2009 Jingle Bell Bash - Concert Review by Art Rusche

WOW!!!   How do you put down in words the experience of being in a Mosh for 8 straight hours for TEN great bands!!   No food, no water... just keep moving in a crowd forward.  Kids were going down all around!  The event staff at the front stage barricade were hauling kids out of the Mosh every few seconds! The performers and roadies would spray the joyful audience with water frequently. It was a boiler room of action and I moved, jumped and swayed all night to get to the front! I think I lost 10 pounds that night!

Amber Pacific from Seattle started the JBB at 4pm. All ten bands played their best songs as the first couple bands including The Maine, This Providence and Push Play had only time to play 5 or 6 songs.  The stage crew used some common equipment and were able to turn the stages around in less then 15 minutes. Jackie and Bender from KISS-FM hosted the event and a toasted Pete Wentz, from Fall Out Boy, MC'ed the event between acts. The middle bands We The Kings, Hey Monday and Cash Cash each played several hits to rock on the evening!  I loved Cassadee Pope of Hey Monday's vocals!

The sound was great and the action in the Mosh Pit was fun!  When the crowd surfing went on, you had to be constantly on alert as a leg or head was being passed over you! As each band came and went, more kids left exhausted via the front of the Mosh and I was able to get closer and closer....

The three last bands,  each in their own right a headline band, finished the evening. All Time Low is featured on MTV Unplugged with their hits Damned if I Do Ya and Weightless. They sounded great!  Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta excited the crowd with "Snakes on a Plane (Bring it)" and "Good Girls Go Bad".  Victoria Asher on the keytar added to the performance of their great fun songs!

  After over 6 hours of moshing, the headline band All American Rejects took the stage! Tyson Ritter was his over the top flamboyant self. He started out outfitted in a dress, especially for Seattle he said.  They drove the crowd to the end of an 8 hour climax!  AAR played almost twice as long as any other band and ended just before midnight! That was 8 hours of Moshing!! I was thirsty and soaked but I was so pumped I didn't even want to sit down!   It was so amazing to see so many great bands perform, it was crazy!  Each band performed their best songs. The experience of watching a high energy performance from the front of the stage in a Mosh pit, lasts for weeks and this one had so many memorable moments .  See my pictures below....