Hey J-14ers!
My weekend was filled with beautiful weather, huge enthusiastic crowds, and plenty of music from some of my favorite bands when I spent Friday night and Sunday at The Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. Showcasing past performers such as Fall Out Boy, the Jonas Brothers, Paramore, and Ke$ha at this annual event, this year's line up failed to disappoint. From Bruno Mars to our favorite Texas band Forever The Sickest Kids, I got the chance to see some of my favorite performers along with scoping out some new bands in the process.
Click "Read More" to see my photo diary from the festival.
Rock on,
Nicole, J-14 Photo Assistant
Friday afternoon before the festival began I got the chance to hang out with Jordan of The Ready Set who dished to J-14 about his new single "Young Forever" and taught me how to Dougie (stay tuned for video)! Soon after I caught up with Radio Disney's Next Big Thing Kicking Daisies who were totally excited to be playing their second year at Bamboozle.
After hanging out with Kicking Daisies, I wandered around the festival a bit to check out some other bands including New Jersey's instrumental pop rock band The Tor Miller Band who won a contest for the second year in a row and won the privilege to play on one of the main stages that evening. After checking out a few other local bands in the passing, I headed over to the Bamboozle Prom stage where Forever The Sickest Kids were rocking the parking lot.
Once their set ended I got the chance to hang out with Jonathan Cook, Caleb Turman, and Kyle Burns who were still buzzing with energy from their awesome set. I showed them their poster in the newest issue of J-14 as well as a spread in Yikes! where we had captured their kicking' dance moves. They even taped one to their tour bus wall. These guys are a riot (in a good way).
The duration of Friday night was spent wandering from stage to stage to catch as many different acts as I possibly could for however long my feet could hold me up. After watching The Ready Set (his cover of "Airplanes" is awesome), I caught up with Mayday Parade for a bit who dished about their new album due to hit the shelves in the fall, watched the Kicking Daisies do their thing, jammed to some LMFAO, and ended up calling it a successful (and exhausting!) night.
Sunday proved to be an even longer day though but totally worth it. We got the day started watching The Ready Set again (I've been singing "Love Like Woe" all week) before we were able to attend a Forever The Sickest Kids' VIP acoustic performance where they performed a few songs including "She's a Lady" and "Keep On Bringing Me Down."
With the crazy amount of bands playing (over a hundred!) I knew from last year that it was going to be tough to see everyone I wanted. However, I did a pretty good job at planning ahead and was able to catch The Downtown Fiction (who did a crazy good cover of Cee Lo Green's "Forget You"), Runner Runner, We The Kings, along with spotting a certain Jonas brother who was watching Ocean Grove's set from the side of the stage with his wife Danielle.
To round out the day I hung out with the members of The Downtown Fiction. After an amazing set earlier, I was shocked to find out that lead singer Cameron Leahy had the flu and was on vocal rest in-between shows. Now that's dedication and talent. David Pavluk and Eric Jones told me all about their new album and their first headlining tour where they'll be on the road with Cady Groves, The Summer Set, We The Kings, and He Is We (while Cameron gestured from the side to help illustrate answers to my hard hitting questions). I can't wait to check them out.
Bruno Mars ended another great year at Bamboozle for me with his smooth voice and suave dance moves as he crooned crowd favorites "Marry You," "Beautiful Girls," and "Just The Way You Are" off his hit album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. It was a long couple of days filled with a variety of aged people from all over the United States. The one thing everyone had in common was the music and that was what makes Bamboozle amazing year after year.
