Warped Tour 2009

"These thieves, These thieves, in their flip flops, and bro attitudes
are the very reason we do what we do
When I say 'Fuck The Man', it's what I believe
No matter who that man happens to be"
-The Lawrence Arms in "Warped Summer Extravaganza (Major Excellence)"

The song quoted above is about the Lawrence Arms' banning from the Warped Tour and their feelings of what the Tour has become. Today was the 15th annual (third for me) Vans' Warped Tour, and it was a pretty good time. I went with Tom and Shannon Dillon as always and ran into some familiar faces there. 8 bands I like, 7 and a half hours, and a sore body later, I had a lot of fun...which is never a guarantee for Warped I've found out.

It took a little while too long to get there because of traffic, but not nearly as bad as the 4 hour-50 mile fiasco that was Warped Tour 07. The first band we really watched was Anti-Flag, and despite Justin Sane knowing NOTHING about the economy and the bailouts, they were really good. I'm not a huge fan, but I knew enough songs to have a good time to kick off the day.

Next up was my favorite band, Jersey's own, Streetlight Manifesto. Tomas was in a sling, so Sean from my former favorite band, Big D & the Kids Table (more on them later) filled in on guitar, and did a great job. Their set was pretty short cause of the half hour time slot, but they played "Moment of Violence", "We Will Fall Together", "Failing, Flailing", "Would You Be Impressed?", "Here's to Life", and "Somewhere in the Between". Not the best set list, but its Warped, gotta take what you can get.

Next was another "former favorite band", Less Than Jake. They were my personal highlight of the day. They played songs from 1996-2008, at least 13 songs in the 40 minutes, including 4 off of "Losing Streak" and 0 from "In with the Out Crowd". They were very into it the whole time. Buddy the trombone player had a SuperSoaker and JR the sax player had a T Shirt gun. Great set and they didn't even play 1/4 of their "usual" songs. Plus I was at the barricade at the front for the whole thing.

I stayed up front for NOFX, the most interesting set of the day. Fat Mike was hammered, and without lying flat out said "There are so many other places I'd rather be than here". Their set was sloppy, hammered, and so much fun. They're always funny, and the songs still were great to hear despite no energy coming from the front man. Plus any Fishbone cameo is a good one. Fat Mike got more into it as it went along, so things went well

Then.....sigh......Big D and the Kids Table. They played "Noise Complaint" (fucked it up), "I, I, I" (sounded like shit live), "Shining On" (sounded off), "Not Fucking Around"....and then we left. It was horrible. I heard they didn't even play "Little Bitch". Plus they had 2 of those fucking annoying girls on stage, and they just overall sucked. It was bad....

....BUT GOT BETTER! Cause at the same time, Flogging Molly was on the Main Stage! I watched from the outside, but they were excellent in my first time seeing them finally.

I then travelled over to see the always amazing Westbound Train. And as always, they were amazing. They played a fun set (nothing too old though..kind of a let down), covered "Stand By Me" and "Shout", which were a lot of fun. Plus it wasn't packed, so you could dance without hitting anyone. Afterwards, I caught the second half of the Bad Religion set, who were very good to cap off the night (sorry All Time Low, left before you.....)

But the Lawrence Arms are right, Warped is full of fucking crooks. 40$ tickets? 6$ hot dogs? Oh, and you get upset when I don't tip for my 4$ water bottle? Fuck that. Their song covers it perfectly, how in 15 years its gone from a punk community tour to what the "punk" bands on tour claim to be singing about. Thankfully there are bands like NOFX, seeing 2$ water bottles at their merch booth, helping out those who really matter...the fans as opposed to sponsors like Kia or Monster. I'll leave with more from The Lawrence Arms...

"Well I got my bottled water and my nachos, they came in at under 20 bucks...
This Kevin (Tour founder Kevin Lyman) or that one it all seems the same
Exploit the avenues, fix all the gains
Well maybe they'll buy everything that you sell
But I'm outside the fences, rolling fast down that hill....
.....FUCK YOUR WARPED IDEALS"