Having decided only the night before to attend this years' fest I was stuck haggling with snarly sun-burned scalpers for an eventual $45 ticket, below the gate asking price of $62.75. I remembered why I wanted to be there so bad once inside the gates when the familiar sights of insane cutoff shorts, old skool shoes, mohawks, and studded accessories met my eyes, while basslines and drum booms met my ears and a lovely combination of dust and sweat filled my nose. Ahh the warped tour. A summer tradition of mine for the past five years - and to think I was going to skip it this year because of an apparent lack of talent. The warped tour is a launch pad for tonnes of new bands though so I made it my goal for this fest to take in some of these up&comers whenever there was a lull in the "must-see" action.
First things first: Find the large inflatable board of set times. On the way to this unmistakable landmark I listened as Thursday played part of their extended set to a mostly appreciative crowd. The slight disappointment I felt when realizing I'd already missed some bands was pushed aside as best as possible as I scheduled my activities for the remainder of the afternoon. Even though Rise Against, The Sounds, Less than Jake, Protest the Hero and Anti-Flag had already played there was still a reasonable amount of talent coming up. The most immediate talent was Moneen and The Academy Is.. So I booked it over to the side stage area and watched the remainder of T.A.I.. since they started first. They were enjoyable hard-hitting punk rock with a sizable crowd. I got the annual singer-climbing-the-stage
From here it was a short walk two stages down to hear the end of one of my fave Moneen tunes "are we really happy with who we are right now?" They rocked through a few more tunes as their set was well-underway by the time I got there. They were very good, slightly more polished than the previous time I'd danced on stage with them two September's ago in the UoG basement hall.
Having forgotten a pen and paper, and obviously not having a very good memory in general I had to make the crossover back down to the stadium to recheck the set times. This allowed me to catch the last couple tunes from the Bouncing Souls. The guys were showing their age and not much else. The singer seemed to be somewhat bored with the whole ordeal - though the closer "True Believer" still sounded great while I got my first taste of the pit for the day.
Now there was a slight break in recognizable names so being near the merch tents I took the opportunity to wander around. The standard fare was available, tees, cd's, hats, posters. An Anti-flag shirt reading "War Sucks. Let's Party" piqued my interest with its bomb disguised as a disco ball but having paid $45 for entry I restrained myself. There was a solid band on a tiny stage here that I didn't catch the name of but they were decent until they demanded that everyone grab a partner and slow-dance sway before they started the next song. I lost interest and decided to go back to checking out new bands.
Every Time I Die had made a name for themselves in the underground metal scene and had now emerged so I thought I would give them a look. Turns out they were all they promised to be; loud and metalish. Wasn't my cup of tea though so I only stayed long enough to watch the metalheads karate-kick, roundhouse, flail and otherwise try to injure other onlookers.
This led me to a band I'd heard of but hadn't heard. The Bled. They earned a fan yesterday. Containing 5 members, they played hard punk rock with a twinge of screamo, in a good way though. The drums hit hard and the basslines were resounding. There was always one or the other guitar keeping rhythm while the other doodled a bit, not quite into Mars Volta prog-rock territory, but enough to keep things very interesting. The singer was charismatic and amusing. He mentioned how he'd like to be interviewed by Nardwar because he'd be funnier than any politician. Their merch tent in addition to having a shirt with elephants on it that I nearly bought also had a charming sign that read "tip me, not cows". At this point I'd like to be an advocate for The Bled. If you are into slightly heavier but extremely well done punk or rock music check them out. I can vouch for the live show and presume the recorded music is just as good. I joined the 13 other shirtless men in the pit for the last couple tracks and the small but mighty crowd enjoyed themselves.
Next came a band that I'd "heard they suck live" but thought I would give them a shot anyways ;) Yes I'm talking about the granddaddies of this year's tour: NOFX. Nonchalantly walking on stage, they stood and chatted with the audience for a solid 5 minutes. I know they are known for their sense of humour and some of the remarks were funny, even if mostly surrounding race and the Canada-US border. Finally they broke into song but it was more of a laid back reggae tune. After this they still didn't break out the fast, funny punk. In fact it took awhile, too long for most of the largest crowd of the afternoon. After some presumably pre-planned joking about not playing "Bob" they did it. Twas good but then they went back to newer stuff. Closing with a couple quick tunes and playing two from recent release "the War on Errorism" (Franco Unamerican, she's nubs) Perhaps it was because Fat Mike's (young) kids and wife were in attendance and therefore he was sober and not "allowed" to swear, or perhaps because their live show had been built up so much, the set ended up being somewhat of a disappointment overall. And I mean c'mon - no Don't Call Me White!
Making the 5 minutes journey back through the stadium up to the side stages I took in a bit of Underoath's set who were rather spastic and not too bad but not captivating enough to hold my attention. I saw a few songs from a few other tiny bands. Plain White T's were a pop-punk band that did what they did alright but no different than the plethora of other bands that have come before. I'd heard of Saves the Day but didnt love much of what I watched from them either.
I was disappointed when not two hours after my, albeit late, arrival the side stage tents and stages started coming down. I still had plenty of energy to go and was not going to be able to use it here. Back over to mainstage I went.
AFI played one of the most anticipated sets of the day and lived up to it. Having caught them on their 2001 Warped swing (before i knew who they were and before they 'sold out' - more on that later) I wasn't sure what to expect this time. They played basically only singles from their most recent discs - both of which were well received by the masses. This led many to believe they had sold out. Not having been a huge fan of them ahead of time and not one to toss around the term "sellout" (unless at a Reel Big Fish concert) I won't comment on this. However some member of the crowd did comment via a sign that read "Davey Sold Out". When the heavily makeup-clad singer (Davy I assume) read this he retorted with something about selling out to the crowd-member's father, after paying him for some sort of sexual gratification. That was that. Still the set sounded great, crowd was into it, and they left us chanting for more even as the living end took the stage next door, pleading "hey - there's still two more bands to see!"
Melbourne Australia's the living end opened with the one track i know by them "roll on" which was enough to bring me over for a peek. Boy was I happy I did. I spent most of the set admiring the three piece, especially the bassist. Holding a beautiful red standup bass he wowed the crowd and made me think that if i were to join a band that would be my instrument of choice. not only can i hide behind it if ever overcome with stage fright, but i could play it while standing on it (as demonstrated here). How many other instruments can you do that with? Their set also included a round of solos from the bass, drum and guitarist who played the solo using a full bottle of beer instead of his fingers on the frets, then downed what was left of the spilly beer, before completing the solo!
Now was time for the (too early at 8 pm) last set of the day. Choice: Motion City Soundtrack vs. Alexisonfire. Having seen alexis a few times before and with motion city as my most recent guilty pleasure I went with MCS. Joining the throng of 13 year old boys and girls I had no problem getting a good vantage point over their 4'10" bodies. An overly emo set was what I saw. With a keyboard thrown in the mix they played most of the favourites (except my inexplicable personal favourite "When You're Around") I thought young people were sposed to be spry and have good eyesight but I managed to follow the flight path of the guitarist's pick and grab it from the ground since everyone else was oblivious. The promised funny story took place here near the end of the day as well. A dude lifted up his buddy next to me so the one guy was standing up facing the crowd. After getting everyone's attention he quickly pulled down his pants and crowd-surf-mooned the band. The buddy got an up close glimpse proceeded to drop the mooner on his face in the dirt. Hi-larious!
Hoping to catch the end of Alexis' set I (literally) ran up the stadium steps to find a crowd twice the size of MCS' around the side stage. As I arrived I heard the final chords of the closing song and a "thank you - we're alexisonfire." This seemed to be the theme for the day, showing up a little bit late and missing some things that I really would have liked to have seen. Still the sets I did take in were enjoyable, and my warped streak stays alive for another year! Hopefully next year I will return to the favourable (though dusty) Barrie Molson Park venue and will have a full day of warped punkrock fun.
Oh, and I nearly forgot. At one point a lady named Joan Jett or something thought it would be funny to close with a cover of Britney Spears' "I Love Rock and Roll". Surprisingly it went over really well. Those young punks don't know anything!
