Herald Online

The third annual Bamboozle Roadshow romps into Charlotte’s Uptown Amphitheater at The Music Factory Saturday with a slamming surge of pop rock, alt/ rock and punk. This all-day extravaganza has a two-stage blitz to keep things moving.

The music features a lineup of known and nearly known, including All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, Hanson, Third Eye Blind, Cartel and more.

This is just the second stop on this year’s version of the New Jersey-based hyper-tour, with a “the more, the merrier”‘ music credo. All Time Low proves the only way is up. The Baltimore-based bunch is on a hot streak with its fast-paced, feisty and brazen display of melodic madness. The band formed in 2005 with Green Day and Blink-182 as influences. Members are Alexander Gaskarth, vocals and lead guitar; Jack Barakat, rhythm guitar and backing vocals; Zachary Merrick, bass; and Rian Dawson, drums.

They hit the ground running with near non-stop touring, with the Vans Warped tours, criss-crossing the U.S. to assorted gigs and returning frequently to towns to strengthen their fan following. ATL released their debut album “The Party Scene” in 2005; followed by 2007’s “So Wrong It’s Right” and “Nothing Personal” in mid-2009. Their upcoming release is a DVD titled “Straight to DVD” set for release May 25. In 2008, ATL was crowned “Band of the Year” by Alternative Press and their 2009 CD debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200.

While pumping up their popularity, ATL has also sharpened their musical skills and explored directions as evidenced by recent acoustic appearances revealing a less frenetic but still punchy, precise side. Hook-happy, lyrically clever and with an evolving sonic strength, witness All Time Low Saturday with Boys Like Girls, Good Charlotte, Hanson, Cartel, The Ready Set and more at The Uptown Amphitheater, The Music Factory, 820 Hamilton St., Charlotte. The all-day event starts at noon. Call 704- 549-5555 for more show info or go to livenation.com for details. Check thebamboozle.com for tour news, information on exact lineups and links. For more on ATL, visit alltimelow.com and hopelessrecords.com.

The founding band members and identical twin brothers Joel Madden and Benji Madden of the post-grunge/pop-punk with a dash of dance outfit Good Charlotte will be in Charlotte not only because their band is among the headliners for the Bamboozle Roadshow. The two have a second agenda to be out and about in the Queen City that night. In what might be viewed as an intriguing dueling DJ’s scenario, The Madden brothers of Good Charlotte fame will be handling double bill performances Saturday as DJs at uptown Charlotte’s nightlife hub, The Epicentre.

Joel Madden will rock the room as guest DJ at Suite in The Epicentre, while Benji Madden spins his DJ set at nearby Mez in The Epicentre. Expect the unexpected. The Epicentre is at 21 E, Trade St., uptown Charlotte. Suite is on the second floor in Suite 300-A. For info, call 704-971-7886 or visit suitecharlotte.com. Mez is also on the second floor, in Suite 300-D. Call 704-971-2400 for details, or visit mezcharlotte.com.

Join Jim Gladden and Friends for “Livin’ la Vida Local” Saturday at Sylvia Theater in downtown York. This presentation brings area performers together for a benefit to help with medical bills for local musicians. More than a dozen of the area’s singers, songwriters and artists are scheduled to perform, including Micah Lathrope; Neal Kiser, Tom Aggeles, Amy Ramsey and JS Edmunds; George White and Sandy Norris; Jim Gladden, The Palmetto Boys and more. The music will be a lively mix of Americana, folk, country and bluegrass. Find show info call 803-684-5590. For the full lineup, go to at sylviatheater.com.

Roll out with The Rockaholics tonight at the Sandtrap Bar and Billiards in Charlotte. Hang out with musicians Donny Martin, bass; Scott Dowless, guitar and vocals; Jon Griffin, guitar and vocals; Foster Fegarsky, drums and back up vocals; Lou Lambruschi, keyboards; and J. T. Layton, keyboards, guitars and vocals. They’ve “been jamming together in some form or another since the mid ’80’s,” playing the “stuff” they like – classic rock hits and favorites. Lots of folks seem to like the same stuff. For a fun evening with a “remember that song” vibe, join The Rockaholics tonight at the Sandtrap Bar and Billiards, 1923 Westinghouse Boulevard, Charlotte. Check rockaholics.net and myspace.com/therockaholicsband for more information and to check the band’s songlist.

Read more: http://www.heraldonline.com/2010/05/21/2184837/the-third-annual-bamboozle-roadshow.html#ixzz0oa2t4IzZ

Palm Beach Pulse

For someone like Jordan Witzigreuter, a 20-year-old electronic-pop newcomer who records under the name The Ready Set, going on a tour like Bamboozle Roadshow means more than just getting his name out there.

Witzigreuter, whose first Ready Set album, I’m Alive I’m Dreaming, drops in June, said touring with bands such as Good Charlotte, All Time Low, Boys Like Girls and Hanson, gives him an opportunity to listen to all sorts of new sounds and pick up a few things here and there from each.

“It’s that way with any tour,” Witzigreuter said. “When you’re around a certain group of bands, you end up learning all of their songs and it inspires you. You end up using little things that you pick up along the way.”

Bamboozle Roadshow, which grew out of the California-based concert The Bamboozle, arrives at Cruzan Amphitheatre in suburban West Palm Beach on Tuesday afternoon with a 12-band slate on two stages.
“This is the biggest tour I’ve been on,” Witzigreuter said. “It’s like a miniature festival.”

For Witzigreuter, this is also a chance to introduce his music to new ears. The Ready Set’s sound is a mixture of a lot of different genres, but it is based in pop. It shows Witzigreuter’s willingness to never cut himself off from any kind of music, starting with punk, which grew from skateboarding in his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind.

“I got into other music early on in high school, and checking out all kinds of music became my central focus,” he said. “I was listening to hardcore when I was 15, but by the time it was over I was listening to every sort of genre. I just enjoyed the catchiness of pop music most of all.”

As for the name of his, well, band, The Ready Set does more than spare people from trying to pronounce his last name.

“When I came up with the name, I was leaving high school, and I didn’t know what to do with my life,” Witzigreuter said. “And that’s what it means — The Ready Set is about putting all of your inhibitions and worries behind you, and just going out and living.”

You get the feeling that kind of thinking is all over the place at Bamboozle Roadshow. Here’s a look at the major acts playing the Bamboozle Roadshow:

Boys Like Girls: These guys are pretty much pop-rock distilled to its most basic essence. The four-man group from Andover, Mass., has already had three top-10 pop hits, including their biggest and most recent hit, “Two Is Better Than One”, which they recorded with Taylor Swift. Boys Like Girls introduced their latest single, Heart Heart Heartbreak, at the Miss USA Pageant.

All Time Low: Another four-man group, this one from Baltimore, All Time Low has the kind of pop-punk sound reality show and teen drama shows build their entire season’s worth of soundtracks around. All Time Low stands out because of the harmonies between lead singer Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat.

Hanson: It seems bizarre to call these guys the veterans of the tour, considering the brothers Hanson aren’t that much older than the rest of the bands, but their first hit MMMBop was released in 1996. They’ve been churning out great power-pop ever since.

Good Charlotte: Lately, the band’s two frontmen, Joel and Benji Madden, have become more known for their relationships than their music — Joel is Nicole Richie’s fiancé; Benji dated Paris Hilton for a while. But they are still performing their snarling punky pop with tons of attitude, and will be forever recognized for songs like The Anthem and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Forever The Sickest Kids: These six guys from Dallas are almost a throwback to ’80s pop-rock artists like Rick Springfield or Poison, but with some serious stylistic touches. Forever the Sickest Kids aren’t afraid to throw a chorus of “Nah-nah-nahs” or a “Hey! Oh!” into any song.

BAMBOOZLE ROADSHOW
When: 3:30 p.m., Tuesday
Where: Cruzan Amphitheatre
Tickets: On sale at Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com.

The show’s sponsor, Coca-Cola, is offering an experience called “Swelter Stopper”, and through that you can win a VIP experience at the show. Here are the details:

Throughout the day, the DJ in the Coca-Cola “Swelter Stopper” tent will randomly ask questions based off this bit of info…

What’s a “Swelter Stopper” and why Bamboozle?

A “Swelter Stopper” is one of Coke’s secret ingredients that, when combined with the others (Coke’s Secret Formula), make Coke the uplifting refreshment that it is.

To help concert goers make it from the opening to closing acts, Coke will have the “Swelter Stopper” experience stocked with ice-cold Coca-Cola. Get refreshed with blasts of frosty air, snow falling, and a delicious Coke from the perfect serve sampling bar, along with uplifting interactive games, a DJ and a photo station. Once their “Swelter Stopper” experience ends, they’ll be ready for crowd surfing at the main stage.

For more details about Coca-Cola’s Secret Ingredient Formula, please go here: http://www.mycoke.com

Paw Print

On May 1st 2010, I took a two-hour drive up to East Rutherford, New Jersey with my friend Danielle, to go to the Bamboozle Festival. It was hot that day, and when I say hot, I mean it. Once we got to the Sports Complex, everything was already in full swing there were bands playing and people were already getting crazy. The first band I saw that day was 100 monkeys. Now, for all you Twilight fans, here’s a little fact about 100 monkeys: their guitarist and vocalist is none other than Jackson Rathbone, who plays the role of Jasper Hale in the Twilight series.

And this is not my first year at the festival I went to the Bamboozle Festival in 2007, and the festival has changed a lot since then. However, the overall tone was the same, the crowds are rowdy, the people fun, and the bands are just there to have a good time and put on a good show. One thing that has improved is the range of bands they book to play at the festival. For example, this year they booked performers like, Ke$ha, Drake, and MGMT, artist are either pop, rap, or, new wave, and Bamboozle is primarily known for being a rock festival, so it seems that they are opening there arms to all kinds of music now.

The day was going very well; I got to see one of my favorite local bands, Great Big Planes (I talked about them when I saw The Maine at the Electric Factory) they played three new songs, and ended their set with their most popular song, “Were Gonna be in Love.” As the day progressed, it just got hotter and hotter, to the point it became almost unbearable during The Maine’s set. The crowd was insane, people were piled on top of other people, till you had no idea if the sweat on your legs was yours or the person’s in front of you. My favorite performance of the night was Ke$ha, and even though she came on a little late, she was amazing. It seemed more like we were at a club dancing than at a live concert. She came out with medusa-like hair flying all over the place, and of course, she ended with her hit, “Tik-Tok,” and that sent the crowd on a crazy. After Ke$ha, Drake was on. My only complaint of Drake was that his set went over by a half-hour, and we were all waiting for Paramore to come on, but they couldn’t come on until Drake went off. It’s wasn’t exactly his fault; they were experiencing some major technical difficulties with his microphone and his lights. The last performance of the night was Paramore, I love Paramore because their lead singer Hayley Williams, is an amazing female vocalist. She just knows how to command a crowd, and her vocals are amazing, so it was so worth it to wait to see her perform.

At the end of the festival there was trash everywhere I even heard on person say this: “You know you’re in Jersey, there is trash everywhere”. But hey, we were in North Jersey. My only complaints about the festival were that the prices for drinks and food were so much, in order to stay hydrated you had to spend $4.75 for water, and the water was warm because they put it in a cup with as little ice as possible. And my final complaint is that that Hanson didn’t play their 1997 hit, MMMBop.

It was a wonderful experience of music, fans, and little girls who were just there to see there favorite band and hopefully get an autograph. And so The Bamboozle Festival ended with sweat, bruises, and a couple crumpled posters.

Music Mix

The now-alarmingly-mature gentlemen of Hanson got the chance to step out on stage with Conan O’Brien Saturday night, when the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour hit their hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma — a collaboration due in part, at least, to O’Brien’s wife. (According to Taylor Hanson, she’s a fan.) The trio — whose super-fun new album, Shout It Out, drops June 8 — joined other notable guests like Pearl Jam as the night’s local music heroes, running through new single “Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’” and a cover of Three Dog Night’s “Never Been to Spain” (but they have been to Oklahoma, etc.) with O’Brien backing on guitar.

Just in case we weren’t already sure of this, Taylor says that Coco is a “total gentleman,” and a “great musician.” “He’s obviously self-deprecating as a guy, but he’s got chops!” says the middle Hanson (who is now 27, and has four kids of his own, so, you know, mmmbop that). “He can get around on the guitar, and he can also get around on the keyboard, and I told him when we were there, I think he should do a Conan record. I think people would dig it.” In even better news, the legendary Coco Unemployment Beard — which has been verging on vagrant for the past few weeks — seems to be back under control. “The beard was not as unkempt as I thought it was,” confirms Taylor. “I think he tamed it a little bit for Tulsa.”

Check out the trio’s performances after the jump, plus a bonus appearance from the I’m Not Sure We Can Legally Call Him The ‘Masturbating Bear’ Anymore Masturbating Bear. Children, avert your eyes.

WIFR.com

Since 1992 Hanson has been wowing crowds with their harmonies and unique sound; though you may remember them best for their 1997 hit “Mmmbop.” It’s time to move beyond that if you haven’t already. Hanson is back and there’s a new album slated for release on June 8th.

The album Shout It Out is a very upbeat record that Hanson wishes you could dance in the street too – which Hanson and their fans literally do to “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin’” in said songs official video.

This album could be the bands most upbeat yet, and there’s a reason for that as the oldest Hanson brother Isaac told Billboard.com, “I think we were just ready to move forward with a really upbeat kind of attitude.”

Shout It Out contains 12 tracks, many which include horns by none other than Jerry Hey (Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire), and has bassist Bob Babbitt as a guest on the album as well.

“Thinkin’ ‘Bout Somethin’,” the lead-off single is available now on iTunes, and the video which is a throw back to Illinois’ own “The Blues Brothers” is getting a wide range of views and praise on Hanson’s official MySpace and YouTube.