popwreckoning

For many, braving the frigid temperatures that were only abetted by a breeze off of lake Michigan was worth reliving a band essential to so many musical palettes. Something Corporate was headlining the third Bamboozle festival, which not only marked the band’s third reunion show since their 2005 hiatus, but also the debut of the Bamboozle festival in Chicago. It was only fitting that Something Corporate ring in the festival for Chicago.

As Andrew McMahon pointed out early in the Something Corporate set, Chicago has a special place in the band’s heart and history. McMahon moved out from under his parent’s wings and spent some time living in the basement of New Found Glory’s Jordan Pundik. There, McMahon wrote several early SoCo songs, several of which they played that night.

It was a night for nostalgia for both the band and fans. It was a night for rediscovery and reliving the love of SoCo music, but it was also a day of discovery. Many of the scene’s rising acts from the last few years as well as a few veterans joined the festival. To the side of the main stage, the festival had a line up from the heart of Chicago. Allister and the harder Treaty of Paris rocked the later evening slots. Hip hop acts like Spose and the Jump Smokers (complete with their own ass-shaking, scantily clad dancers) got the crowd dancing. Earlier acts like I Fight Dragons and The Lifelines really impressed. I Fight Dragons fits in well with the Bamboozle scene, and the Lifelines, while edgier had a nice  mix of harder vocals with violin.

The side stage set times fit in between with the bigger name acts over on the main stage. All the Day Holiday played a catchy set to the early arrivers. Though some of their songs started to blend, the guys were energetic and fun. A good way to start off the mainstage. Chicago’s Kill Hannah played a rock set that was easy to dance to if you could take your eyes off the band in their neon make-up and feathers long enough to watch your footing. The band plays an edgy rock, but unlike some of the screamier bands you might have found amongst the other Chicago acts, this band’s music is very accesible as proven by radio singles “Lips Like Morphine” and “Boys N Girls.”

Kill Hannah Set List:
Boys N Girls
New York City Speed
Love You to Death
The Chase
Strobelights
Kennedy
Lips Like Morphine

The next three acts on the main stage are out on tour together, so if you missed Bamboozle, there is still a chance to catch Travie McCoy and the Lazarus Project with 3oh!3 and Cobra Starship. As enjoyable as McCoy’s other project, Gym Class Heroes, is, I kind of enjoyed this current act more. It fit in better with the other music at the fest and they guy is such a strong performer personality wise that I he could have been performing with only a cricket to back him and made that show enjoyable. He would coyly wrap his arms around his lit up mic stand, trot out on to amps and make these really animated facial expressions that almost said more than half his lyrics. Suffice it to say, he is a must-see-live act. Denver’s 3oh!3 followed up Travie and based on the amount of gold-donned girls in the crowd, there was a quite a large turn out to see these guys. Hands spelling out the 3oh!3 sign flew into the air as the guys started out with the whistling-filled single “Starstrukk.” The tunes are easy to sing along to – even a couple of new songs off their upcoming summer release got a good singalong in the crowd. For as much as you want to hate these guys for their womanizing lyrics, they’re pretty darn enjoyable live. We’ll chalk this one up to a guilty pleasure.

Speaking of guilty pleasures, the crowd was ready to get their fangs up with Chicago-darling Gabe Saporta and his current band: Cobra Starship. Flashing lights, confetti and balloons accessorized their set…if you didn’t know any better, it would have been easy to mistake them as the headliners. When it came time for them to play the infamous movie theme song “Snakes on a Plane,” they were all set to invite Travie McCoy back out to perform his part. However, Travie took a backseat to a girl who brought a sign saying she knew all the words to the rap. She was invited up on stage and McCoy filmed her doing the part. There are some who aren’t a fan of Saporta’s current act, aka those who won’t let go of Midtown, but if you let loose and accept the act for a silly, fun-loving dance, pop rock group than it really is a blast to hop around to “Guilty Pleasure” and “Good Girls Go Bad.”

After them, it was time for Something Corporate. Finally seeing Something Corporate was like a dream come true. The band broke up (or went on hiatus or whatever you’d prefer to call it) just when my parents finally gave me permission to go to shows. I’ve been fortunate to see Jack’s Mannequin several times and while the two piano-based rock groups share several similarities, there is a different energy in SoCo shows. A lot of that has to do with how different the lyrics are: the songs of Jack’s are more relationship-based lovelorn songs, while SoCo covers everything from relationships to growing up to simply not liking people. While I’m sure many would say the encore performance of “Konstantine,” beginning with just Andrew at the piano at first would be the evenings highlight, I have to say I thought the show hit its high with “If U C Jordan.” Andrew was stomping (yes, literally stomping on the keys) and sure, we were all throwing up the bird screaming, “FU Jordan,” which probably made anyone in Chicago by that name that could hear us super uncomfortable, but the song was surreal. To be that connected with that many people knowing the song and knowing how great this band was…it was magical. We were like some strange family and it didn’t matter how old we all were or where we were from. What mattered was that we loved this band and we were all having a great time.

I’m still kind of overwhelmed by how great it was…I can’t wait until the fall!

Something Corporate Set List:
Punk Rock Princess
The Astronaut
21 & Invincible
Down
I Want to Save You
She Paints Me Blue
Space
Cavanaugh Park
Watch the Sky
Me and the Moon
Fall
Ruthless
I Woke Up in a Car
If You C Jordan
//
Konstantine
Hurricane

The Line Up:

Main Stage:
4 – 4:35 – All the Day Holiday (pop rock)
5:05 – 5:35 – Kill Hannah (alt rock)
6:06 – 6:35 – Travie McCoy and the Lazarus Project (hip hop/jazz/rock fusion)
7:05 – 7: 45 – 3oh!3 (hip hop/rock)
8:15 – 8:45 – Cobra Starship (pop rock)
9:25 – 10:45 – Something Corporate (alt rock)
Side Stage:
3:35 – 4:05 – I Fight Dragons (pop rock)
4:35 – 5:05 – The Lifelines (hard rock)
5:35 – 6:05 – Jump Smokers (hip hop)
6:35 – 7:05 – Spose (hip hop)
7:45 – 8:15 – Treaty of Paris (rock)
8:55 – 9:25 – Allister (pop punk)

There were a lot of difficult decisions I had to make Thursday night. Decision 1: brave the cold, rainy weather which had ridiculously appeared after a previous hot day (Seriously, I went from shorts to winter coat in a day). I decided to brave the weather. At the venue the next Decision 2 was a little trickier, haha: attend Tech N9ne upstairs or Jack’s Mannequin in the basement.

I chose Jack’s Mannequin. I know that I may have disappointed some with that decision, but since Tech and I are bffs from our encounter at the Snoop Dogg concert this summer (Ok, so we’re not really bffs, but I did meet him this summer at that concert) and Jack’s Mannequin is a little more my speed, I chose the basement.

Oops, how did that pic get in here? Haha. Ok, silliness aside, my review continued:

For those who have never been to Omaha, which is probably almost everybody because I think most people are generally surprised to hear that things like shows would even occur in a place like, gasp, Nebraska, I may need to describe the venue. The show took place in Sokol Underground, which is basically a tiny black box of a room underneath an old gymnasium. The capacity, I believe, is about 315, so I cannot stress enough the intimacy of the show. The show quickly sold out even with the steep ticket prices, but it was worth it to see Jack’s Mannequin in such a tiny place when Andrew McMahon could have easily sold out a crowd ten times that size. I was surprised to see a barricade set up in the venue because I had never seen one in there before, although you could still get incredibly close to the stage.

Chicago group Treaty of Paris opened the show. They’ve been to Omaha a lot and have quite a following, but I’ve always had mixed feelings toward them. Tonight, though, I finally fell in love. They were asked to play the show acoustic, which I actually liked better, especially for the voice of Mike Chorvat. However, for those of you who are huge fans of TOP plugged in, do not worry, they still rocked and I think they managed to go up to eleven on acoustic. Their guitarists really are some of the best in the business, managing to do things on acoustic that I wouldn’t have thought possible. All of the guys had great movement and the crowd loved every time Chorvat came out toward them to shake hands.

The best part of their set was the kazoo solo on “New Improved.” I guess they just felt like there needed to be more kazoos in rock music. They thought right.

Set list:
Hello Nurse
Waking Up the Dead
State Tollway
New Improved
Here Goes Nothing
I’ll Come Back
Rollerskates

Following TOP was a band I was most curious to see: FUN. It was only their second day on tour so I didn’t really know what to expect. Judging from the members’ histories (FUN is the new project of members from Anathallo, Steel Train and one of my favorites, The Format), I should have expected awesomeness and well, fun.

It was actually quite amusing to watch as the audience nodded along to the first two songs, not really sure why everything sounded vaguely familiar, but Nate Ruess‘ voice is so distinctive, there was no way for this to not have a strong resemblance to the Format. The first song was one about paranoia. They second one was a little more optimistic, but still a lyrical downer if you really thought about. The chorus said something along the lines of “At least I’m not as bad as I was,” further cementing Ruess’ ability to juxtapose cheery instrumentation with his emotionally down-trodden lyrics.

By the third song, the audience finally recognized the voice. It helped that the third song was an acoustic variation of one of my favorite Format singles, “The First Single”, which was followed by another knew song and “She Doesn’t Get It”, also by the Format.

The crowd and the band had a blast as FUN covered Dexys Midnight Runners‘ “Come On, Eileen,” which was a fitting choice for Ruess voice and because they had both a keyboard and violinist. Although, as much as I appreciate violins, the violinist was not confident and thus she produced a weak and elementary sound. Perhaps when she feels brave enough to emerge from behind the music stand, she’ll be a little more confident.

The set closed with the hymn-like “Benson Hedges,” the one demo that is on FUN’s MySpace page. The new album is expected next spring, so get on the FUN bandwagon now. Trust me, this album will be good.

Set List:
New 1
New 2
The First Single
New 3
She Doesn’t Get It
Come On Eileen
Benson Hedges

Finally, it was time for Jack’s Mannequin. I’ve been through a lot to see this band, like driving through blizzards, but every time it has been worth it. McMahon is one of the most energetic pianists I’ve ever seen. The guy does not sit still. This night was no different, he jumping up and down, standing on the piano and closing the show, stomping on the keys. The crowd loved him, but what they seemed to love more was his mustache, which he was now sporting for the second night in a row. I believe he had a beard prior to this. The thing seemed to have a life of its own, which he commented on countless times. He also acknowledged that it made him look like a porn star. I was initially repulsed by the ‘stache, but by the end of the night it was hard to remember the other six times I’ve seen him without it.

The set consisted of mostly songs off the new album, The Glass Passenger, but the crowd didn’t seem to mind. Some of the classic Everything In Transit Songs were there like “Dark Blue” and “Bruised” and everybody rocked equally as hard to those.

The real hit of the evening seemed to be “Bloodshot,” which let McMahon come out from behind the keys and dance with the crowd.

After an incredibly fun set, the band came back out for their “encore,” which McMahon said was a bit of joke because it wasn’t like anybody was actually surprised by an encore anymore. What did surprise was that the band played not just one or two songs as is expected by an encore, but five. The started with Glass Passenger b-side “Miss California” followed by the current single “The Resolution.”

“Since we don’t play “Konstantine” anymore, we like to play a song by a man that rhymes with ‘Konstantine’: Bruce Springsteen,” said McMahon before jumping into a cover “I’m on Fire”. The cover was great, but I’m not going to lie I was kind of hoping for the MGMT cover of “Kids” that he’s been doing at a few shows, too, but I’m just greedy. They obliged the crowd with Something Corporate‘s “Cavanaugh Park” and closed out the set with a kick ass “La La Lie” that made everybody feel like they really were friends with McMahon. TOP joined Jack’s Mannequin for this song as well and it turned the finale into a huge party.

Set list:
Crashin
Spinning
The Mixed Tape
Drop Out
Swim
Holiday From Real
American Love
Annie Use Your Telescope
I’m Ready
Bloodshot
Hammers and Strings
Bruised
Caves
Dark Blue
———
Miss California
The Resolution
I’m On Fire (Bruce Springsteen cover)
Cavanaugh Park
La La Lie

Treaty of Paris: website | myspace
FUN: myspace
Jack’s Mannequin: website | myspace | interview with, pt. I | interview with, pt. II

Written by: Bethany