Night two of the third annual Bamboozle Left featured a much heavier lineup and overall was a vast improvement over the previous day. In the end, it was anchored by the Deftones’ first performance without bassist Chi Cheng, who remains in the hospital following a car accident he suffered last November.

Opening with the blistering “Hexagram,” they turned in the strongest showing of the entire festival. Complemented by a mood-setting light show – the only band I saw do so – the Deftones were sharp and sounded great, with no evidence of rust from not having performed in many months. Their hour-long set leaned towards the rap-rock of their earlier releases, and it mattered little that most of the time one could hardly understand vocalist Chino Moreno. This allowed the quite moments, like “Digital Bath” drenched in pale blue light or their biggest hit “Change (In the House Of Flies),” to stand out all the more. The band didn’t play any new material as far as I could tell, and last I heard their new record Eros is still tentatively slated for an October release.

Preceding the Deftones was Taking Back Sunday, who incorporated a taste from each of their four records. The band is always fun live and was no exception here. This was my first time seeing the band since the addition of guitarist/vocalist Matthew Fazzi, formerly of Facing New York, and he did an admirable job fitting in. I was pleasantly surprised with how strong his voice is, too. The band played four songs from the forthcoming New Again, which I thought was stretching it for a festival setting. The first two sounded mediocre but the latter pair showed more promise. Still, I have the faint feeling that their latest release will be a bit of a letdown after the fantastic Louder Now.

Thrice is one of the best live bands around and they turned in a solid 45-minute set, which was more or less similar to what they played during last year’s tour with Rise Against. However, the highlight this time around was the debut of a new song, which came across as a mixture of Vheissu and Air but with added groove. Needless to say, it more than whetted my appetite to hear more.

Before Thrice was The Used, who seem to be one of those bands that get slightly worse with each subsequent release. The set list was pretty good, barring the questionable inclusion of the worst song they’ve ever written (“Liar Liar”), but the three tracks from Self-Titled helped make up for it. They cut short many of the songs for a medley type format, which was weird because they came up about five minutes short of their scheduled 40-minute set time. The last time I saw The Used was several years ago on the Taste Of Chaos tour, and while they’re still a good live band, they seem to have lost some of their former intensity. While the new song they played from this summer’s Artwork was decent, it did little to leave either a positive or negative impression.

Finally, the first band I caught from day two was Saosin who, like Thrice, were playing in front of a hometown crowd. The sound was unfortunately on the muddy side and it took vocalist Cove Reber a few songs to get warmed up, but the audience still seemed to enjoy it, especially during “You’re Not Alone.” Meanwhile, the band also showed off two new songs, the latter of which (“Fireflies”) is easily the most epic in scope Saosin has ever tackled.

(Note: While rapper 50 Cent was questionably chosen as the headliner, I can’t stand the guy and therefore immediately left following the Deftones. I also was unable to catch Closure In Moscow, P.O.S. and Forgive Durden, but still recommend checking them out.)

SET LISTS

Saosin
Sleepers
Voices
New Song (working title Uphill Battle)
You're Not Alone
Seven Years
Fireflies (New Song)

The Used
Take It Away
The Bird And The Worm
Liar Liar (Burn In Hell)
Blood On My Hands (New Song)
The Taste Of Ink
All That I’ve Got
Buried Myself Alive
Pretty Handsome Awkward
A Box Full Of Sharp Objects

Thrice
Of Dust And Nations
The Melting Point Of Wax
Deadbolt
For Miles
The Artist In The Ambulance
Firebreather
Helter Skelter
Silhouette
New Song
The Earth Will Shake

Taking Back Sunday
You Know How I Do
Error Operator
Set Phasers To Stun
Carpathia (New Song)
You’re So Last Summer
New Song (First Track From New Again)
Liar (It Takes One To Know One)
Cute Without The ‘E’ (Cut From The Team)
Catholic Knees (New Song)
A Decade Under The Influence
What’s It Feel Like To Be A Ghost?
Sink Into Me (New Song)
MakeDamnSure



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