What you are about to read are the sights and sounds of one
of the best (and one of the hottest) days of my life. You can skip around if
don’t feel like reading my essay about my day, but I feel it was important to
document the performance of every band I saw on that day. Here is my warped
tour recap:
We entered the venue at around 12 noon, just early enough to
watch New Jersey natives I Call Fives play on the Kevin Says stage. I just
reviewed their new self-titled record and I was anxious to see how the record
carried over to a live setting. The band was a perfect introduction to the best
year of Warped I’ve ever been too. Their music just gets me in the summer mood,
and what better place to be than at pop-punk summer camp listening to
them. Half of their set was comprised of
songs from the full-length, including standout “Stuck in ’03”.
Polar Bear Club then played on the Tilly’s stage in the amphitheater.
There may not be a band in this scene that puts on a more energetic live show
than PBC. Vocalist Jimmy Stadt is an animal on stage, air guitaring and dancing
to the tune of the band’s unique brand of punk rock. The band fit 7 songs into
their 25 minute set, although they had to cut “Pawner” one of the best songs
from 2011’s Clash Battle Guilt Pride. Despite that minor flaw, the set was
still one of the tightest of the day.
Following up their recent tourmates PBC on the Tilly’s stage
was Boston’s A Loss for Words. And what a set it was. Opening up with “Honeymoon
Eyes” and blasting through an eight song set, A Loss For Words never let the
crowd breathe for a minute. They implored the surprisingly large crowd in the amphitheater
to still move around despite the chairs around them, and the crowd responded
well, receiving mic passes from vocalist Matty Arsenault. By far the highlight of
their set however, was the Jackson 5 cover, “I Want You Back”.
There is not a band on the planet that screams summer quite
like Yellowcard. Heck, they even put the words “It’s always summer in my heart
and in my soul” into their most recent single. So there probably is no better
choice for a main stage Warped Tour band than the Los Angeles quintet. Surprisingly
missing from the bands set were “Way Away” from Ocean Avenue and “Light Up the
Sky” from Paper Walls, but the band can only do so much with a 35 minute set.
This was my first time seeing Yellowcard live and I was not disappointed in the
slightest. Any set that ends with "Only One" and "Ocean Avenue" back to back can do
no wrong.
This is where the fun of the evening began. As soon as
Yellowcard’s set ended, I ran over to the newly added Acoustic Basement tent to
watch John Nolan perform solo. For those who may not be aware, the acoustic basement
tent is the best thing to happen to Warped Tour this year. Featuring acoustic
performances by bands that are playing full band on other stages and solo
acoustic performers exclusive to the tent, the Acoustic Basement is about as
unique as it gets for a festival.
Anyway, back to the set at hand. I watched Nolan play the
first 3 songs of his set: “‘Til It’s Done to Death”, “Not To Let Go”, and “Mistake
We Knew We Were Making” (one of my favorite Straylight Run songs). But it was
getting close to 3:15, and I had been told that Title Fight (who was scheduled
to go on at that time) had been opening with "Symmetry" (my personal favorite
song by them). So I hightailed it over to the Monster energy stage, just in
time to watch the band as they came on stage.
After the short 2 and a half minute song was over I booked
it right back up to see Nolan finish his set. And I was rewarded lavishly for
this extra effort. He performed “Big Shot (Hands In The Sky)” and “Existentialism
on Prom Night” (my second favorite song of all time) to close his set. After
the set was over, I didn’t feel like rushing back down to watch the rest of
Transit’s set, but I was curious as to what they played, so I sauntered down
towards the merch tables around that stage to browse while I listened to the
band play. I definitely heard “Memorial Field” and “Shed” among others.
The best set I saw all day long was from Massachusetts’
Transit. We’ve spoken far too much on this blog about our love for Transit. And
that love is so well-deserved that I can’t even form the words to describe how
good this set was. It’s a damn shame that Transit wasn’t playing a bigger
stage. They carried a big enough crowd that they could’ve played on the Kevin
Says stage or even the Monster Energy stage, but instead they were relegated to
playing out of the side of a van on the Ernie Ball stage; an absolute travesty.
If there is any justice in the world, the next time Transit plays Warped Tour,
they will be on the main stage. It’s the mark of a truly great Warped tour set
when the set the band has could’ve been 4 times longer and the audience would
not get tired of it. If you want to see the band’s setlist instead of reading
my ramblings, click right here.
I came back to the amphitheater just quickly enough to catch
Lost Prophets play their last two songs. I was hoping I would get to hear the
band play “Rooftops (Liberation Transmission)”, but unfortunately that was the
song that they played right before I showed up. Cest’ la vie. But considering
that the show was the band’s second show in six years (the day before in
Scranton was the first) the crowd response to the band was phenomenal. The band
played a roaring rendition of “Last Train Home” which elicited many a sing a
long. While resting in the amphitheater waiting for Transit’s acoustic set, me
and my group had to sit through without question the lowlight of the day, Stepdad.
The electro, pop, dance, whatever you want to call it group was possibly the
weirdest band I’ve ever seen on stage. The band sounded like Hot Fuss-era
Killers if Brandon Flowers just decided to sing everything in a squeaky
falsetto and completely out of key. Awful
I had the pleasure of seeing not one but two Transit sets
throughout the day. The second took place at the acoustic basement tent. The band pulled out a deep cut from Listen and
Forgive, “Over Your Head”, which they announced was the first time they have
ever played the song live. You can watch a video Don shot of the song being performed below. From Listen And Forgive they also played "Skipping
Stone", "Long Lost Friends", and "Listen & Forgive" again, all of which they played in their earlier set, much to the crowd’s
liking. The intimate setting of the tent provided the setting for one of the
three best sets of the day.
I was then dragged (quiet unwillingly) to see You Me At Six
on the Monster Energy stage. Call it the surprise of the day for me, but what I
witnessed on that stage was fascinating and awesome. The band absolutely blew
me away with the stage presence and talent. I know next to nothing about them
except for the fact that the majority of the crowd were females under the age
of 17 and that they were British, but now I know that You Me at Six rock. Hard.
Closing with “Bite My Tongue”, which may well have been the heaviest song I
heard performed all day, singer John Francheschi instantly impressed me with
his ability at both the high and low registers in the song’s chorus. The gravel
in his throat as he screamed “You keep me on the edge of my seat” is something
that Alex Gaskarth and Jack Bakarat of All Time Low could never manage to pull
off.
Walking back to the amphitheater from You Me At Six, I saw
The Used perform "The Taste of Ink" on the Kia Rio stage. It was the band’s last
day on the tour, so the fact that I was able to watch them play arguably their
biggest hit was pretty meaningful to me. What a zoo it looked like on stage, as
all the people backstage came out to sing and dance with the band. The only
other time I have ever seen that was at Bamboozle 2008, when a crowd came out
to sing the last chorus if "The Best of Me" with The Starting Line at their last
show before their hiatus.
The hosts of the Keep Calm and Carry On had just seen Bayside
play at The Bamboozle Festival in May, but seeing the Long Island band perform
never really gets old. Still touring in support of Killing Time, arguably the
best album of their esteemed career, the band may have even improved on the
last time we saw them, despite having only a 25 minute set. The worst part of the set was that the seats
in the amphitheater did not allow the sizeable crowd that showed up for the
band to move around to the music. Bayside should easily have been put on the
Kia Soul or Kia Rio stage. A band of Bayside’s longevity was absolutely disrespected
being put on the Tilly’s stage, while bands like Falling In Reverse, Peirce the
Vail and Miss May I get to play mainstage.
As soon as the last notes of "Devotion And Desire" played out,
my girlfriend and I literally sprinted through the crowd all the way to the
Ernie Ball stage to watch the beginning of Fireworks' set. We got there just as
the second verse of “Arrows” began. Everything I mentioned about Transit playing
the Ernie Ball stage also applies to Fireworks. The band carried such a bigger
stage presence than that tiny, cramped stage could handle. Fireworks is one of
those bands that I instantly associate with summer and friendships, and this
set was just honestly perfect in its timing. Pile-ons and circle pits far
outpaced the tiny, but active, crowd's ability to handle them, and the set was
just 25 minutes of chaos from the first notes, to the “We were overthinking
again” at the end of “Detroit.”
And now we have come to the end. What better way to end my
favorite Warped Tour ever than by watching my favorite band close out the main
stage. What more can I say, other than this: watching Taking Back Sunday on the
main stage was the most fun I’ve had all summer. The re-addition of John Nolan
and Shaun Cooper to the band has made all the difference in the world in terms
of the level of their performance. Lead vocalist Adam Lazarra is still hit or
miss with his vocal delivery (Warped Tour was definitely a “hit” set for him),
but Nolan is always on point. What can be better 10,000 people screaming “Why
can’t I feel anything from anyone other than you,” in unison.
The Vans Warped Tour may get a bad rap in the current music
scene for its supposed downgrading in talent, but I don’t see that at all.
Although the main stage was filled with many performers that I would not see if
the festival paid me to do so (Blood on the Dance Floor I’m looking at you), I
still watched 15 bands play at least one song on the tour and there were several
others I wanted to see but didn’t get a chance. The tremendous amount of talent
on the tour is a testament to Kevin Lyman and his staff for backing up the
moneymaking mainstage artists with developing artists that could play Warped
Tour for many years to come. After all, it’s not just pop-punk summer camp for
the audience, it is for the bands as well.
If you went to Warped Tour, let me know what your favorite sets and experiences were in the comments section.
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