Warped Tour 2009
Posted 07/08/2009 06:47AM by Aaron Yarborough as Show Review
Returning to Warped Tour for the first time in five years was something I had never expected to happen. Not since their 10th anniversary was there a line-up that was slightly worth a damn and, well, as we get older it seems like the bands we "older fans" want to see the young kids don't. With that said I couldn't turn down a free ticket on a Sunday afternoon with nothing else planned so two friends and myself packed up and headed south.
It took us about a two hour drive to get to Ventura from San Luis Obispo so we didn't get there until about 12:30. I figured with doors at 11:30 I was bound to miss one of the two artists I really wanted to see. And, of course, P.O.S. had the dreaded 11:45 am set time. One of my friends really didn't want to miss Black Tide so as we're pulling up he heard them playing and jumped out the car, walked through one fence, saw a security guard at the second fence who asked if he had a ticket. He said no, so the dude said it's cool just lift up your shirt and walk in. When we finally got in we checked out the big blow up lineup board to see where we would be headed first.
Innerpartysystem started at 1:15 so we made our way to the Skull Candy Stage, watched them rock out for a couple of songs, which was fun, but nothing like seeing their light show in a dark venue. Their sound guy does the backup vocals so it was cool watching him perform from the tent in front of the stage while the rest of the band was onstage. They're super energetic and amazing sounding live, but not a whole lot of kids were checking them out. Still, most everyone there was bobbing their heads so it was still fun.
I then wanted to catch the remainder of Thrice's set on the main-stage. Caught "The Artist In The Ambulance," which was my highlight of seeing them since they have played mostly newer stuff I'm just really not that into. They did play a new song which wasn't terrible, but most of the set was the stuff I don't necessarily care for.
I then met up with Tanner Wayne who is playing drums this summer for Scary Kids Scaring Kids and checked out their tour bus. They got some sponsorships from Jack N The Box and a couple other places so their bus is fully wrapped, kind of cool to cut down on expenses while on the road. We cruised around behind the scenes for awhile, saw some random people I knew from other bands and working with other bands, which was great. After about an hour of loitering it was time for A Day To Remember.
The cool thing about Warped Tour this summer is that they downsized so they only have one main stage and then there's the Hurley stage which is bands just a step down from headliner status, but the Hurley stage looked a lot bigger than the main stage and sounded a lot better. There was also the Hurley.com/Smartpunk.com stage combo which had a lot of up and coming artists. With the hype and the sound and the crowd of kids flocking towards the Hurley stage for A Day To Remember we knew they were about to come out and blow it up. Kicking it off with "The Downfall of Us All", they got the place moving and a couple of pits broke out, complete with kids jumping around like mad, but then security started throwing kids out of the way so someone must have been trampled or knocked out. We caught about three or four songs of their set and then decided to watch some Underoath and wander around the tents.
As the day wore on it seemed as if the bands got better sounding and heavier so when Underoath came out the huge main stage crowd went nuts as the band blasted through hits old and new. There were gigantic crowd sing-a-longs and just an endless amount of energy from the band and the fans. This is really what sets Underoath's live show apart from other bands. They always have a sort of energy that only a select few bands seem to possess. They manage to capture this every single night I've seen them too, so they must rarely have off performances.
We knew Lights was playing the Hurley.com stage at like 3:55 so we decided to go see if she was as hot in person as she was in pictures. She's small, so she's super cute, but I'm not sure if she's as hot in person. She seems really reserved and shy. She was, however, seen hanging out with Dan, the drummer of The Devil Wears Prada. Not starting any rumors but the two seem to have taken a liking to one another. I could only stomach about two of her songs, though, and decided it was time to see if NOFX had taken the main stage yet.
NOFX came out to one of the bigger crowds of the day, as it seems Ventura has a lot of older meat heads and jock types since all the drunks seemed to have found their way out of the beer garden for this one. No worries, though, as I can always move when the dude next to me can no longer balance himself on his two feet and decides to talk to everyone walking by like a dumbass. Fat Mike, El Hefe, Eric Melvin, and Erik Sandin were on fire. Fat Mike walks out and starts talking shit to their tour manager for there still being Underoath's set list on the stage. "The show is ruined... guess we'll have to play Underoath songs." They then blasted through a couple of tracks before bringing up Michael Jackson and how no one should care because, "He's a fucking child molester!" Half the crowd cheered, half boo'd. The band then played through a song dedicated to MJ - "Fuck The Kids" - and then told the joke, "What do you call four guys in a band? The Jacksons." So I'm sitting here hoping for some Underoath bashing and for some reason Fat Mike says, "Wow, Underoath tonight said they're 'open-minded'. Wow, just wow... but I'm not going to talk shit about them on their day of worship, I'll give them this Sunday." He then changed his shirt to another Michael Jackson tribute shirt that read, "Boy, do I love cock." The antics continuted for the entire thirty minutes while the band played some new tracks such as "Creeping Out Sara". It was the most entertaining set of the day by far.
After NOFX my friends stuck around for Bad Religion, but I went and cruised to the bathroom and saw Breathe Carolina while waiting and wanted to gouge out my eardrums. How the hell is this considered music that people like? The sound on the Smartpunk Stage was either absolutely horrid or these guys are terrible. I'll go with the latter since it's clearly obvious they are not a good live band. The guy's screaming never sounded together and the whole performance just looked like a complete mess. I guess the 13 year old girls were into it.
I needed to rest my legs so I found a seat on the side while The Maine was completely butchering "Pour Some Sugar On Me" to a bunch of teeny-bopper fans loving every minute of it. Luckily they were almost done and I would only have to wait 30 minutes for Gallows. They are definitely amazing. Their live set was everything Warped Tour used to be - real punk rock and not giving a fuck. The singer blasted Brokencyde and Millionaires and called them, "Shameful for labeling their music 'punk' and if you want real punk rock say fuck those bands and watch NOFX, Guttermouth, FEAR, Gallows, and Bad Religion. We can't let those faggots take over." Gallows take the cake for best circle pit of the day which saw kids running as fast as they could around the sound board tent in the middle of the grass. They're very entertaining and worth watching.
Brokencyde was playing at this point but I couldn't for the life of me find my way over there. I am curious to see how many kids care and what they're like live and maybe I should have since it's a big festival, but I felt like it would be doing an injustice to myself as an online magazine owner to, in any way, shape, or form promote, or even watch, something I'm so heavily against.
As the sun decided to set on the beachside community of Ventura, CA it started getting REAL cold, which for us Californians is around 55 degrees. When you're in shorts and a T-shirt it gets kind of nippy. With no ins and outs kids started leaving early before the Ventura's headliners Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Alexisonfire, The Devil Wears Prada, and 3OH!3 played.
I stuck around for Scary Kids Scaring Kids to see how well Tanner played, and he completely tore it up. I had forgotten that I actually was into some SKSK stuff a couple of years back so I recognized some songs and really felt like it was a solid performance by the entire band having only seen them once before and them now playing with a brand new bassist (ex-Haste the Day guitarist) and a new drummer (Tanner is also in Underminded). The kids went nuts, and when the band got off-stage everyone talked about how good it was. It also seems like the singer was hitting all of his notes and appeared to be clean and sober so possibly only good things to come from this band.
I stopped to check out The Devil Wears Prada for a minute while I walked to my car, and found them very entertaining, but they're a whole hell of a lot better in an indoor venue with the light show and everything going on to add to the whole effect. I skipped out on Alexisonfire due to the cold weather, as well as 3OH!3 who I did sort of want to see but not at 8 pm.
Having no initial desire to even go this year, I found myself pleasantly surprised with how many bands I did actually want to watch perform. The downsizing of the festival let fans see pretty much everyone they wanted to without having to rush stage to stage. It didn't feel cluttered, everyone could move around well, and the stages were well placed. It looks like a good move going forward with the economy and everything. The tour is just kicking off and will be in your neck of the woods soon so make your way out. It's a good way to spend the day.
Comments
Atascadero, CA
cmon act like you fuckin care
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West Haven, CT
What a terrible tour.
Broken.. I'm not even going to finish spelling the rest of their name.
JUST SAY NO!
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
Somewhere in New York
that lineup actually sounds kind of miserable.
"If someone gives you a kazoo and toots around the house to MTV, they're not gonna fuck you." - David Cross
Waterloo, Ontario
i'm supposed to go on saturday in montreal but right now the weather is looking like a bag of shit so i'm going to wait it out.
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Minnesota
There's hardly any bands on this year's lineup that I'm willing to wade through annoying 14 year olds to see. I'd be interested in POS, but I've seen him a few times and I can catch him when he's in Minneapolis for headlining shows (since he's from here) when he has a chance to put on a full-out performance. I saw Gallows last year and found them annoying, but might be interested to see them play their new stuff. ADTR might be ok to see, but I wouldn't go out of my way. NOFX and Underoath I've seen plenty of times already so I have no interest in seeing them again. Alexisonfire might be fun, but only if they only played stuff off of Watch Out and not anything new.
Overall, I just don't care that much this year.
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Minneapolis, MN
I didn't know FEAR was playing Warped Tour.
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Atascadero, CA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brIALbulKfI
this is what im talking about. horrible.
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Blue Reef Design Studios (Web Development)
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West Haven, CT
You know that Alexisonfire will be playing mostly new songs and a few older popular ones.
The Cityscape Burns Brighter By The Hour.
i saw gallows at pomona and they were sick, definitely the best act of the day. wish i had the money to see another show. but their performance convinced my to buy the "grey britain" vinyl, and i have to say im not disappointed. any one who claims to like punk music should at least give it a listen. here are some pics of the record:
http://s638.photobucket.com/albums/uu102/jamiebn88/?albumview=slideshow
Lehigh Valley, PA
That would have been the #1 reason I would have went.
Atascadero, CA
you can't tell me this isn't pretty sick and a good reason to go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_TLx5aAIgY
Decoymusic.com (CEO/Founder)
Blue Reef Design Studios (Web Development)
http://aarontroy.tumblr.com
Lehigh Valley, PA
Ya know Aaron, for some reason I have a soft spot for Underoath. Not a HUGE fan but I don't hate them either. They are okay, but I would never go out of my way to see them. If they were on a tour with someone I liked, I would watch them. But in my books...
FEAR is up here
and Underoath is down here.
Waterloo, Ontario
saw Gallows at the tour, they owned so much face and it was good to hear their vocalist chirp brokencyde
Top Ten of 2009 http://www.decoymusic.com/users/3747/top_tens/2009
Somewhere in New York
I don't mind Underoath, and they were pretty epic when I saw them in Montreal. What was great was that the keyboard player wasn't there, which made it that much more enjoyable.
"If someone gives you a kazoo and toots around the house to MTV, they're not gonna fuck you." - David Cross
New York
Underoath at Buffalo, they played a good set, but they fucking disappeared after the show. They didn't do any signings or interviews which sucked. The most surprisingly good performances were done by Aiden, A Skylit Drive, and Escape The Fate. TDWP obviously kicked ass along with the rest of the main stage bands. Buffalo was PACKED. At one point, you couldn't walk to the main stage because there was another stage in-between it that would fill up from time to time, creating a wall of people.
Overall, it was a good day for the few bands I wanted to see. Warped is going to have to start improving though if they're going to get me back for 2010. It just seem like it's a High School festival. *Cough* lots of jail bait *Cough*
Cold Showers for Stereology
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Minnesota
These are probably 3 of the worst bands at Warped... beyond Brokencyde.
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