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Bands: Click here Reviewer: John Frank
Warped Tour is a trek that I make every summer. This festival is always enjoyable, and I have found it to be one of the best concerts for your money. You pay 25 dollars, you get an entire day and evening of music, and you get to see anywhere from 40 to 80 bands. It is arguable the most successful festival in music, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. Kevin Lyman has found a way to provide a show that brings a few big bands with a lot of smaller bands and connects them with the fans. Ok, so now that all of that introduction is over, it’s time to see how the actual show was.
The experience for me was a bit different than it would be for most people attending the show. I had to balance the schedule of interviews, taking photos, and then seeing the bands I wanted to check out. Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way complaining, but I didn’t have like a set schedule of who I would see and at what times, I just drifted through the whole event catching a few songs here and there. I saw a few bands for the first time such as Alkaline Trio and Bad Religion, and managed to squeeze in some old favorites as well.
The evening was when the big names played, and I got to catch up with a few bands over in the press area (interviews will be posted soon). As I was walking over to the media building, I noticed that the Ventura band Army of Freshmen was going on. Now, being from the area, I have seen these guys countless times and they are good friends of mine, but I had a few minutes, so I was compelled to go take a few pictures. I swear, these guys get better every show. They were on the Ernie Ball stage and the area could not contain the fans. The guys just blew up the stage. If you ever get a chance to see them, check them out…they have more energy than would ever be expected, and I cannot recommend their live show enough. After the interviews were done, there was a mini press conference with Jay from Bad Religion and Fat Mike of NoFX. As expected, the main topic was Bush. I was a little disappointed, because I had some questions about that silly topic called music, but they both had some really good things to say, so it wasn’t a total waste.
Overall, the band lineup seemed to be somewhat lackluster compared to previous years, but there will never be a Warped Tour headed by Kevin Lyman that I will not enjoy. Even for someone not a fan of the music, it’s a great deal, and there are a ton of people to interact with. This show was mediocre when compared with other Warped shows, but still one of the better ways to enjoy your favorite bands.
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I was fortunate to be at one of the larger shows on the tour, so there were plenty of options when it came to the bands. I showed up pretty much on time, but the with huge line to get in, I didn’t actually go through the doors until about 20 minutes after the show started, but for an entire day-long festival, that’s not missing much. The first band that I went out to go see after checking in was Anti-Flag. The thing about Warped Tour is that you see a band without a great set up, no lights, no pyrotechnics, nothing special, and there are no headliners or openers…everyone plays a short set and just puts out as much energy as they can. With that said, Anti-Flag provided a very good set for an early boost to your adrenaline.
With something like 8 stages going on, music was everywhere you turned, as soon as you were out of range of the main stage, you came upon a smaller stage with more music.
I missed out most of the big names like New Found Glory and Yellowcard, but I have seen NFG on Warped before, and if you are a fan, their live show will never disappoint. I have yet to see Yellowcard on a big stage, but I have seen them several times when they played club shows, and they have a lot of energy….definitely very pop, but they get the crowd going. The Bad Religion set provided me with the most memorable moment of the show (maybe of any show I will ever see). As they started to play “American Jesus”, I saw just about every body in the area stop and start to sing. I saw young kids who knew the words, teenage girls paid their reverence, hardcore punks stopped and listened, and even some parents chanted the chorus. For a band that has been around for a quarter of a century, I think that this moment is a testament to the true success the band has achieved.
When I left the press area, it was almost time for Warped to wrap up, but My Chemical Romance was about to play, and when I talked with Gerad earlier in the day, he told me there would be a surprise appearance of Bert from the Used, so I needed to check out that set. Turns out that was the best show of the day. MCR is a great live band, and they do justice to their new album, which is great. While Bert came out and did a wonderful job, the guys didn’t need any guests to make the show awesome.
