Summer time! You know what that means – music festivals. Wanna see 100 bands in the same day at least 20 ft away from a stage with 8000 of your closest friends? Good news, bro! It's not cold outside so it's acceptable. Now throughout the years many fests have come and gone: Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, Ozzfest, American Idol just to name a few. But throughout all the Dave Navarro solo albums, Sarah McLaughlan liberation commercials, and Paula Abdul replacements one tour has stood the test of time – Warped Tour! That's right kids. It's that annual event you talk shit about riiiiiiight up until the morning of when you're purchasing your ticket. Now throughout the years the format and style of the event and bands performing has changed but one thing remains constant:...it...um...exists. So I ventured out this past week to the Charlotte, NC Verizon Wireless Amphitheater to see what this year brought us.
Now really more important than the bands are the people that attend this show. It's full of all sorts of contradicting lifestyles and tastes from neon “Free Hug Shirts” to black-and-white “Fuck Your Free Hugs” shirts yet these people are able to co-exist through the mutual love of music and of course the shared attribute of being fucking stupid. The show is dominated by boys and girls between the ages of 15 and 22...I know. Delicious! But more importantly lucrative! That's why Four Year Strong who couldn't get 20 people to watch them two years ago can now charge $40 for a basketball jersey and bank the fuck out. And I don't blame 'em. jersey and bank the fuck out. And I don't blame 'em.
So back to the music. Very few Warped Tour mainstays this year which is good and bad. I mean do I really need to see the Vandals again? Nope. But the constant presence of Reel Big Fish is always welcome and really one of the highlights of the day. One thing I will always give Warped propers for is the diversity of bands. Sure some types of music are more dominant than others but there's certainly something here for everyone. Now with so many bands playing and many at the same time I wasn't able to see everyone that played, including my least favorite band Emmure which of course is devastating because their vocalist's pseudo-thuggerisms makes Miley Cyrus look like Tupac Shakur and I'm sad that I missed the opportunity for so many jokes. But alas here are the acts I was able to catch or at least take notice of.
VersaEmerge – I saw these guys last year and wasn't really impressed with the music as I was with how attractive the band is, even the vocalist. They recently dropped a new album (DROPPED IT!) called “Fixed at Zero” and their set was predominantly selected from said album. I really enjoyed these new songs and despite being a fairly mellow band they really keep the energy going.
Set Your Goals – probably the worst performance I saw all day. I guess these guys are pretty popular and are resting on the fact everyone knew their songs but they looked really uninterested in playing almost as much as I must have in watching them. Huge crowd and a huge letdown.
Pretty Reckless – Taylor Momsen, the love of my very life's band. I think they played some music. Who cares. I love you Taylor! Never turn 18.
Every Time I Die - What're ya stupid? Of course they were good. It almost seems redundant to talk about it so I'm not gonna.
Sum 41 – Reuniting without the ethnic looking dude for a new tour and a new album. I know you know every word to Fat Lip and so did the entire crowd. These guys coulda played their own show here and probably sold it out. They played all the hits and made each of them 7 minute epics with breakdowns of competitions of the audience of who was louder. But the real winner is America. them 7 minute epics with breakdowns of competitions of the audience of who was louder. But the real winner is America. who was louder. But the real winner is America.
Now I saw plenty of other bands but I have too much pride to tell you how much I enjoyed Bring Me the Horizon and absolutely HATED Of Mice and Men but the real point here is...Warped Tour is still going and probably not going anywhere anytime soon. No matter how bad the lineup is (which gets worse every year) it's hard to not have fun and with the affordable fee of $30ish dollars (or free if you're girlfriend is a cocktease to some South Florida band) it really isn't that bad of thing. So until Family Values comes back remember it could be worse...
It could be Ozzfest.
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