If you didn’t go to The Bamboozle Roadshow you missed something really special. We came into this concert with relatively low expectations, but man were we blown away. It was one of those things that we’re really glad we didn’t miss out on.

We showed up around 1:30 in the middle of the first half of the show, when some of the smaller bands were playing on the second stage in the back. Some of these bands included Stereo Skyline, Drive A (whom we interviewed), The Ready Set, Great Big Planes, and more. During this time the AltRock team was tailgating in the parking lot, so we don’t really have a good account of their performances. We do wish we could’ve seen Drive A in particular, however, because after interviewing the lead guitarist/singer Bruno we became very intrigued with their style, and wish we had seen them perform.

Going in before the main bands set up in the ampitheatre gave us ample time to check out the many booths set up and meet some of the people running the event. There were more people than we expected, and it was great to see such a large base of support for the musical acts performing that night. We hung out at To Write Love on Her Arms’ tent, along with Drive A’s, Simple Plan’s, and a few others.

Around 4:30 the first band, Forever The Sickest Kids, went on. They were impressive with their songs and their energy as they prepared the crowd for a long and fun-filled night. After them came Good Charlotte, and they were awesome. Here we just want to mention that seeing bands like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan that haven’t really been active lately start performing again was great. They were increbibly good and it was like they never took a break. The confidence they had on stage perpetuated throughout the crowd and gave the whole night a great vibe, bringing back nostalgiac memories of the band’s earlier songs. Good Charlotte played classic songs like “The Anthem”, “I Don’t Wanna Be In Love”, and “Lifestyles of the Rich And Famous”. Simple Plan came on after them and played songs like “Welcome To My Life”, “Perfect”, “Shut Up”, and “I’d Do Anything”. They really got the crowd going, and after Simple Plan played there was a line about a mile long to meet them at their booth.

Next up was Third Eye Blind. They started off with a long intro, and we really liked their stage setup, having the drummer in the middle at an angle and the rest of the band at his sides. They played songs like “Jumper”, “Graduate”, “Semi-Charmed Life”, “Hows It Gonna Be”, and more. Their new guitarist kryz reid was from Dublin, Ireland, and holy crap was he amazing. Towards the end of the set Stephan Jenkins (the lead singer) started talking about how, after getting to know all of the bands on the Bamboozle Roadshow tour this year, there was no band they had gotten closer to than All Time Low. And after this the unlikely combination of Third Eye Blind and All Time Low came together to perform a few of Third Eye Blind’s most popular songs, and not a single member of All Time Low was left out. This really got the crowd excited and was certainly one of my favorite and most memorable moments of the night.

Performing next was the Los Angeles based “party-rock” group LMFAO. Their music was interesting and seemed to turn the entire stadium into one giant night club. As they played songs like “Shots”, “La La La”, and “I’m In Miami Bitch” (replacing Miami with Boston), they got the whole crowd dancing like crazy as people in the field seats formed dance groups and lines that stretched across the whole stadium. At one point they even had a giant robot come up on stage with them to dance around and get people excited. It was random but really cool at the same time.

LMFAO’s set led into All Time Low’s highly-anticipated performance, which started out in complete darkness. They had multi-colored neon lights on all their amps that seemed to dance in the low light as they stormed onto the stage amidst the smoke and darkness. They were one the more interesting bands in terms of on-stage banter, at one point saying that they would “skull-fuck their way to the back of the crowd”. They played many of their most popular songs, such as “Weightless”, “Dear Maria, Count Me In”, “Poppin’ Champagne”, and “Six Feet Under the Stars”. Their performance was definately one of our favorites, and we were glad they played for such a comparitively long time. One of the best parts was when Buzz LightYear joined the members of All Time Low in dancing and pumping up the crowd. His appearance was unexpected, but incredibly well recieved. If he were to fight LMFAO’s dancing robot, he would most definately whoop his ass.

The final performance of the night was local favorites Boys Like Girls. They had a solid performance with songs like “The Great Escape”, “Love Drunk”, “Two is Better Than One”, and “Thunder”. They played well into the night and we left before they finished to try and beat the traffic.

All in all this was one of those concerts that we were extremely glad we didn’t miss. The music, excitement, energy, and just all-around good times were some of the best we’ve had at a concert or music festival so far. It is with great enthusiasm that we award this a 10 out of 10, and we look forward to going again next year.