At first I was excited when I heard that the weekend-long Bamboozle tour was finally going to be coming to the West Coast. Normally, the Warped Tour-wannabe is an exclusively East Coast gig, but this year it was a nationwide tour with a stop in Irvine. When I saw that bands like Metro Station, Pierce the Veil, From First to Last and Saves the Day were scheduled to play on the show’s best day, Sunday, I knew I had to go and check it out for myself.

Unfortunately though, Live Nation, the tour’s promoter and event publicist, did not allow me access to any of the bands, let alone tickets to the show. I felt for the publicity managers who were fervently trying to line up artist interviews with me to no avail as Live Nation ended up snubbing me and my request for press credentials the day before the show.

It just so happened that one publicist for a band was able to FedEx me two tickets for Sunday’s show so that I could at least attend the concert for one day. Reluctantly I went.

The first band we saw was From First to Last, or FFTL, who had some brief success when their 2006 album “Heroine” took off and its singles enjoyed heavy rotation on the radio and music channels (the few that there actually are). But shortly after its release and as their popularity was steadily rising, the band suffered a blow when singer Sonny Moore left the band abruptly due to throat complications.

The band bounced back and guitarist Matt Good stepped up as lead singer. FFTL sounded tight on stage April 6, but the crowd seemed unmoved. Given they were playing a lot of songs from their upcoming self-titled release — which no one had heard yet since the album doesn’t drop until April 15 — they suffered a fate many bands do when introducing new songs off an unreleased record. However when they played their hit from “Heroine,” “The Latest Plague,” the crowd ignited into frenzy. Matt pulled off the singing well, my only observation was that a lot of the stage antics that Sonny performed were lost in Matt being anchored down by his guitar.

Pierce the Veil was also a cool band to finally see. I had their album “A Flair for the Dramatic” since its release and they sounded spot-on live. Singer Vic Fuentes could be seen hanging out at the Equal Vision Records booth, just talking with fans and humbly signing autographs.

Another noteworthy performance was SoCal band Metro Station, which has been touring nonstop in support of a self-titled album that came out last fall. They put on an awesome performance and the gigantic crowd that formed at their stage when the opening chords rang out was a testament to their impact on the SoCal music scene.

With all personal aversions to Live Nation aside, Bamboozle was a letdown in many ways. The grounds of Verizon Amphitheater are so huge and spread out, you had to journey what felt like miles of incline in either direction to get from one stage to another. And the bands were all lined up on top of one another so that as soon as one ended, another would immediately start at the other end of the park. I would say that the next time Bamboozle comes through, I’ll save my breath and my time. I still think that Warped Tour effectively executes its lineup, layouts, and tour much better than Bamboozle did. In one day the Warped Tour offers what an entire weekend of Bamboozle couldn’t, and at a cheaper price.

The Vans Warped Tour is heading back to San Diego on Aug. 14 so be sure to check it out. Lineups and more info can be viewed at www.warpedtour.com.