore would have made their performance seem a lot stronger. I’ll be attending the bands’ Philadelphia show December 7, it will be interesting to compare setlists and performances.

Jesse Lacey / Kevin Devine / Grace Read @ Hoboken 7/29

Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ, is an amazing venue. Primarily a bar/restaurant during most hours, it also hosts shows in a small little room (maximum capacity about two-hundred standing). The performances are always intimate, and this stop on the Jesse/Kevin tour was no exception.

Grace Read opened the evening with four of her own songs performed solo with only a piano as accompaniment. The sister of Kevin Devine, she shares his ability to craft solid songs, and her voice is absolutely incredible. She spent most of the time talking (her own admission, “I don’t have many songs so I spend time telling jokes”), but when she played it was delightful. Particularly notable was her final song about a battle between a fire-breathing dragon and soldiers who had to fight it. She is certainly a singer/songwriter I will be on the lookout for.

Kevin Devine arrived on stage a few minutes later, and kicked off the evening with a handful of new songs, including a beautiful song about a boy and his dog. Jesse Lacey walked through the crowd and hopped on stage and joined Kevin for “Cotton Crush”, and so the evening began with two best friends singing and playing guitar, enjoying every moment of it.

Kevin performed very few older selections, using the time mostly to try out new material (which is definitely better than his older material). Jesse played a lot of Brand New songs:

Soco Amaretto Lime
Tautou (performed by Kevin Devine after “Ballgame”)
The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot
Me Vs. Mardona Vs. Elvis
Play Crack The Sky (”I need to stop writing songs in G”, said Jesse)
Jesus (a country-infused remix that wasn’t the best way to interpret the song)
Degausser (with “goodbye to drugs” verse)
Luca
Coca-Cola
“I Wrote Your Named And Burned It”

The duo were on stage for more than two hours, and the night was also filled with quite a few covers, including songs by Leonard Cohen and Archers Of Loaf, among others (though the pair skipped out on any Neutral Milk Hotel songs they had been recently performing live).

Kevin performed “No Time Flat”, a self-proclaimed “clumsy” song about the draft and war in the Middle East. Openly political, I think the point Kevin was trying to get across in explaining the song was that he hopes the the draft is re-enacted so that the American public actually begin to care about the conflicts the government is involved in, as opposed to not caring since they’re not the ones fighting. An interesting take on the situation that definitely got Kevin very heated.

It wasn’t a political evening, however, and most entertaining throughout the night were Jesse and Kevin’s hilarious stories and banter with the crowd and each other–the two of them were high, having done peyote with Grace before the show began.

Kevin recounted a (apparently one of many) “Woody Allen story” that involved him being exceedingly high and thinking a wooden door in his apartment was Woody Allen, apparently due to the way his brain verbalizes things on drugs. The pair also shared stories about a game of charades played on drugs, and neither could keep a straight-face telling the story. Though when Kevin asked Jesse why he was laughing on stage, Jesse replied in immediate Billy Murray Steve Zissou style, “I have a rep to keep up…I read that I’m miserable”, at which point he actually started laughing.

When the floor was opened to questions, the questions began as softballs but soon turned quite edgy. Topics covered include:

The lyric sheets — Jesse responded that he was still working on them, and that he wanted them to be absolutely perfect since Interscope didn’t give them room to do it with the record

Major labels — in hindsight, Jesse noted that it was probably a poor decision to join a major label, though it was easiest and most financially secure decision (though he claims to “never have seen a cent” from Interscope)

Stealing music — Jesse openly encouraged everyone to burn Brand New albums, and to also steal music as much as possible; this lead into the comment that he wished people stole “everything” and that being a pirate was “cool” since the big corporations didn’t need your money

AbsolutePunk.net and Jason Tate — while loving the freedom of speech it allows, Jesse commented that its funny so many people post completely ignorant and incorrect statements all the time

Bamboozle — Jesse said the band played at noon “because [they] wanted too”, and that they played Degausser twice for that very same reason, saying that the band “does pretty much whatever [they] want”

Being ready for success — a more serious moment, Jesse thanked the crowd for all the support they have shown him and Brand New, and that he was never ready (and still isn’t) for anyone to listen to listen to the songs he wrote, and that the success the band achieved is still uncomfortable

Pre-show activity — Jesse said that before shows, the band could be anywhere doing anything, and could be playing video games that need to be “put on pause” before just walking on stage

Practicing — apparently, the band doesn’t practice in the same way a typical band does; before playing “Jesus” on late night TV shows, for example, the band played the song once–discussed the mistakes they made–and then played the song live on TV hoping they had all fixed their mistakes

The smaller crowd allowed Jesse to become more personal, and it allowed him to speak to the fans without coming across as arrogant or “miserable”. Many other topics were covered, so hopefully if the tour arrives in your area you’ll get to hear his own words yourself. After concluding the wonderful evening with “Chelesea Hotel #2″, Jesse announced that he would return with his band in October, presumably with Thrice and meWithoutYou.

Post-Note: A lot of the comments about drugs were made in jest by Jesse, Kevin, and Grace; I am just reporting what I heard said.. I regret if this offended any of the performers or their families; the “jokes” were not so clear live.

Brand New / Anathallo / Colour Revolt @ Atlantic City 5/28

I had never been to the Borgata Event Center (though I do enjoy the Borgata Casino as my favorite casino in AC), so I was pretty excited to see what their area for concerts (definitely not “shows”) was like.  It was interesting–carpet, stadium seating, a gigantic stage, and a huge standing area.  The biggest acts in music today routinely sell this venue out.. looking at the upcoming acts you’ll see legends: Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Chicago, Earth Wind And Fire, Morrissey, and plenty other big name acts.  I estimate the venue held about 5,000 last night for the sold out show.. much larger than the venues that held only hundreds in times past when I’ve seen this band.

Colour Revolt opened, and they played well enough.  Anathallo followed, and they put on a unique show, filled with many instruments you wouldn’t normally find at a “rock concert”.  Their vocals could definitely have used a volume boost, it was often hard to hear them.  They were a nice change of pace to the typical “scene bands” you usually find as openers, though.

The crowd the entire night was absolutely terrible, a trend that I’m finding is all too common now that bands like Brand New are breaking into the mainstream–or that “emo” is becoming incredibly popular.  Primarily little kids who only wanted to hear “Seventy Times 7″ or “Jude Law and a Semester Abroad”, meat-heads only there to hold their girlfriends, and other walks of life not found at these shows only a few years ago, the crowd was rude, talkative during the quiet songs, and plain ignorant to most of the bands’ material–even Brand New.

Brand New’s setlist:

Coca-Cola
Luca
Archers
The Shower Scene
Millstone
Limousine
Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t
Sic Transit Gloria..Glory Fades
Jaws Theme Swimming
Untitled Demo 05
Play Crack The Sky
Untitled Demo 01
Welcome To Bangkok
Sowing Season (Yeah)
Jesus Christ
Handcuffs
Degausser
You Won’t Know

Eighteen songs, with thirteen of them consisting of “new material”.  The crowd didn’t know anything aside from the one track from Your Favorite Weapon and the four from Deja Entendu, continually yelling for the band’s older material during quiet new songs such as “Limousine” or “Handcuffs”.

The demos/b-sides from The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me were a nice surprise, since I’ve heard nearly every other Brand New song at least a five times live.  “Untitled Demo 05″ is begging to be recorded and released, and “Untitled Demo 01″ would be a perfect opening to some sort of b-sides EP.  “Coca-Cola” was a great way to open the show, despite the crowd not knowing the song at all.

Jesse was much more into this show than he was at Bamboozle (see my review of that for details); the band sounded much tighter as well.  It’s a mixed bag about their song-selection: it would be nice to hear more of my favorite Brand New songs from Deja Entendu, but it is nice hearing so much new material.

Aside from the unexpected demos, highlights of the set included the extended jam in the middle of “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t”, the “loves you so much” buildup in “Limousine”, Erica from Anathallo singing on “Play Crack The Sky”,  and the entire encore that pretty much began with the end of “Welcome To Bangkok”.  “Degausser” remains one of my favorite Brand New songs (still, I only need to hear it ONCE per show), and the band played it flawlessly.  Vin was wearing 3-D glasses during the performance, and someone was using a voice box set to “robot” to do the backup vocals (such as “When I arrive will God be waiting and pacing around his throne; will he feel a little Old Testament?”).  It was a great touch.

It was very nice to see Brand New playing a solid show, after their horrendous Bamboozle outing.  The crowd was terrible, but it didn’t stop Long Island’s finest from putting on a great show.  I anticipate the band’s upcoming tour with Thrice and meWithoutYou.

The Bamboozle 5/5 & 5/7

Every year, northern New Jersey hosts a festival currently known as The Bamboozle, a multi-day event. It’s origins lay in mixed areas: The Great Bamboozle and Skate & Surf, festivals started in the early 2000s. Last year’s The Bamboozle was the first to settle down in East Rutherford at Giants Stadium with a giant bill of primarily punk, hardcore, ska, indie, emocore, and alternative-influenced acts. The Bamboozle 2007 would be the second year of the two twelve-hour day events.

I’ll preface this review of the evening by noting that I tend to get up close for most of the bands, usually near the rails or in the closest pit possible–so the reviews you’re getting are, for the most part, up-close-and-personal, not written from a hundred yard away point of view. Also, I will acknowledge missing a lot of bands–a lot of good bands, actually. Unfortunately, due to scheduling, there were a lot of overlaps. I made game-time decisions and picked the bands I wanted to see when conflicts arose.

I arrived early Saturday to scout the area, locating each stage. A similar setup to previous years, there were two main stages, and two areas of two sets of of side stages. Additionally, there was a small MySpace-sponsored stage and a stage inside the Giants practice dome that was filmed all day. I met some AbsolutePunk.net forum members at their tent, and scored whatever free samplers and stickers I could from the tents around the premises.

Main stage act The Receiving End Of Sirens kicked the day off for me, and they played exceptionally well. This was my first experience with the band since the departure of vocalist/programmer Casey Crescenzo. Brian Southall, his replacement, competently fills in however, and the band rocked through songs from their debut LP, Between the Heart and the Synapse, and their upcoming follow-up, The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi. The set’s highlight was “Planning A Prison Break”, my favorite song from their debut. The Boston act set the tone for the day well, attracting a surprisingly large number of fans and playing near flawlessly for thirty minutes.

Texas’s Daniel Hunter, and his project PlayRadioPlay! were next on my list, so I wandered away from the main stage to the Macbeth side stage to check him out. They played well, though I didn’t know much of his material (to my knowledge, he only has a handful of songs posted online) and left to meet up with some friends. I ran into Kenny Bridges of Moneen and got his autograph on my ticket. Unfortunately, their set time conflicted with Motion City Soundtrack and I didn’t get to see them.

Bayside played next, and their set was quite solid as to be expected. One of the few main stage acts to draw out primarily hardcore fans, they played a nice mix of older material and some new songs. They didn’t play my favorite songs from the new album, unfortunately, but they did play “Duality”, “I And I”, and “Dear Your Holiness”. “Montauk”, “Blame It On Bad Luck”, “Existing In A Crisis”, and “Devotion and Desire” from their 2005 self-titled album rounded out a great set from the boys from Queens.

I elected to see Oakland’s The Matches at 3PM next, in part because I forgot they’d be playing tomorrow and in part because I was hoping to be up front for Thrice’s s 3:50 set. In doing so I missed out a handful of bands I would have liked to have seen including Paramore, Men Women & Children, Silverstein, and Manchester Orchestra, although there was practically a four-way conflict there anyway. Under their old name, The Locals, The Matches performed a set primarily of songs from E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals, an album recorded under that previous moniker. Shawn Harris is one of the most passionate frontmen in the genre, and he truely showed it during this performance, which was taped for Bamboozle TV. I managed to catch his guitar pick, and briefly spoke with him afterward to get it signed and congratulate him on the great set while he epitomized the punk DIY scene they rose from, walking about the crowd selling copies of their album for $10 from a cardboard box.

Thrice was due next, and though I was stoked to be in front on the rail for their performance, security quickly whisked me away, claiming they had to evacuate the bubble before Thrice came on. I re-entered for their set, showing my credentials (which were required for this set and also for Jack’s Mannequin’s set the next day), and sat down on the Astroturf, learning that Dustin Kensrue and Teppei Teranishi would be playing an acoustic set. When they finally took the stage, though, I stood up and watched what would be one of the best sets of the weekend. The duo kicked it off with The Artist In The Ambulance’s “Under A Killing Moon” and also played two others from that 2003 release including the title track and “Stare At The Sun”. More importantly, they played a couple of brand new songs (which were absolutely stellar) from the Earth-themed disc of their upcoming four-disc album. They closed the set with a solid cover of The Beatles’s “The Ballad Of John And Yoko”. Afterwards, I got to speak with Dustin and Teppei, who signed the back of my ticket and assured me they would be playing another new song on Sunday from the Fire-themed disc. Due to complications with Thrice’s equipment, their set ended much later than scheduled and I crossed Cartel off my list of bands to see.

I stuck around inside the bubble to The Sleeping under their Biker Women guise. The crowd was made up primarily of die hard The Sleeping fans, which made songs like “If Your Heart Was Broken, You Would Be Dead” even better. As Biker Women (dressed in Harley-influenced garments you’d expect), the band put on an interesting “show”, singing about whiskey and biker girls breaking their hearts in between “covers” of songs by The Sleeping. They joked about “emo bands being pussies” and “The Sleeping suck[ing]“–it was entirely comical, but the actual The Sleeping songs were solid. Other bands would get into their secret names somewhat, but The Sleeping certainly went above-and-beyond.

Thursday was due up next on my list, so I rushed across the parking lot to the Saints And Sinners side stage to catch the end of Hit The Lights and gain a rail position for Thursday. Hit The Lights closed with “Bodybag”, one of the few songs I somewhat enjoy by them, so it wasn’t too bad sitting through their set to get a rail spot for Thursday. After listening to This Providence play the side stage to the left (from what I heard of their set, they played pretty well; at the end of their set they even proudly proclaimed themselves true Christians, unlike many other Christians who give true ones a bad name).

Wearing bear masks, and under the codename Bearfort, Thursday took the stage opening with “Autobearography Of A Nation”. They followed into “Understanding In A Bear Fort“, and continued their flawless performance with one of my favorite live songs, “How Long Is The Night?”. Geoff Rickly noted that this was the first show of their new lives (now being without a record label) and that they couldn’t be more excited to start fresh. They played “Signals Over The Air” next, and then gave shoutouts to their friends on stage. Geoff kept repeating/asking if his friends we’re “okay” before kicking straight into “At This Velocity”. “Divison St.” followed before the band closed with “Jet Black New Year”. Thursday performed extremely well and put on what I consider the best performance of the weekend.

Motion City Soundtrack played the side stage to the left, and came out to Trey Parker and his band, DVDA’s “America, Fuck Yeah”, the theme from Team America: World Police. As The Great American Freedom Machine, Motion City Soundtrack came out describing themselves as a band from Mexico City, New Mexico, at one point and Paris, France, at another. They played a set primarily of tracks from Commit This Memory: “Attactive Today”, “Makeout Kids” into “Time Turned Fragile”, “LG Fuad”, and “Everything Is Alright”; they also played a brand new song that was much mellower than their older material. They closed their great set with “The Future Freaks Me Out”.

My Chemical Romance and The Black Parade was next on my list, so we took a little break before their set and checked out various merch tents and scored free Monster beverages. At the end of Hellogoodbye (who were horrendous), we rushed to the front of the main stage to wait for My Chemical Romance. A little after 9PM My Chemical Romance took the stage as The Black Parade and performed that album spot-on from start-to-finish, including the Monty Python-influenced hidden track, “Blood”. The set include no shortage of stunning pyrotechnics and a rotating drum platform. Their encore was a short set of five Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge tracks, finally ending Saturday evening with “Helena”.

Sunday began slightly earlier, with Long Island’s Brand New taking the opening slot at 12:05 on the main stage. The band kicked off with “Degausser” and then lead into “Sowing Season”. The band appeared to be upset at playing this festival, or at least playing so early, making remarks along the lines of “there must be some better way to spend your Sunday mornings” and “there must be some better way to spend your money”. “Luca” followed, and the band seemed to be playing pretty well, despite their attitude towards the set. I was actually somewhat proud of the band for a moment–they appeared to be playing what they wanted to play, despite the crowd wanting only to hear “Seventy Times Seven”.

This took a turn in the wrong direction though when Jesse announced something like, “I think I want to play this one again”, and performed “Degausser” once more, this time changing the lyrics and replacing the words with drug-related themes, such as “goodbye to drugs” as the first line of the song. It was apparent he didn’t want to be on stage, clearly messing around with the song this time around. “You Won’t Know” followed, but it was hard to respect the band at this point, even though their performance was still pretty spot on. The band moved on to “Welcome To Bangkok”, performing their ritual and destroying the set and banging on drums with their friends as the song climaxed. The band left the stage, but returned a minute later with “Seventy Times Seven”. Jesse laughed while playing the song, apparently disgusted that this is still the band’s most requested tune.

I had wanted to see Jedi Mind Tricks, but opted to see Anberlin instead. Anberlin was a polar opposite to Brand New, very grateful to be on stage and energetic through their entire set. The band opened with “A Whisper And A Clamor” and then followed with their punchy 2005 single, “Never Take Friendship Personal” which energized the crowd. The band continued with songs from their most recent albums, including “Adelaide” with its huge chorus and the sing-along “Dismantle.Repair”, closing with “Godspeed” to end their extremely solid performance.

The Matches were next, and I nearly caught guitarist Shawn Harris’s pick for the second day in a row. The band played a similar set to Saturday’s TV performance, and they played just as well this time.

Drive-Thru Records’s Halifax were next on my list–a band I’m not necessarily a big fan of, but I was very impressed with how fun their live show was at last year’s Bamboozle. They played well, with the crowd certainly getting into it. The set consisted of staples from The Inevitability Of A Strange World but also mixed it up with old songs such as “Sydney” from their debut EP.

I left Halifax’s set a bit early to see Circa Survive, who put on a solid live performance. The band played primarily songs from Juturna, but vocalist Anthony Green announced midway through the set that they would try out some new material (which sounded great) from their upcoming full-length, On Letting Go. The band closed their set with “In Fear And Faith”, my personal favorite Circa Survive song.

I ventured over to the bubble, showed my credentials to enter the “private” performance, and relaxed to check out Andrew McMahon and Bobby Anderson of Jack’s Mannequin play an acoustic set for BamboozleTV. Before playing, though, vocalist/pianist McMahon was interviewed for the television segment, and the crowd go to ask him some questions. Unfortunately, the questions were either softballs (how do you feel today?) or irrelevant (will you donate money to my charity?).. I would have liked to asked him if bassist Jay “Dr. J” McMillan is indeed a doctor or holds a PhD (McMahon once stated that Dr. J was “the only man on stage with a degree in medicine”).

The interview aside, Jack’s Mannequin played an absolutely stellar acoustic set. McMahon noted that since they were playing electric later, they’d use this more intimate set to play some cover songs. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing the band perform nearly ten different covers over the past few years at different shows, so I was hoping they’d surprise me with something new, and they didn’t disappoint. They covered Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire” (a song they originally tried at the Stone Pony in Springsteen’s home town, Asbury Park) much cleaner, and even threw in “A Friend Of The Devil” by The Grateful Dead, a song I hadn’t heard them do yet. A cover of “The Astronaut”, from Something Corporate, was also thrown into the set. It wasn’t just covers, though, as the band performed songs from Everything In Transit such as “Rescued” and “Holiday From Real”.

Jack’s Mannequin’s performance ran late, so the next band I was able to catch was Yellowcard on the main stage. Props to this band for playing exactly the kind of setlist a festival like Bamboozle demands: their punk-pop sing-a-longs, such as “Ocean Avenue”, “Breathing”, “Rough Landing Holly”, and “Way Away”. The band also played “Fighting” off their upcoming follow-up to Lights And Sounds, a track that would fit more into the Ocean Avenue-era of the band.

Perhaps one of the highlights of the second day is Thrice, who played next on the opposing main stage. With only an acoustic tease the day before, I was heavily anticipating the return of Thrice full-band and electric. The band kicked off with “Under A Killing Moon” from The Artist In The Ambulance, an excellent live song that showcases the band’s ability to write meaningful lyrics and mix melody with hardcore. Vheissu’s “Image Of The Invisible” followed. The crowd was certainly getting into things with some of the best pits of the weekend.

Title track from their 2003 LP “The Artist In The Ambulance” was next, and the band performed the song near perfectly. The tightly wound, speeding guitar riff is no small feat, but Teppei Teranishi makes it look all too easy. As promised, the band played a new song from the Fire-theme disc, and it did not disappoint. The set slowed down for only a few moments with “Atlantic” before kicking back into the heavy hitting riffs of “Deadbolt”, a fan favorite that always receives extra treatment live during its outro.

“Stare At The Sun” was next, and it was nice to hear this song performed electric for the first time in many years. Usually performed acoustic to slow down their set, the band opted to perform this song full-force. Epic “Red Sky” calmed the crowd, and Dustin Kensrue’s voice haunted those who listened during the final chorus and key change. Closing with prison-break inspired and chain-gang chanting “The Earth Will Shake”, Thrice whet the appetite for more but that would be their last song of the evening.

It would be nearly impossible to follow such an incredible set, but Jack’s Manequin did the best anyone could do all day. Also one of the finest live acts to be playing this weekend, the band didn’t hold back and captivated the crowd with their pop driven piano-rock. Although the band could pick nearly any combination of songs from their catalog (essentially just their debut LP, Everything In Transit) and still play an amazing set, the songs they chose were excellent and executed flawlessly. “Dark Blue” was in full form, including the extended introduction. “La Lie Lie” was the perfect sing-a-long, and it was great to hear the original version of this song (with harmonica bridge) after hearing the band perform its demo “West Coast Winter” most of the past year. My favorite from the record, “Bruised”, was spot-on, and it was great to see the fans (and the parents!) jumping along to the chorus.

The band closed with “MFEO”, and it was about this time that Jack’s Mannequin took full control of the Bamboozle crowd as if they were the show’s headliner. Andrew McMahon is unquestionably one of the most powerful and charismatic frontmen the weekend would see. Playing both halves to “MFEO”, with the standard mini-U2 cover of “With Or Without You” thrown into the mix, drummer Jonathan Sullivan pounded the skins during the song’s final minutes while McMahon held the crowd’s attention perfectly with his spot-on vocal delivery.

Next on the list, and last band of the weekend I truly wanted to see, was Taking Back Sunday. Interestingly, the band’s songs have gotten weaker in time (2002’s Tell All Your Friends is arguably their best work from start to finish), but their live show was improve greatly: gone are the immature and sloppy vocals of Adam Lazzara, a vocalist who has improved his live show immensely since earlier in the decade. The set was primarily a Louder Now showcase with half of the songs coming from their latest album, though they did manage to throw in the obligatory “Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From Team)”, “You’re So Last Summer”, and “Set Phasers To Sun”. It’s unfortunate that so many great songs from their younger years are excluded to make room for new material, but the band did perform their chosen material quite well live. “Error Operator” is a blast live, and the band executes the driving riff pretty well. Taking Back Sunday closed with what is perhaps their biggest radio hit (as “Cute” would be their biggest “fan hit”), “A Decade Under The Influence”.

Weird Al Yankovic performed on the opposing stage; I caught parts of it as I picked up some t-shits from the SSE Tent (the Syrentha Savio Endowment non-profit organization provides financial assistance to underprivileged women who cannot afford the expense of fighting breast cancer–it’s a great cause and many great bands put out some cool looking shirts for charity).

Around 9PM Linkin Park arrived on the now-heavily decorated main stage and closed the evening and the entire Bamboozle affair. The band played many songs from their first, and strongest disc, Hybrid Theory, including opener “One Step Closer”. The band played a few new songs from Minutes To Midnight, as well as from Meteora. The band slowed down the setlist near the end, with a keyboard-only version of “Pushing Me Away”; unfortunately, Linkin Park excels when they are fast and brash, so the set suffered during these slower moments. The band did pick things up with songs like “Crawling” before leaving, to encore with their biggest hit, “In The End” and then closing with “Faint”.

The entire weekend was a great time, with many great performances by some of the best bands in the scene today. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of bands due to scheduling conflicts, but I did manage to catch all of my favorites. Any comments, suggestions, corrections, or questions about this article are welcome.