April 6, 2008
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This past Saturday, April 05, 2008, I went to "The Bamboozle Left" music festival at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, California. It was the first of two days at the venue, however I am not attending the second day. The last time I went to Bamboozle was in 2006, but this time I have one huge incentive in that I get to see the reunion live performance of "Face To Face" after they officially broke up in 2003. Ofcourse there are other bands I also wanted to see, and it turns out that from 6PM - 11PM, I was going to be "stuck" seeing all those bands back to back to back to back.
I arrived at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater around 4:45PM, parked my car with no problems, and was even able to bring my digital camera in (yay!). The first thing I noticed was "wow, are there are a lot of people with Paramore shirts," which suggested that they were the band most of the people came to see. The second thing I noticed was how there seemed to be a lot of people smoking marijuana. Anyways, I started to walk around the merchandise booths, and who do I see hanging near the "Bayside" booth, but none other than Nick, Carlo, Jon, and Mike Kaminsky of the Meg & Dia band. Meg & Dia weren't performing that day, but look, there they were anyway. Carlo was the first one to notice me walking towards them, and immediately greeted me. I said hi to all of them, and as always to my surprise, they really do remember who I am from all the times I've been to their concerts. We chatted a little bit about their studio time working on their upcoming second album, what brings them to Bamboozle, etc... I did not want to take up too much of their time though, so I went on my way after a few minutes. What I pleasant surprise that was, and I was even wearing one of their shirts too.
The Bamboozle Left has six stages total, plus some amusement rides as well. Since I was only going to stick with the main two stages, I took the free time to walk around and visit the other stage areas before parking myself in one spot for five hours straight. By the time I got to the main two stages, the first thing I tried to do was to find that one spot that I could stay at and still be able to take photos and videos of the performances. Unfortunately, with the amount of people in attendance, that proved to be a very hard task. I ended up staying towards the left area (my view to the stage) of one of the two stages. Since the main stages were side by side, I figured I can take advantage of my digital camera's zoom capability on the stage farthest from me. That's true to some extent, but since I'm not that tall of a person, I had to manuever my camera in certain ways to keep a clear shot of the stage. In many cases, I had to raise the camera above my head to get a clear view, and wow was that the whole night tiring to my arms.
The performances themselves were all mostly good experiences. Reel Big Fish had an enjoyable set with humor, and I was surprised to hear them cover Metallica's "Enter Sandman." New Found Glory were also good, playing a good mix of their hits and newer material. Alkaline Trio weren't as lively on stage as I was hoping them to be, although technically they sounded good. Face To Face was awesome, and I'm glad to have been able to see them live. Paramore probably had the best performance of the day, as they were very very lively, and to be in that audience surrounded by hundreds of girls singing along to the band was just.....wow. Jimmy Eat World were as good as they always are, still touring with mostly their newer material, but also busting out their big hits as well. The All American Rejects by far is my main disappointment of the night, because while they sounded musically fine, the lead singer came off a bit of a douche-bag to me because of all the sexual innuendo ways he was interacting with the audience, and his constant need to use foul language (I'm no prude or anything, but wow).
By the time I got back in my car, learning from past experiences, I decided to just wait out the traffic of getting out of the parking lot. I decided to just stay in my car and start editing the videos I took to take advantage of the time. A half hour later, it was all clear for me to just zoom on out of there and head home. Bamboozle Left was fun, and as long as they continue providing a stellar lineup of bands performing, I'll definitely try and make it again the next time it comes around.
* click here for the photos I took ** videos taken from the show are below *
Reel Big Fish - Party Down -
Reel Big Fish - Enter Sandman -
New Found Glory - Something I Call Personality -
New Found Glory w/Hayley - It Ain't Me Babe -
Alkaline Trio - Private Eye -
Alkaline Trio - Help Me -
Face To Face - I Won't Lie Down -
Face To Face - Blind -
Face To Face - Struggle -
Face To Face - Disconnected -
Paramore - Let The Flames Begin -
Paramore - Emergency -
Paramore - Here We Go Again / That's What You Get -
Paramore - Miracle -
Paramore - crushcrushcrush -
Paramore - Misery Business -
Jimmy Eat World - Sweetness -
Jimmy Eat World - Always Be -
Jimmy Eat World - Here It Goes -
All American Rejects - Dirty Little Secret -
All American Rejects - Top Of The World -
All American Rejects - Swing Swing -
All American Rejects - Mona Lisa -
All American Rejects - It Ends Tonight -
All American Rejects - Move Along -
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