Review by Jamarr Stokes

The Jamboree is a relatively new event that has showcased some of the biggest up-and-coming bands in the world, and the 2013 edition was no different, as over 20 bands put on what was a great weekend of music. Now while me covering every single band would be quite a lot of trouble, since it was somewhat difficult to catch every band, I’m going to cover the 6 bands I thought stood out the most from the field. Those bands are To the Wind, Tonight Alive, Watch This Burn, King Conquer, Backtrack, and The Holy Guile.

Tonight Alive is from all the way in Sydney, Australia and they have a sound similar to bands like The Nearly Deads, The Pretty Reckless, and Paramore. They brought a real confidence on stage, which isn’t surprising since they’ve been to Warped Tour. Every song they played was great live, including their cover of “Little Lion Man” that was featured on one of the Pop Goes Punk releases. Overall, a great set and I look forward to hearing them in the future!

The second band I chose from the first day was Backtrack, from New York. These guys were wild, bringing an energetic set of pure hardcore rock. The crowd was insane for them, lots of surfing and mic-stealing going on. Again, every song was well-performed and they put on a great set.

The last band of the first day was To the Wind from Seattle, Washington. They brought out a great metalcore-y set, with some great melodies and great drum work. The crowd definitely into them, as the pit was quite big during their performance. Overall they had a pretty good set, and I look forward to hearing more from them in the future!

The next three bands from day 2 all played outside, so their vocals (at least the ones who were doing cleans) suffered a little, but they all were great bands.

The first one I chose from day 2 was King Conquer, from Naples, Florida. Out of all the bands that played on both days, this is the best performance given. The crowd was absolutely insane the whole time, a lot of mic-stealing, and at one point, the lead singer grabbed onto the rafters of the stage and hung from them while fans held him up, as he continued singing the song! It was a great show, great music, and wild ending, which added to the energy of the next band.

That next band was Watch This Burn, from Columbus, Ohio. These guys were my personal favorite of the show, even with the mic problems they had during their set. The crowd was really into them, as they didn’t mess around and brought it. The lead singer tried to knock over one of the speakers to no avail – the speaker won. All in all, a great set.

The final band I’ll cover is The Holy Guile. These guys either had some sort of technical difficulty or were just plainly off-tempo. It didn’t deter them either way, because they put on a great show and brought it nonetheless.

Overall, The Jamboree 2013 was a huge opportunity for some known and unknown bands to get a larger audience and to show their stuff, I really look forward to next years edition, to see who will show up!