From when I woke up Saturday morning it really seemed like anything that could go wrong did. By around 9am we experienced a family emergency (everything is fine now) and a flat tire. From there anything that should have been completed smoothly ended up horribly failing. It was a crazy morning, but eventually we did make it to Bamboozle, without a camera…

Thanks to our friends at lushbeat.com, we are able to post this editorial with pictures. For more pictures from the event click here.

Welcome to Bamboozle 2010 Day 1.

From before I parked my car I really wasn’t sure what to expect. During the week there was a lot of chatter about how disappointing this year’s Bamboozle will be, with “only two good bands” (AFI & Angels & Airwaves). The Bamboozle Left has also been compared to the New Jersey version which will feature Weezer, Paramore, and KE$HA, who according to most, are better headliners then AFI and Something Corporate.

But talk is cheap. Earlier in the day, according to ticketmaster.com, there were no tickets available for Saturday’s event. A sold out Day 1 Bamboozle?  How could the event getting such bad chatter sell out?

The first band we saw, “K Sera”, had set the tone right, and to be quite honest, I was a little sad to see them first. “K Sera”, while a relatively new band had something magical when preforming live. Right away you could tell these guys won’t be a “side stage band” for long. The band, who’s name stands for “whatever will be” could be classified as rock, however id really hate to label these guys. They are just good. Not good rockers, good musicians.

If you have a chance to check out this 5 person masterpiece live, then, take my advice, check them out!  You can go on their website to listen to some songs, including, a soon to be hit I am predicting, “new me before woman & children”.

By the time Envy On The Coast was playing the main stage there seemed to be a huge crowd, what earlier was a rather empty stage was now filling up. These rockers from New Jersey deserved every ounce of attention the crowd gave them. This is another largely unknown that is in the process of making a name for themselves. Their performance was received very well by the audience, who seemed to know some of their lyrics as they were singing along with them. Envy On The Coast is not new to the music industry, having supported such bands as 30 Seconds to Mars and Cobra Starship as well as having done the Vans Warped Tour, these guys had a great stage presents. This an alternative rock was a lot of fun to watch.

Back at side stage (or technically, the Zumiez stage), was Molotov Solution. Before I go into a little detail about the band I’d like to speak about something else. I don’t feel like I am that old. I am only 32 after all. I know what a mosh pit is, and on special days you might even find me in one (or not), but anyways, back to Bamboozle.

I couldn’t keep myself from not laughing. What I saw was people “moshing”, but, it wasn’t a pit. It was like everybody took an invisible square box, 5x5 feet and was given permission to shadow box and karate practice inside of it. However, there wasn’t just a few people in these imaginary squares, there were like 20 of them.  Each person punching the air, punching themselves in their legs, trying to do high kicks and such, and sometimes accidently hitting the person behind them, because, they were , well , wailing their arms around and behind and all over.

To be honest I was a little confused, it didn’t look like dancing, and it looked just funny. No rhythm, no point, just funny kicks and punches.

So I asked the guy standing next to me what was happening, he looked at me like I was an idiot before responding with one word, “moshing”

So there you have it. I just learned that moshing is not the same as being in a mosh pit, and, it looks really funny and is quite entertaining to watch.

Back to Molotov Solution.  This death metal or death core band from Las Vegas, Nevada has been around since 2004 and has released one demo; one EP titled “The Path To Extinction”, and already has hit songs among its fans such as “Order out of Chaos” and “The Myth of Human Progress”. I personally didn’t really understand one word in the entire set, and I am also not a fan of death metal, but it was quite obvious that I was an outcast, as everybody there was enjoying themselves as you could hear people talking about trying to get autographs after the set.

Next on the same side stage was For Today. My same comments above apply here, (I have no idea what they were saying, the funny dancing people were still around, etc)- however there was another theme to this that was not expected. The band, gives everything to god. Is this death metal Christian music? Whatever it was, it worked. Funny dancing people aside most of the audience were singing along. With songs like “Ezekiel (The Visionary)”, “Saul of Tarsus (The Messenger)” and “Immanuel (The Redeemer)” to get the funny dancing kids going, while other fans were pushing their way to the front of the stage to get a better view everybody was having a good time.

During a break, the singer Matti gave a speech about his love for GOD, a very unexpected speech I must add but something that went over extremely well with the audience who was screaming every time he mentioned Jesus. Matti went on to explain that he is a broken man and without god he has nothing.  From their myspace page: “For Today will stop at nothing until the name of Christ is proclaimed to the entire world.” They ended the set with “Isaiah (The Willing)”, “Joel (The Watchman)”, and “Agape”

Now I need to leave this stage, must, get, through the… funny dancing people…

When Bouncing Souls took the stage, the party was about to start. Right away the singer, Greg Attonito , jumped into the barricade and started singing right in front of the fans. Immediately the security guards were also very busy with crowd surfers, surprisingly, the first 10 crowd surfers saved by security was the same girl!!! The pit was also quite amusing and people were definitely enjoying themselves.   After "True Believers", and "“Private Radio" were played the pit grew and there were as many as 2 people on top of the crowd at any one time. This was a great show and everybody was having fun!

Circa survive was next on the main stage, things just continued from where The Bouncing Souls left off. Crowd surfer after surfer was keeping the security guards busy and the bands lead singer Anthony Green’s comment, "I want to see bodies, send them up here" insured guards would be busy throughout the set. The band had help by one Mindy White, a female fan I think, who was up on stage helping with their song “Juturna”. Later in the set somebody stole Anthony’s chicken nuggets and Gatorade (probably the vegan preachers across the way), which seemed to get him a little more energy to finish the set. Before the end of the set somebody that looked like Sanjaya Malakar form American idol was crowd surfing and lots his shoes, I thought he was going to cry right in front of me. All in all it was a very entertaining set , however that was because of the crowd more then the music. These guys lacked something live that I can’t really explain. If you closed your eyes and just listened to the music, they just didnt really cut it vocally.

Say Anything, a great band from the night immediately got people excited. The entire audience was jumping up and down at the same time,  it made the tops of their heads look like giant water waves. Almost immediately empty water bottles were being thrown around (it was hot after all, don’t waste cold water!). Their hit “Hate Everyone” had everybody singing along and crowd surfers going. A few middle fingers up in the air out of excitement as well. Good times, great band!

I am not really sure how to comment on Angels & Airwaves. Its no Blink 182, and I think the key here is, just because you are entertaining in one band doesn’t mean you will be in another. They were just, not good. That didn’t however matter for the hardcore fans who were in full force wearing their A&A tshirts, girls screaming for tom throughout the performance, and help from the crowd singing with songs such as “It Hurts”, “Hallucinations”, “The Adventure” – which got the prelude from tom: “Based on your own imagination you can make the world anything you want”, and “Secret Crowds”. The 9 song setlist ended with “Epic Holiday”

When AFI took the stage this looked like a stadium. An estimated 8,000 people were all next to the stage for the headliner, and rightfully so. The intro of some heartbeats with red and blue lights beating faster and faster till they opened with radio hits “Medicate” and “Girl's Not Grey”, two songs that got a lot of help from the audience with their chants and singing – I don’t think the opening could have been any better.  After the third song, "The Leaving Song Pt. II" singer Davey Havok commenting that ,“Three songs in and this is the best fucking time I have had all year” – I would hope so, as all 8,000 turned this otherwise normal parking lot into a concert stadium.

The set continued with "I Am Trying Very Hard To Be Here", "Kill Kaustic", "End Transmission" and "Three Days of the Phoenix" before the audience got more praise from Davey with “Orange County you are fucking fantastic!”.

When the lights would flash on the audience, which was larger than life at this point especially considerting "bamboozle is going to suck this year" , you could see 7 people on the top of the crowd, not including those trying to get up there and one or two already in security guard’s hands being rescued.

The entire set was 16 songs which included other hits like “Love Is A Many Splendored Thing”, “Beautiful Thieves”, and to finish the set “Miss Murder”, before ending the first day of bamboozle as a day to remember.

All in all It was a good first day to bamboozle. I question the lineup and set times a bit (more on this with day2), but overall I think AFI, Say Anything, Bouncing Souls, and the up and coming groups like K Sera  and Envy On The Coast really made this Bamboozle worth the $50 or so dollars it was for a single day ticket. Actually, AFI alone made it worth it!