Show Review

Last year it was about the politics. Bands like NOFX and Anti-Flag railing against the fascist republican regime, the war in Iraq, and the Army having a tent set up at the tour. Even Thursday chimed in on the issue of gay marriage. All of this culminated in a battle of secular bands (NOFX) vs. the religious bands (Underoath), in which Underoath unfortunately left the tour. Despite all of the bad feelings generated, the atmosphere at last year’s tour was incredible. It felt exciting and cutting edge, like the attendees were hearing something that was going to change the world. With burgeoning talents like Cartel showing the world what they were made of, and screamo sensations Emery most unexpectedly making a huge scene, it was a Warped Tour to remember in my book.

This year, the atmosphere felt a little subdued. There wasn’t the feeling political uprising or the taste of new talent. Instead, old favorites like Bad Religion, The Starting Line, and Yellowcard were back to promote new material and show fans they could still rock out. Bands that became big and kind of deflated under the scrutiny of the scene, like New Found Glory and Hawthorne Heights, were back to try and prove their metal once again for their already released and forthcoming efforts. Then there were the bands that felt like they were making the tour crumble into nothing more than a pre-teen pop-festival (Cute is What We Aim For, Boys Like Girls).

It started off, for me anyway, with a mediocre set from UK metal-pop band, Funeral For A Friend. They played a mish-mosh of new and old material, not eliciting the kind of reaction they were hoping from the crowd. The band put on a good show, featuring strong instrumental and vocal performances, but the song choices weren’t right. They went for the standard screamo jams that took to long to get to the rock and drug out the chorus, not the kind of stuff that people want to mosh to at 1200pm. So, the singers’ indignation that the crowd moshed “like old people fuck” wasn’t far off.

I left before the set ended, heading over to see Hawthorne Heights, a band I’m not terribly a fan of. However, it was the only decent thing happening at the time slot and I dig the song about the Cusack movie (“Nikki FM”). Although Justin’s voice sounded like he had just inhaled helium, the band put on a show that woke me up. The instrumentation wasn’t anything to special but the energy the band put in was amazing. They ran through fan favorites from their sophomore release, “If Only You Were Lonely,” and ended with the song that put them on the map “Ohio is for Lovers.” If Hawthorne Heights were trying to convince people they could actually play live (I, up until this performance, personally thought they were a pretty dull live act), they’re certainly on their way.

Unfortunately, I had to miss The Starting Line to interview Bayside, but I walked back into a performance from a band that gave me the same pangs of nostalgia as TSL, Yellowcard. They were midway into “Way Away” and revving their sizable crowd into a frenzy. I immediately pushed my way into the middle just in time to here Ryan Key announce that he wanted a circle pit to begin. Not just a typical one, but one that encircled the tent in the middle of the festival. A little apprehensive about whether the crowd would appease the band, or worse, tell them to fuck themselves, that they weren’t punk enough for an endeavor of this magnitude. But as the band launched into “Rough Landing, Holly” the crowd obeyed and started a huge circle pit, running around the target tent. I shrugged my shoulders and shamelessly joined in, running in a circle like a maniac, making sure my shoes stayed on and I wasn’t trampled. The band powered through their set, ending with “Ocean Avenue.” Regrettably, they didn’t play any tracks from “One for the Kids,” which, in my mind, is the quintessential Yellowcard album.

The big surprise of the day came from a little band playing on the Hurley.com stage named The Graduate. They played a smart blend of indie, power-pop, and pop-punk that was performed with energy that many main stage acts would kill for. They played a short set comprised of songs from their latest cd and a couple new ones. They felt like this year’s Cartel for me. Of course, Cartel was already a big deal before I took notice last summer, but in terms of a band coming alive for me, The Graduate did that at this Warped Tour.

The clouds began to mass over the tour, bringing mixed feelings of relief and fear: on one hand it was now a little cooler than the typical scorching Atlanta day, but on the other, if it rained, we were all going to get soaked, and that merch or recording equipment we had with us was going to be ruined. But nevertheless, I trudged up to the Hurley stage to see Bayside. Introduced by the cast of “Superbad,” the band launched into one of the finest sets of the day, in which they played the best of the new album and a few older cuts that gave the set a feeling that they were improvising, but played with such skill that it felt like they’d been playing the same 7 everyday of their career. The band played with such confidence and intensity it was hard not to be into the show.

After another interview, I thought it would be funny to go see Cute is What We Aim For. I was wrong. Instead of it being funny, it was torturous to both my aural and visual sense. Not only could they not play their four-chord power-pop well live, Shaant appeared to be having a seizure on stage, yelping his lyrics sporadically to try and give them intensity. Somehow “here bone structure screams ‘touch her, touch her’” doesn’t seem more convincing or meaningful when yelped instead of sung. One of the members reminisced about how on the Atlanta stop of the Alternative Press tour, they got too drunk and had to walk off stage. It certainly looked like they were under the influence of something, because the band just could not get it together. All of the songs sounded sloppy and it felt like the members just weren’t in synch with one another. I left after about three songs.

Finally, the big one: Bad Religion. The band that I have praised and listened to profusely ever since hearing “American Jesus” in someone’s car many years ago. As Greg Graffin, Brett, Jay and the crew took the stage, the crowd received them warmly, almost as if they were thanking them for their 20 year career and their esteemed place in punk rock history. The band thanked them by going right into “American Jesus.” Needless to say, the crowd went nuts. No, it was fucking bedlam. As I was thrashed around the pit, trying to climb my way out (I was exhausted at this point), I couldn’t help but admire the proficiency of the band. The guitars sounded crisp and clear, the vocals flawless as usual. The band played a varied set with everything from their fantastic new album, “New Maps of Hell” to “Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell” from their debut. They ended with “Suffer” and “Infected,” two Bad Religion classics that were the perfect cap off to the best set of day.

Other notable performances were The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, who despite my negative opinion of their music, put on a really great performance that had one of the largest crowds of the day. Anberlin and New Found Glory both put on decent shows, the latter bringing up a lump in my throat, or as much a lump as I can get in the middle of a pushing crowd in 90 degree heat, at the thought of all those summer days rocking out to “Hit or Miss.” NFG made the right decision going back to the root of their success, Warped, to win back the old fans and properly integrate their new album with the rest of their more traditional pop-punk canon. Boys Like Girls, or the equivalent of the Backstreet Boys with guitars, put on probably the most estrogen charged show of the day, eliciting screams from a legion of teenage girls that could have shattered a window. Let’s face it, they make Fall Out Boy look like gutter punks in comparison, but “The Great Escape” is a pretty decent song. If they fine tune their game a bit, they can work their way up to becoming the next Cartel.

One flaw in the tour was the difficult schedule there was. It pitted Bayside against Chiodos, and most unfortunate, The Unseen against Bad Religion. The Unseen were a band that I was looking forward to checking out, but faced with the decision between them and Bad Religion, I had to give it to Mr. Graffin. Had both Bayside and The Unseen been on the main stages, and I believe that both bands should have, the problem would have been solved (I’d suggest knocking off Cute Is What We Aim For and Straylight Run).

Rating the Warped Tour is always difficult because it’s so many great moments paired with so many mediocre to bad ones. There isn’t any other place when a guy says to me, “You want to go up?”
I throw caution to the wind, curl my toes against the edge of my flip-flop and say, “Yeah, throw me up.” And proceed to crowd surf all the way to the front. It’s a celebration of punk rock and the rituals of it: the circle pits, the moshing, the fury, the crowd surfing, the anger and the elation. No where else would I carelessly throw myself into a huge circle pit just for the hell of it and the bragging rights. The tour always has the stand out performers, but always the great disappointments. With the scheduling this year, particularly on this leg (not necessarily a reflection for future stops), it was a bit of a disappointment not to be able to see everything I wanted. But for those of you who have a chance at the remaining dates, where both Bad Religion and Alkaline Trio are going to be rocking out, check it out. It’s always an experience.

review by Matt McGraw