If you want a snapshot of America on any given summer just take a sampling of the trends set at its festivals. Bamboozle just occurred in New Jersey this past weekend and I tasked the talents of photographer Joe Gall to capture the people and mayhem of the scene. Check out the awesome that is an ever fashion forward Jersey scene…no seriously.
Lil Wayne may be a lot of things to a lot of people; a rapper, producer, felon, & father. But on Sunday night he was nothing short of spectacular as he closed the three day Bamboozle Festival in New Jersey. He took the stage for a little over an hour as the sun kissed weary crowd stayed transfixed. From an artist who’s playbook includes so many featured acts and guest vocals, one might think the whole Young Money crew travels attached at the hip, but not so. Lil Wayne proved that not only can he carry a show relatively alone, he is in fact a true performer.
Paying tribute to the band that started it all, New Found Glory played a cover set of Ramones tunes (featureing Marky Ramone on the skins) to the crowd at New Jersey’s Bamboozle Festival.
New Found Glory, love them or not, is a band that has maintained the same lineup for over 10 years and built a solid fan base through hard touring and good natured relationship building. That in itself is quite an accomplishment and a testament to the tenacity of these pop punk pioneers, not to mention the fact that they’ve played everywhere from TRL to the local dive to.
NFG frontman Jordan Pundik thanked the crowd during their set for keeping the band in business over the years and let them know that they were recording a new album to re released soon. The band announced yesterday that they will be releasing the album title Thurs. May 12th at 8 pm EST/ 5 pm PST on their website via a live in studio chat… Oh and per the band, Ian will probably be flashing his butt cheeks.
Check out Marky and the boys rocking Blitzkrieg Bop (video) and see the Bamboozle pictures after the jump
Honestly, I didn’t know anything about dance-hop duo Chiddy Bang, other than the fact that front man Chidera Anamege aka “Chiddy” just broke M-Eighty’s world record for the longest freestyle ever (at over nine hours straight), until Bamboozle… And I gotta say, the boy’s got skills.
The story of their career, which the band elected to tell in graphic detail and with complete honesty in their NY Times best-selling 2001 autobiography, The Dirt (soon to be a major motion picture) is one of dirty needles, damaged minds, music industry battles and sex – lots of sex. And the miraculous thing about the Crüe is not that they lived to tell the tale (although that is, in a way, a kind of unholy miracle), it’s that all of their wildly uncontrollable habits are clearly audible in their music. Just listen to these albums, more than 40 million of which have sold worldwide. If you concentrate hard enough, you can hear the sound of the coke coming off the tables, the squeak of the bed springs, and the sheer sleazy grind of California rock over the last two decades.
Last weekend, the Crüe not only gave the East Rutherford crowd their fix, but they also used the event as an opportunity to announce their upcoming headlining tour with equally ornery 80s rockers Poison and the New York Dolls… And yes, Tommy Lee will be hovering, spinning, and drum soloing above your head in his “drum rollercoaster”. Oh, and in true Crüe fashion, The band commissioned their fans to choose the final tour set list (on their website), which includes tracks band hasn’t performed live together in almost 20 years.
Take a look at the fearsome foursome in action at the Bamboozle festival below and get your red hot tour dates after the jump.
The Ready Set, aka Jordan Mark Witzigreuter, served up a delightful set of eletro-pop to the New Jersey crowd at Bamboozle 2011 last weekend. Jordan’s story is interesting, he’s really just a one man band using hired guns to perform and tour. He decided to go by The Ready Set because he thought his last name, Witzigreuter, would inevitably be too hard for people to pronounce. Its a clever way around that whole, band-name-is-my-name dilemma.
LMFAO is a party rock phenomenon. They have not only taken over the airwaves with catchy summer fun tunes you can’t cleanse from your ear hole but they launched a clothing line aptly named, Party Rock. Maybe you can’t get behind DJ/Rappers Redfoo and SkyBlu’s antics and overall jovial love for the ladies, but you have to admit they bring their A game every show. If you don’t love living in the moment, stay inside ya sad sack and watch The Golden Girls reruns on the tv.
This past weekend they took the stage at Bamboozle 2011 and we caught em in the act. Shots Shots Shots for everyone!
Forever the Sickest Kids put the final smack down on their Spring Break Your Heart Tour by playing 2 nights at Bamboozle 2011. After jumping off the road with friends, Breathe Carolina, Before Their Eyes, This Century and We Are The In Crowd they unleashed their particular flavor of rock n roll for wildly excited crowds in New Jersey.
This American Pop Punk Band from Texas signed to Universal Motown Records Group in 2007 and has been gaining momentum ever since. Although a lot of people are only now just hearing about FTSK, they have built a solid following of the young and impressionable. With a respectable web presence and endless touring, these guys aren’t going away anytime soon.
In case you were wondering (like me) why he’s such a Wiz: “Wiz Khalifa- His stage name is derived from khalifa, an Arabic word meaning “successor”, and wisdom, which was shortened to Wiz when Khalifa was fifteen.” -Wikipedia. Apparently, as Wiz told spinner magazine, he was such a talented child, a wiz at everything so to speak, and that also played a role in his choosing the name.
If you are like me, you’re also wondering why his incredibly loyal fans are called the “Taylor Gang”. Well, I did some research and it turns out that contrary to popular belief, it’s not because the artist and his followers rock Converse Chuck Tailors, rather, the name comes from the fact that the original Wiz crew originated from Taylor Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh. Oh… and “Black and Yellow” is a Pittsburgh reference (sealers/Pirates/etc) in case you didn’t already know.
Now that you’re caught up on all the Wiz facts, It’s time to show you the pictures from the Rapper’s Bamboozle performance.
It seems that The Ontario quartet made up of Greg Alsop (drums), Josh Hook (guitar), David Monks (vocals, bass) and Graham Wright (keys/percussion) are having quite the year. Playing Coachella’s Main stage and gracing East Rutherford’s Bamboozle festival in support of their 2010 release Champ. We snapped some shots of the Canadians at last weekend’s festival (below) and if you’ve yet to discover this alt-gem, give them a listen after the jump.