So yesterday Vic and I ventured into North Jersey to go to the punk rock festival The Bamboozle. I've been going for years now (this was my 4th, not to mention the 2 years of Skate And Surf Fest
before it), and its sorta changed...its kind of a mixed bag festival now with punk bands as the main draw. But the amount of old school bands (at least old school to me) has now dropped drastically. Sure New Found Glory is still kicking, and The Get Up Kids made a triumphant return, but still lots of noobies around. But I digress. Heres the bands we caught (plus we caught some delicious White Castle after the show in shady Elizabeth, NJ):

Cartel
Sing It Loud
International Superheroes Of Hardcore
Bayside
Bloodhound Gang
The Morning Light
New Found Glory
Cobra Starship
The Get Up Kids
Journey
Gwar
3rd Eye Blind
Fall Out Boy


and.....
Top Ten Bamboozle 2009 Moments

1.Seeing Bloodhound Gang's Bassist chug a beer, then throw it back up, then drink it again, then throw up twice more, including directly into lead singer Jimmy Pop's hat...who then put the hat back on.

2.The anticipation and excitement of guessing who the secret band was with a couple of randoms in the crowd...popular guesses included Dane Cook, 50 Cent, A Day To Remember, Motion City Soundrack, and and Seth Rogen....it was Journey.

3.Seeing Journey perform one of the tightest and most professional (not to mention well received) sets I've ever witnessed... 4 hits, 20 minutes, one raucous crowd.

4.Hearing Semi-Charmed Kind Of Life performed live. It just made me smile a whole lot.

5.Gazing upon the Hellishly costumed GWAR live and in person. I'm still not sure what the real point of that band is. But they sure were nightmarish. Especially the lead singers cod piece. They also ripped Barack Obama's head and Hilary Clinton's boobs off during a mid set Intergalactic wrestling match also involving a cave beast.

6.Watching Vic disappear into the crowd at GWAR just as they started firing fake blood from a giant demonic looking water gun. Was I ever going to see him again? I wasn't sure.

7.New Found Glory performing as their side project the International Superheroes Of Hardcore whilst masked. When they explained tongue in cheek that they were going to cover some songs by their "friends New Found Glory" Vic asked me how are they friends? ...after I had already explained to him the nature of this side project.

8.Watching crowd surfer after crowd surfer drop to the ground during Fall Out Boys set, sometimes directly because I didn't help catch them. One dude who fell said to me "hey can you throw me back up?" and I laughed and said "No, find someone else to do it". That was a great moment of personal triumph for me.

9.Getting at least 5 compliments on my Wayne's World hat, including one group who actually started air guitaring the Wayne's World theme song, and then start quoting the "Gun Rack? I don't own a gun, let alone many guns which would necessitate an entire rack." bit.

10.Sitting down in the car at the very end of the show. My feet and knees felt destroyed, my neck and face were sunburned (weather forecasts called for rain most of the day and I wore a Hoodie and light Jacket in which I had to carry around most of the day), and my neck and back were one gargantuan monkey fist. But from 1:00 PM - 11:00 PM we were straight rocking. Totally worth it.