Finally Warped

Yesterday was the end of a four-year odyssey of sorts... I finally saw the Warped Tour.

For those who don't know, the Warped Tour is an annual traveling festival of punk/emo/hardcore bands. 60-plus bands criss-crossing the country, along with an army of marketers selling the punk lifestyle... skateboards, funny T-shirts, causes that most young people who like this type of music would support. By most, I of course mean "not me". Suffice to say, I wasn't going to wear a "McCain '08" shirt at this gathering.

Anyway, I had tickets and VIP passes to the Warped Tour four years ago while I was still living in PA, and unfortunate circumstances prevented me from going. Last year, a co-worker asked me if I wanted to take his extra ticket and go, but I was about to leave my job and I didn't think it would be good form to ask for my second-to-last day off to go to a music festival. This year, I ordered my own ticket, swore I was going... and then the ticket never arrived in the mail. After working that out with Ticketmaster so I could get one at the box office, I was on my way... but what about the weather? True, the seats for the main stages are covered at Darien Lake, but there was no doubt that I would want to see acts on the other stages, and unlike some who think a typical concert experience includes getting soaked and muddy, I do not think that way. Turns out the weather was going to be iffy, and on the way there, I drove through a nasty storm on the Thruway, but sure enough I got there and the weather was pretty nice.

I couldn't get out there until 3 or so, and the bands started playing at 11:30. Here's the problem with that... they don't post the schedule of who is playing until the day of the show, I presume this is so they can make it random so the same bands don't "close" every night. While that's fair and equitable, it makes it tough to plan on seeing bands at specific times, not until you're there. As a result, by the time I got to Darien Lake, I'd already missed Cobra Starship, Relient K, and Story of the Year and the signing times for a couple bands who would be playing later.

As a result, I also had a good amount of time on my hands, so I went to see a band I had been told about by a co-worker, Forever the Sickest Kids. They're from Buffalo so this was a home gig for them, and they were pretty good. As I watched various other indie bands, I noticed a trend... the synthesizer has become a huge part of indie rock. Some bands have a keyboardist up front with the lead guitarist (thankfully they left the keytar in the 80s), others have a guy on the side doing his thing, playing the melody or background. I'm a melody freak so I find this all pretty sweet... it's like they took all that pop music from the 80s that I previously noted as guilty pleasures and found a way to do it even better.

While I was wandering around, I noticed that there is indeed a certain atmosphere to the Warped Tour. You've got all the bands' merchandise tents, various vendors, even the Marines have a tent... then a random girl will walk by with a sign advertising "Free Hugs". And then of course there's the overpriced concessions... I got a bottle of water, that's it. Also there is the fact that despite the beer and alcohol being sold, the percentage of Warped Tour patrons who are of legal drinking age isn't overly large. And much as their favorite bands will sing lyrics like "F*** authority", they behave themselves... aside from the occasional flying water bottle, the most "anti-authority" thing they do is stand on their chairs, get told to get off the chairs by security, then get right back on the chairs when the security guy goes over to the next section. Compare this to a hard rock/metal show like K-Rockathon where debauchery and depravity is a way of life...

Anyway, the biggest name of the moment on the Warped Tour right now is Katy "I Kissed a Girl" Perry, holder of the #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100... and she has to play a side stage. Sorry, your first single shooting straight to the top of the charts does not get you a free pass to the main stages. Anyway, while I cannot stand "I Kissed a Girl" (I find it slickly overproduced, like most pop candy), she is worth seeing live because you will get an actual ROCK show, and that is what rock desperately needs... a rock chick with attitude. This rounds out the female resurgence in rock perfectly, you have Hayley Williams from Paramore if you want feel-good emo rock, you have the lead singer of Flyleaf if you want something with some edge (albeit a preachy one), but if you just want to rawk... Katy's your girl. Oh by the way, 93Q (the pop station here in the 'Cuse) plays all 3, K-Rock (the supposed "alternative rock" station) plays none of them.

Next up was Angels & Airwaves, and I was pleasantly surprised with their performance. The last couple of "live" performances I've taken in (a live shot on Fuse and an acoustic version of a couple songs on their last album) were not that good... Tom DeLonge's voice sounded horrible. This time, however, they clicked on all cylinders, played all their hits, a nice little tight performance. Since you only have a half-hour for your set at Warped Tour, you kinda have to hit all the highlights. While one band plays on their stage, another band is setting up right next to them, ready to go as soon as the first band is done. This keeps things moving pretty quickly, with no downtime.

However, with 3 different bands playing at any one time, this can cause some conflicts for people who want to see two bands at once. For me, this was the case when Katy Perry and Angels & Airwaves overlapped (so I don't know if "I Kissed a Girl" sounds any better live... sorry), and then Reel Big Fish and Ludo were playing at the SAME TIME. So I gambled, hoping Reel Big Fish would play their hits at the beginning of their set and that Ludo would close with "Love Me Dead", their debut hit song. Good move... most bands close with their biggest hit, but luckily Reel Big Fish opened with "Sell Out". I also got to hear two of their lesser-known hits, "Everything Sucks" and "Where Have You Been", as well as a just-plain-wrong cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman".

I only got to see the last 10 minutes of Ludo's set, but it was well worth it. This band has fun; you can tell they love what they do and are loving the ride that comes with breaking out on the alt-rock scene. Their hit song is the ultimate kiss-off to an ex-lover, with lines like "How's your new boy? Does he know about me? You've got the mark of the beast." The video for this song takes artistic visual license with every line in the song as the bespectacled lead singer/guitarist, Andrew Volpe hams it up and gets attacked by the very things he's singing about. On stage, he is no different; he sings a line then grins and poses. They did another breakup song called "Now I Can Watch 'Good Will Hunting' By Myself." And Andrew said that after the show, he would "lead a parade to the merch table." He meant it literally... donning a drum major's hat and preceded by a girl with a boom box playing a fanfare. Then he personally sold us all $5 copies of Ludo's CD. The highlight of the day... and few saw it because most of the crowd was watching Reel Big Fish. Hope they get better luck as far as show times at the other stops.

Back at the main stages, the day ended with back-to-back-to-back home run performances by Say Anything, Anberlin, and Against Me. Say Anything and Anberlin haven't quite broken through yet, but they have loyal cult followings, and they back it up with great emo rock that will stick in your head long after the show is over. Against Me closed with a set of what I can only describe as hard rock that you can dance to. They mix power-punk chords with a driving beat that doesn't sound like it should go together, but it works.

In all, it was a great experience, one I'm glad I was finally able to view firsthand, especially since I'm sure once I pass that 30th birthday in a few months, I'll probably be officially too old to go to another Warped Tour. Mark one off on the list of things I've always wanted to do...