Hey J-14ers,
I had a major weekend — I spent Saturday and Sunday at this year's Bamboozle Festival! I got to see some bands I've been obsessed with for years, like Paramore, Something Corporate (they reunited for three Bamboozle festivals and a greatest hits CD that will drop later this year), Saves The Day (classic Jersey pop-punk band represented in full-force!), Piebald, and Motion City Soundtrack, plus some of my current faves like Hey Monday, Every Avenue, Drake, and Artist Vs Poet. I also caught two new acts I'm excited to hear more from — The Dig and Goodbye Friday.
On Saturday I hung out backstage with Let's Get It, The Maine, Kicking Daisies, and Artist Vs Poet, and The Maine's Jared Monaco and Kennedy Brock told me they were stoked to play the festival again. "I'm really excited to hang out with all of our friends," Kennedy said. "We've got friends from everywhere in the country today, so it's a big family reunion." And the Let's Get It boys and Jared both told me they were psyched to see Drake perform. "It's really fun to have something new in the mix — everybody goes crazy for it. They wait for that all day, and so are we," Jared explained. And they were in for a show — despite being sick, Drake performed an extra-long set that included a drum solo and slow dancing!
Our J-14 intern, Nicole, and I totally geeked out when we saw Hanson and Paramore's Hayley backstage, so we had to get pics with them!
Hanson and Paramore put on some of our fave performances of the day, and other performance props definitely go to 100 Monkeys (that's The Twilight Saga's Jackson Rathbone's band!), The Ready Set, Let's Get It, and Attack Attack. Nicole and I also decided to stake out Ke$ha's tour bus and say hello to Gossip Girl's Taylor Momsen and tell her we loved Pretty Reckless' set — twice.
And before we left, I chatted with My Life As Liz's Liz Lee — she was hanging out by the tour buses, taking a break from finals to catch all the music and hang with friends from MTV.
And on Sunday, I stalked Ke$ha again! But this time I had some company. I ran into Allstar Weekend's Cameron Quiseng and Nathan Darmody at the side of the Sony stage, so after checking out Ke$ha's amazing, high-energy set, we waited by her bus to get our pics taken with her (success!). Cameron and Nathan even chatted up one of Ke$ha's dancers! I told Ke$ha she put on a sick show (because she did — she crawled across the floor, danced, tore up drums, and sprayed her fans with confetti!) and she asked if I was having an awesome time. Ke$ha was super nice and happy to pose with all of her fans, even though it was almost 90 degrees out — so awesome to see! I also interviewed The Morning Of, and singer Justin Wiley told me he was psyched to be at Bamboozle. "I'm honestly really excited because my family is coming to the show, and I've never seen Weezer with my brothers and we are all huge Weezer fans. So I'm probably most excited to see Weezer — aside from playing, which I'm obviously hugely excited for!" he told me.
The Allstar Weekend boys did a meet and greet as I checked out another fave band, Say Anything, and then we met back up so they could play J-14's Truth or Dare: Bamboolze Edition — and they even busted in on my interview with The Summer Set! (And yes, I did take this pic that Allstar Weekend put on their Facebook page of Cameron and Nathan with Summer Set's Brian!) While backstage, I ran into My Favorite Highway's singer David Cook and Hey Monday's singer Cassadee Pope. I hadn't seen either one in a while so it was cool to catch up with both of them, plus I had to tell Cassadee that Hey Monday's cover of Goo Goo Doll's "Slide" was pretty sick.
I headed back out to the parking lot to check out Every Avenue, who put on one of the most energetic sets of the day. They're one of my fave bands, so I completely rocked out in the crowd, and I was psyched when The Summer Set's singer Brian joined EA on stage! There was a solid change I was singing "Tell Me I'm A Wreck" louder than anyone else in the crowd. Then I closed out the night by checking out the merch tents with my two friends as MGMT performed (I scored a sweet alligator tee from Chooanimals — and then had to pose with the alligator cut-out, obvi!), and then we danced towards the back of the crowd when Weezer took the stage. Hearing "The Sweater Song" live? Amazing!
It was two days of 30,000 people, 90 degree heat, and over 100 acts, but it was an incredible weekend of music. I met some of my favorite bands ever, hung out with new musicians I was psyched to learn about, got some super fun videos you'll see over the next week, and scored some amazing signed prizes just for J-14 readers. Check out more pics below and keep on the lookout for more videos and q&a's on j-14.com!
<3,
Emily, J-14 editor
The Maine's Jared Monaco and Kennedy Brock get their J-14 knowledge on:
My Favorite Highway performs on the the Zumiez South stage on Saturday, May 1:
Intern Nicole hangs with Kicking Daisies:
Pretty Reckless' Taylor Momsen belts out a tune from the Sony Bloggie stage on Saturday:
Let's Get It take the stage Saturday afternoon:
The Ready Set perform their single, "Love Like Woe," from the Zumiez stage:
Nicole and I hung out by Ke$ha's tour bus (she's behind us in the red tee!):
Isaac and Taylor Hanson rock out during their set from the Sony Bloggie stage:
Drake takes his act to the Sony Bloggie stage Saturday night:
Paramore's Hayley Williams rocks out at Bamboozle:
The Dig take the Zumiez stage early on Sunday afternoon:
OK Go got the crowd rocking with their hit "Here It Goes Again":
I hung out with The Morning Of before their Sunday performance:
Ke$ha makes the crowd jump for "Blah Blah Blah":
Motion City Soundtrack on the Sony Bloggie stage Sunday afternoon:
Hanging out with The Summer Set's Brian Dales and Jess Bowen:
Photos: Emily Krauser & Nicole Mazza
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