A few months ago, I was hired to do a promotional photo shoot for The Ever After from Miami, FL. In the weeks following the shoot, the guys hit me up to see if I wanted to come with them on a trip to The Bamboozle Music Festival in East Rutherford, NJ. I of course took the amazing opportunity, as I have not missed a Bamboozle in over 5 years and we had an amazing time! Be sure to click through to the jump to read about and see all of our adventures together! Also, I will be posting a separate blog in a few days with more images from the weekend and my coverage of some of the other acts that performed at Bamboozle!

We left South Florida on Wednesday afternoon and started our trek up towards New Jersey for Bamboozle. On the way we stopped for the night in Charlotte Hall, MD to stay with Pam Cook, a good friend of the bands. Pam treated us to some amazing home cooked meals as well as a stop at the local watering hole where I, of course, had to take the mic for a minute when Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” was being played. We had an amazing night in MD, and big thanks to Pam for making MD feel like home! Pam also had 2 amazing dogs and her German Shepherd made Dexter (my Belgian Malinos) look like a Chihuahua! Check the thumbnails at the bottom of this post for a photo of them!

On Friday morning we left to head up to The Meadowlands Sports complex to check in to Bamboozle. We spent the day watching some bands, hanging with friends and trying to sell CD’s and meet as many people as possible to tell them about The Ever After. Eddie, being the social butterfly that he is, randomly approached a group of girls (who a few of them looked familiar to me) to have them listen to the EP and maybe pick up a CD. We soon came to realize that the reason why the girls looked familiar was because they were from the MTV show “My Life As Liz”. I of course had to snag a photo of the guys with Liz, and she was happy to oblige. We then met an amazing woman, Deborah, who helped with the sales of CD’s and became a great friend of ours throughout the weekend!

Saturday was the day that The Ever After was playing so we got to the venue pretty early to work out all of the details of loading in and getting ready to perform. The guys had a great time slot on the Break Stage when they played at a point when no one else in the entire festival was performing. Because of this, people were herding like sheep towards their stage and they ended up playing to an immense crowd! They played a powerhouse set and even ended up signing a ton of autographs and selling a great amount of CD’s after the performance. It is always great for me to see a band play to people who have never heard them before and receive such an amazing response, so I am super proud of Armando, Nicky, Eddie, Steven, and Michael for rocking out as hard as they did!

After their performance we hung out a ton in the Red Bull tent where we were able to re-fuel on food and drinks for no charge and I got to hang with a ton of people that I only get to see once or twice a year, so it was a blast. I ran off for a little bit to shoot The Gaslight Anthem and then later on in the night went back with my good friend Alex Tcheckmeian (www.aktenterprises.com) to hang at the Houlihans next to their hotel.

On Sunday, I ended up getting a photo pass from a good friend and spent the day shooting artists like Bruno Mars, A Day To Remember, Lil Wayne and many more. The band didn’t have any press or performances to do that day so we all just wandered around Bamboozle and saw different bands that we wanted to enjoy.

Monday morning we got up and had to trek into New York City for the Ever After’s performance at Angels and Kings with Ryan Cabrera, Trace Cyrus and a bunch of other great artists. It was an acoustic show so we decided that the best plan would be to park in Seacaucus, NJ near our hotel and take the train into the city. It ended up working out very well and was a lot less expensive than trying to park a Van and Trailer in the city (which would have been around $75 for the day) We wandered around NYC for a bit, grabbed some authentic New York Pizza, and then got to Angels and Kings to rock the night away. Some of the Hey Monday camp met up with us to enjoy the festivities and the guys in The Ever After played a great Acoustic set. They even brought me up to help sing with them on their cover of Adelle’s “Rolling in the Deep” which was a ton of fun for me!

After their set at Angels and Kings, we decided to cap the night off with bar-hopping to a few different clubs in the city and then ended up back at our hotel to get some rest for the long drive ahead. The next morning we left to head back to FL, but ended up getting stopped because of some minor issue with the vans tags. This happened in VA and we were luckily very close to Steven’s parents house in Newport News so that became our new destination. They welcomed us with open arms and gave us a place to stay for the night and an amazing meal. In the morning Steven left with his pops to go get the issues worked out with the van, and we ended up leaving their place later that afternoon. 15 hours later we arrived safe and sound into South Fl, and I missed being off the road the second I got out of the van. All in all it was an amazing trip, and I had so much fun working with The Ever After and becoming close friends with them!

Big thanks again to Armando, Nicky, Eddie, Steven, and Michael for bringing me out and to Deborah, Pam, The Richardsons, AKT, John Youngman, Dave Shapiro, Mark Mercado, Adam Samilljan, Dawn Marshman, Alex Kenny, Kelly Kapp, ADTR, Nick Pampenella, Sara Stile, Mike Gentile, Lions Lions, and everyone else who made this trip an amazing experience for me!

Also – Big thanks to Tiffany D’aurizio at The Gansevoort Miami Beach (http://www.gansevoortmiamibeach.com) for letting us use their Hotel for a few locations during the Ever After photo shoot!

Make sure to check out The Ever After on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/theeverafter and pick up their CD on Itunes!