More bulleted bands for your reading pleasure. Though, if these bands were actually bulleted, I'm sure most of you would be pretty happy with that, too. Anyway...
My first full set of the day was graced with a blistering set of melodic hardcore from Crime In Stereo. Energy-wise, the left stage guitarist certainly looked a bit hungover, but the rest of the band managed to fight through their noon set time and move around. The band didn't even have merch on them, partially due to a full-length they claimed was now out of print, if I'm not mistaken. And, despite the forthcoming release of their EP and their announcement they'd be hitting the studio in a week and a half to record their full-length for a rather big label I'm morally obligated to not tell you about just yet, the set was chock full of Explosives...-derived material, though I'm not complaining. They kicked things off with "Amsterdamned!," following the track up in no particular order with "Play It Loud, Fuckers," "What A Strange Turn Of Events," "Terribly Softly," "Here's To Things Gone Wrong," "Warning: Perfect Sideburns Do Not Make You Dangerous" ("a song about most of the people in this three-mile radius"), "If You Think We're Talking About You, We Are" ("another song about most of these people"), and "It Ain't All Hugs And Handshakes."
Before doing my daily merch browsing of the upstairs, I caught the last 3 songs of the Say Anything set. Any illusive social anxiety problems Max Bemis has apparently do not play out on stage, as Bemis swayed obnoxiously with every sung syllable. He has this tendency of singing every line exactly not when the music dictates as on record, but it's a refreshing alternative regardless, and reminds one that this is the live setting, so audiences aren't always begging for perfect replications. The three songs in question were "The Futile," "Slowly Through A Vector," "Alive With The Glory Of Love," roughly in that order.
"Bamboozle Unplugged" took place at the Paramount Theatre, which was a nicely ventilated indoor place with seats and bands playing slower, acoustic-ish songs. We caught a bit of John Rolston's set, which was basically the aforementioned description: mildly enjoyable singer/songwriter stuff.
At the request of the girlfriend, we watched the full set from the Spill Canvas. For their slowly-crowding genre (that being mostly acoustic-based, midtempo songs of obvious subject matter), they aren't all that bad, and were pretty together on things here. They played "The Tide," "All Hail The Heartbreaker," and a bunch of new ones, one of which seemed pretty bitter as the singer says something along the lines of "you spiteful whore" in the chorus.
Moneen ruled, basically. Every time I see the band perform "Start Angry...End Mad" (which admittingly is only three times now), it's the rough sum of watching a younger Bruce Willis crashing through the twelfth story window of an office building, a walk-off, World Series-winning home run, and being at the circus with an 8-year-old mindset, all in one. So when they opened the set with it here, it was sort of like they lost any chance for outdoing themselves later on. And of course, they didn't, but it was inherently enjoyable regardless. They followed it up with Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now?'s title track, and closed with oldie "The Passing Of America." I don't remember much of what was in between, but I can assure you it was good.
Over It wasn't too bad from what I saw. I only really remember them playing "Siren On The 101," but like on record it was irresistably catchy and they seemed tight.
I overheard/watched Big D And The Kids Table's set as I "dined" on lunch (French fries and Slice). The crowd seemed really into it, a bit surprisingly, and the band seemed tight as usual. I remember them playing "Checklist," "A Moment Without An End," "She Won't Ever Figure It Out," "Little Bitch," and "LAX," likely among others.
I missed the set completely, but I've heard from numerous sources that Napoleon Dynamite (that being Jon Heder in character) introduced Midtown.
I got that sort of gut feeling during Gatsbys American Dream. For a band whose songs usually don't run higher than two and a half minutes, it just felt epic. It probably helps that they opened with Volcano's last track, "The Loosing Of The Shadow," and thus was able to establish an eerie, almost-Apocalyptic mood with the loud piano keys and gradually rising vocal dynamics from Nic Newsham. They had little banter in between tracks and consequently was able to throw in a bunch of tracks altogether. They immediately went into the first two tracks of Volcano after "...Loosing...," those being "Theatre" and "Pompeii." Nic flailed around a lot, and had this insistent, wide-eyed look on his face, as if some sort of revelation was constantly hitting him, as he always stared out into this unknown point in the distance behind the audience. They also included in no order "Fable," "Recondition, Reprogram, Reactivate," "Apparition," "The Dragon Of Pendor," and closed with "Shhhhhh! I'm Listening To Reason," complete with the extended intro found on Volcano bonus demos EP. It all but reaffirmed my feelings that any success that goes Gatsbys' way is deserved.
"Friends of Bamboozle" ended up being an acoustic guitar and piano setup from Straylight Run's John and Michelle Nolan. It seemed too tame even for my tastes and the theater was filled, anyway, so I returned an hour later or so for a pretty rousing set from Piebald. Though at the behest of the crowd they never played "American Hearts," they did run through a few others including "The King," "Part Of Your Body Is Made Out Of Rock," and two solo performances from Travis Shettel smack in the middle, one of which was a cover and the other of which I can't remember. The band seemed really upbeat despite the unusual setup, cracking Jew jokes (the right-stage guy is) and nicely conversing with the crowd. Though at the end of the set I'd continued looking for more randomly playing bands, I'd have been pretty satisfied if this was the day's finish, as it was a light set of quirky rock indoors with seats and yet, the intimacy of a club show.
Although I wasn't there, it's hard to top a day in terms of enjoyment level in watching sets when you have Piebald, Bear vs Shark and Moneen playing. Even Gatsby's is good fun live
WOW! thats a pretty bad lineup... although I like big d, and say anything.
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 11:51 PM (EDT)
FUUUUUUUCK! how did i miss bamboozle this year?! i shoudnt even have read this review now im all regretful. I heard Brand New was In Bamboozle but they had to cancel cuz jesse had a major surgery. Bamboozle (from wat i hear) rocked this year...and with Brand New i would just have one more band (out of like 15-17 i wanted to see) to make regret not going this year hahahaa
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 12:43 PM (EDT)
Die Hard was great.
BUT... Maddie Hayes?
Moonlighting was incredible. David and Maddie gave me blue balls when I was like 8 watching reruns on Lifetime. Just incredible. Funny. Smart. Hot Hot Hot.
The only and best thing worth mentioning from Cybil Shepard's career, but it was enough to secure her in my fantasies 4-eva.
Posted by CellarDoor on 2005-05-07 03:03:27 My Score:
Yipe-Ki-Yay motherfuckers.
Score's for Bruce Willis, Die Hard and Maddie Hayes.
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 1:12 AM (EDT)
Scores for moneen, when they play that song live, I feel exactly the same way, so many things go through your head at how crazy the energy level is, I cant believe they played that first wow!!
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 7:47 PM (EDT)
how did you manage to only see like 8 or 9 bands?
i saw like 17 easily, granted i wasnt really familiar with or didnt like some of them, but i still saw them, because there was time to kill between bands i did want to see.
the new amsterdams played 2 other songs from the childrens album, one about acceptance to gay dinosaurs, and another about how kids with birthdays close to christmas get fucked over.
oh, and the fact that i waited 2 hours on line to get a big d shirt, and when i got up there, they were gone cause max cruise wouldnt let anyone inside to buy merch cause it was "to capacity" blows. commence laughter.
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 3:29 AM (EDT)
Piebald is great fun live. It's hard to believe just how hard they rock.
OC
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 1:09 AM (EDT)
Damn i wish this Warped Tour was more like this. this sounds awesome!
I am still so fucking pissed that I missed Moneen and Gatsbys American Dream due to the insanely massive rescheduling going on all day long. Damn you, Max Cruise!
-Motion City Soundtrack opened up the day with a "secret" performance outside in the rain. Word spread fast, as their crowd was pretty fucking huge. Justin's voice kept on giving out. It was a shame.
-Say Anything sounded surprisingly good in the cavern that was the Convention Hall.
-A Wilhelm Scream were amazing.
-Big D And The Kids Table were super fun, and they played "Moment Without An End," at my request. Gotta love it!
-I caught the tail end of Over It's set, and they sounded pretty good -- better than when I saw them open for Tsunami Bomb, at least. Keep this band on the road for a year straight a la Spitalfield, and their live show will be incredible.
-I saw the last four songs or so of the New Amsterdams' acoustic set, including a children's song that Matt Pryor wrote called "Pizza and Chocolate Milk." Very cute.
-Apparently it was Jay's last show with Hot Rod Circuit. No clue as to why, or who's replacing him.
-I didn't see them, but apparently Bear Vs Shark blew out the PA at Asbury Lanes, two songs into their set. God, I love that band.
-Napoleon Dynamite didn't introduce Midtown. It was some dude who I believe is their merch guy or guitar tech or something, who, when dressed the part, can pull off a pretty accurate impersonation. Comedian Jim Breuer (the real guy, not an impersonator) also came out to introduce Midtown and play a song with them. It was weird, and no one really cared (typical of Midtown nowadays).
-Further Seems Forever with Chris Carrabba was quite good. They played The Moon Is Down from start to finish, duds and all (yeah, I know the album is great, but there's a few of those songs that are pretty bleh). Chris was wearing lifted shoes to look taller onstage, too. Funny stuff.
There were supposedly a bunch of secret sets all day long, but I don't know of any besides Motion City's in the morning, Straylight Run's on the acoustic stage (neither of which were any surprise, whatsoever) and the Bouncing Souls playing an afterparty at Asbury Lanes. Does anyone know what other ones there were?
granted, i'm not a further seems forever fan these days, but i would have killed to see them with carraba. kid used to have killer stage presence. i bet half the kids there were born around the year "the moon is down" came out (ok, slight exxageration but still...)
but then again, you also missed wilhelm scream and the bled... i dunno. big fest shows suck for reviewing because you're trying to review all thes bands that undoubtedly everyone has different opinions on. so mine is that you still didn't catch the right acts but hey, i hear the layout was shitty and the fest all in all sucked, but as long as you had a good time more power to you.
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