It’s amazing that even after fifteen years and hundreds of shows, the Warped Tour still stays as strong as relevant as it was ten years ago. It’s grown into a tour that not only music fans look forward to yearly, but that band’s build their tour schedule around around and try to befriend tour founder Kevin Lyman for a spot on next years jaunt.
If you talk to Warped Tour artists they usually say the same thing: it’s a brutal summer full of 100-plus degree temperatures, midnight drives, infrequent showers and breakouts of sicknesses that rival any George Romero film, yet is is an also an experience that they would not change for the world. It’s a two month tour where 6-7 days a week you get the privilege to play in front of both established and new fans, as well as a chance to interact with both fans and fellow bands one on one and form close knit bonds. Also, the comped food is pretty good.
Crowd watches band.
After two months on the highways the final show of the 2008 Warped Tour took place Sunday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, and, as usual, it did not disappoint. It was a day of power, excitement, bittersweet goodbyes and a feeling amongst the bands that they can finally go home after the show and soak in their baths for a few weeks.
Per tradition, the music began almost the moment the doors open at 11am and didn’t let up until the sun set. As with most of these types of shows with multiple stages (I counted at least ten), you didn’t end up catching a lot of full sets, just bits and pieces from different bands as you walk the grounds.
The first band to take the main stage was The Academy Is…who were well received by the early birds. On the Kevin Says stage, Curmudgeon sounded like “Mia” error Chevelle with distorted down tuned guitars. That’s a compliment, by the way.
Anberlin rocks out on Main Stage
After catching small parts of the Human Abstract (heavy… with piano) and Anarbor (a very good young band with a pop/punk sound and a lead singer that sounds like Daryl Palumbo from Glassjaw), it was time for Anberlin on the Route 66 stage (one of the two main stages). The band delivered and was as energetic as always. Anberlin played a booming set that mixed new songs with old songs and even on the last day of a long tour they were able to feed off the energy that the crowd put off from the first song. Truly one of the best sets of the day.
Anberlin continues to rock out.
Motion City Soundtrack and crowd.
After completing my first set of interviews for the day, I headed to the main stage to see the crowd go ape shit for Motion City Soundtrack playing “The Future Freaks Me Out”. Their guitarist joked earlier in the day during his interview (which you can read excerpts from later in the week in a Warped Tour Interview article I’m putting together… tell your friends) that with this being the last day of the tour they were just going to phone it in. While I’m sure he was just joking, even if the band was phoning it in the crowd didn’t seem to care as they rocked through their song.
Against Me! sings loud and proud.
As Motion City said their goodbye, the predictably black-clad members of Against Me! took the stage on the adjoining Highway One stage. For the next 30 minutes the band plowed through ten of the best live songs of the day. Always workman like (no stopping between songs and nary a word to the crowd) the band let the music do the talking as they stated with a trifecta of songs from their 2007 album “New Wave”- “New Wave”, “Stop”, and “White People For Peace”. Next the band punched out classics like “Pints of Guiness Make You Stronger”, “Baby, I’m An Anarchist” and “Sink, Florida, Sink” all while showing no frills, just rock. Even with little interaction with the crowd you can tell that as they strain their necks and vocal chords to present their lyrics they are feeding off the audiences’ energy and putting everything they have into their songs.
Walking the grounds once again, the Hurley.com stage featured the very impressive, very catchy all female ska band ORESKABAND. Think Less Than Jake with all Japanese School Girls- outfits included.
Oreskaband on stage.
Later in the afternoon Eagle Rock’s The Briggs took the same stage and, minus the school girl outfits, pretty much tore it up. One of the few true punk rock bands who played the entire tour, the band got the crowd moving early with fan favorites “Wasting Time” and “Back To Hire Ground, and then followed later with “Bored Teenager” from their first record. As this was their local gig, the set ended with fifty or so people joining the band onstage to sing the chorus to their ode to everything LA- traffic included- titled, simply, “L.A.”.
Briggs fan patiently waits.
The Briggs
TAT backstage before the gig.
One of the great things about these all day concert-thingys is that you usually end up discovering an unknown band that blows you away. After being talked into interviewing a very nice British band named TAT (check out excerpts later this week— tell you grandma), for the sake of fair and balanced journalism I decided to check out their set at the Skate Stage. Thank god I did too, because TAT is one of the most exciting new bands I’ve seen in quite a while. The three piece (the fabulous Tatania Demaria on guitar/ vocals, Nick Kent on bass and Jake Reed on Drums) played with authority while trying their best to get the small crowd into it. The band presented a set of melodic punk rock mixed with bits of ska and metal to form a complete package. This is definitely a band to look out for in the future.
Rise Against
At 6:15 came the main event: Rise Against on the Route 66 stage. I’m not exaggerating when I state that a good 80% off the venue attendees crowded the stage for the bands 30 minute set. In all honesty I don’t think I can give a properly fair review to the bands set as I not only found myself at a weird angle where the speakers didn’t seem to hit me at full blast, but also because I was surrounded by a crowd of young women who looked like they were somewhere between Sweet 16 and Barely Legal ages and acted like they were watching someone on TV. Same too because the front of the crowd went crazy as the band played a set of hits which included “Give It All”, “Prayer of the Refugees” and “Ready to Fall”.
By the time the crowd left the venue a little more battered and broken that when they entered (oye, my feet!), it was evident that even after 15 years the Warped Tour is still as strong as ever. While you could complain that the tour has shirted from being a punk rock show to more of a screamo/hardcore feel, Warped Tour’s strength has always been that with multiple stages and dozens of bands there is always someone to watch and there are always to bands to become fans of. Warped Tour remains one of the few tours that ultimately caters to the smaller band just as much as the major band. And with the way the record and concert industry are going, the little guys need all the help they need.
Photos by Yolanda Perez
Subscribe to our RSS Feed And checkout our coffee competition to win a $30 gift voucher to your favourite coffee shop : click here
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...
1 response so far ↓
1 Warped Tour Interview Smorgasbord | LA.CityZine.com - Los Angeles // Sep 8, 2008 at 9:07 am
[...] Home Depot Center Warped Tour Review and Photos [...]
Leave a Comment