311

 
Review By: Joe Licavoli     Pictures By: Scott Wulfesteig    

     Welcome to an inside view of the behemoth of all outdoor festival tours, The Warped Tour.  Every year, I go to the Warped Tour knowing I am in store for a few excruciating details that are present at almost any outdoor tour-heat exhaustion, tons of people and high prices for food and drink.  I must admit for the Warped Tour 2001, I was quite impressed with the amenities the show had to offer.  The food was not extremely over priced and the un-alcoholic drinks-like lemonade and water-were easy to get to, much bigger and colder than I expected and did not weigh heavy on the wallet.  The event also had mist tents and plenty of shade by the side stages; unfortunately the majority of the crowd was at the two main stages.  This aspect has been severely lacking from Warped Tour’s past.  Another guest welcoming aspect of the tour was that each guest could bring a bottle of water in.  There were only a few downfalls that I would suggest improvement on for next year.  The security was awful-a big surprise-they just stood around and basically did nothing except try and force their imprudent authority onto press who were trying to get to the backstage in order to interview bands and spread the word about the Warped Tour.   The venue, which was outside of The LA Coliseum was not fit to hold the estimated, 30,000 people that attended the show, so walking through the crowd was like being in the pit, while stepping over exhaustion filled squatters.   The aforementioned two aspects are usual for a summer music festival, were easily over looked by the quick entrance I received as part of the press.  I have never known a time when I did not have to wait in line for press passes and received all the information with no hassle.  I know that right now, you are sick of hearing about all the lackluster details of the Warped Tour and you want to hear about the meat of this year’s event-the bands.

     When I got into the show, Riverside, CA, natives Alien Ant Farm were ripping up the main stage with their smart blend of hard rock, danceable rhythms and glowing stage presence.  I am not very familiar with the bands music, but I know that they have been around a long time and they recently have had some radio and video airplay for their single of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal.”  I did not get a chance to watch the bands entire set but what I did see looked very promising and I am glad to see the band receiving some much needed attention.

     I never thought three little letters could stand for such a notable band, yet AFI came, played and conquered.  I have never been much of a fan of AFI, although after seeing the bands rousing performance in the heat blistering sun, I may need to re-think my original opinion.  The band has a truly imaginative sound, which blends hardcore punk with heart wrenching emotions.  AFI has a highly commanding and enthusiastic stage presence, which is proof that the band will be a fixture of punk for years to come.  

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     One of my favorite punk bands of the new breed, The Ataris, belted out their poppy brand of punk rock for the inquisitive audience.  The Ataris are such a likable band because they sing about love and things that almost everyone goes through.  They are a band that honestly wears their emotions on their sleeves, with no precautions of not looking punk enough.  Some of the stand out songs from the band’s set came off their last punk rock gem, Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits.  Some of my favorites included, “Losing Streak,” and, “San Dimas High School Football Rules.”  A pleasant surprise was a song that lead singer and guitarist, Kris Roe said they never play live and the bands longest title for a song, “The Last Song I Will Ever Write About A Girl.”  The songs that The Ataris play give me one overall impression from chief songwriter; Kris Roe-someone had a bad breakup.  The group made many attempts to get sing-along going with the crowd, but for the most part, seemed unsuccessful.  However, that did not slow the Ataris down one bit as they blasted through a song about, the short-lived bur highly influential 1990’s teen drama, “My So Called Life.”  I am sure Clair Danes would smile in approval. 

     Next up was Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, which is a side project that went totally right.  Talk about an all star rock band, featuring Fat Mike from NOFX, Jack Jackson bowered from No Use For A Name, Joey Cape from Lagwagon and Fat Wreck Chords employee, Spike.  The band has been around since the early 1980’s and plays punk rock versions of cover songs.  My favorite song came from the film, “Annie.”  The band was a humorous break in the punk rock bill of the Warped Tour.

     This year, the Warped Tour disappointed me with their lack of rap and hip-hop.  Luckily, they had the smooth hip-hop flow of Kool Keith.  I did not get a chance to see the rappers entire set but what I did hear consisted of heavy rhymes and big beats.  The rapper has the flow but he seemed to lack originality and did not give out an enticing stage performance.  This made me get lured into the massive crowd and attempt to walk around the chaos that is referred to as the Warped Tour.

     After roaming around the tour for about an hour.  I was ready to rock again.  As I walked toward the main stage, I could hear the buzz around me for the boys from Hermosa Beach, CA-Pennywise.  This was my second time seeing Pennywise, the first time being at Warped Tour 1997, so I was excited to see the band again.  This band simply rips up the stage with enough power to snuff the California energy crisis.  The crowd was going so insane that a kid in a wheelchair was crowd surfing, which is something you will only see at the Warped Tour.  The band has had some much-deserved recent success with the release of their new album, Land of the Free.  This attention comes from the first single, displaying the punk rock credo of anti establishment, “Fuck Authority.”  The songs got the crowd going crazy and the band seemed to go over the 30 minutes they had to play, keeping the funny punkers, The Vandals waiting.  The Vandals had set up all their equipments and they were ready to play at their designated time.  Pennywise did not pay much attention as they closed their set with a Black Flag anthem, with the Circle Jerks lead singer on vocals, that got the crowd chanting and the pit flowing.

     After Pennywise blasted through their explosive set, The Vandals had a lot to prove.  As usual, the Vandals rocked the show with their humorously hard-edged style of punk rock.  Lead singer, Dave Quakenbush made a few comments about the long time that Pennywise played and the Vandals ended up matching the length of time by providing about a 45 minute set.  The Vandals started out strong with, Café 405,” off their album, Hitler Bad Vandals Good.  Another tune they played off the previously mentioned album was, “My Girlfriends Dead,” an incredibly funny song about a guy who gets dumped by his girlfriend and in stead of telling people they broke up, he just tells them his girlfriends dead-pure comedy.  They played a few songs off their new album, Look What I Just Stepped In, which included, “Behind The Music,” a sarcastic view of the major record label industry.  This is an angle of the music business that The Vandals have happily not been involved with.  Every time I see The Vandals I end up cracking up, because of the bands amusing onstage chatter and crazy antics.  The band ended the set with their guitarist, Warren Fitzgerald, singing the enthusing teen punk anthem, “I Have A Date,” off of the bands Live Fast Diarrhea album.  Warren danced around the stage and ended up climbing up the side of the stage and taking off his shirt and mooning the audience.  On that note, the Vandals set was done.  

     I reluctantly decided to stroll through the crowd again, in order to check out The Benjamins on one of the side stages, which was set up by the clothing company, Volcom.  I was not sure what to expect from The Benjamins set, but I had heard they sounded like Weezer and they are on Drive-Thru Records, so I figured I would check them out.  I did not really hear the Weezer resemblance, but I guess any rock bands that are somewhat geeks and play emotional rock get lumped into the strange Weezer genera.  The band had a lot of energy and spunk, which was great to see from a band playing on the side stage.  However, they seemed kind of strange, the bands guitarist, Dan, asked the crowd, “Have you been to the bathrooms yet?  Because there is no toilet paper, I had to use some socks that I got for free from Vans.”  The crowd, as well as the rest of the band looked at him like he was crazy.  Lead singer, Jay, jumped right back with an underground bands response, stating, “That was very Blink 182 of you.”  Aside from the chatter about bodily functions, The Benjamins seemed to have a great drive and emotion in their music that is absent from many smaller bands.  One of my favorite songs was a hard rock tune, “Clover,” which got the crowd nodding their heads in acceptance.  While The Benjamins were playing a large crowd began to form around the next stage, where the great, Juliana Theory was about to play.  So, Jay poked fun at the crowd that was definitely ready to hear the Theory, talk about a tough crowd.  The Benjamins would not let the crowd at the other stage hinder their spirit as they blasted through their set. I was deeply disappointed to miss the Juliana Theory’s set because they are an amazing band, but I had to venture back to the main stages.

     I only caught the last two songs from a New Found Glory, but what I did see was entertaining.  In true Drive Thru Records, the band has recently changed their name, dropping the A from A New Found Glory, I think New Found Glory is a good band but I did not think they should be playing the main stage, especially when a hard working and very well known punk band, like Guttermouth, was regulated to the side stage.  That is a slap in the face to hard working punk bands everywhere, and really made me look down upon the person who organized what band would play on what stage, it was just ludicrous.  Okay, so back to New Found Glory, they played a spunky version of the current KROQ staple, “Hit or Miss.”  A huge crowd had already formed around the stage for the punk rock kings, Rancid.  The crowd for Rancid was flipping off New Found Glory and constantly booing them as they waited for their punk rock idols.  It was even hard to get from one main stage to the other because of the crowds, but I had to venture my way to the other stage to get a good spot for the incredibly powerful, true punk rock heroes, Rancid.

     It seemed a lot of the crowd came to the Warped Tour just to see the Epitaph Records punk rock machine, Rancid.  Rancid played a set packed with songs off of their exceptional 1995 Epitaph release, And Out Come The Wolves.  The band blasted through the high powered, “Maxwell Murder,” and “Journey To The End Of The East Bay,” which got the audience going and the pit flowing.   Off of the bands 1994 album, “Let’s Go,” the band rocked through the punk rock anthem, “Salvation.”  Singer, Tim Armstrong commands an audience like no other, as he demanded the audience to do one huge circle pit.  The sight was amazing; I have never seen a pit so huge at the Warped Tour.  There were tons of kid’s crowd surfing and the pit extended back to the bands booths and food vendors.  The crowd was going so crazy, that unfortunately the inevitable happened, a kid got badly hurt.  Immediately Rancid stopped playing and tried to see if the kid was okay.  While they waited, Rancid said thanks to the bands and eventually played, a soft rendition of the coming of age punk rock number, “The Wars End.”  After they played the song, the kid had still not been able to get out of the show through the many people.  The band made the difficult decision to stop playing, so the kid can get out of the show.  The crowd was very angry as they exited the stage, but Tim told the crowd that this is what punk is about, helping out your fellow man and if they were some heavy metal band they would just keep playing, but they care about that kid and wanted him to leave the show safe.  I thought that was one of the most notable things I have ever seen a band do, and I have a new found respect for Rancid.  I hope that kid is doing well right now, and I know Rancid feels the same.

     After the punk rock roller coaster of Rancid, rock rap founders, 311 blasted onto stage.  311 never let's me down, playing an infectious blend of terrific songs from each album.  The problem with 311 playing the Warped Tour is that they have so many good songs that it is next to impossible for them to play all of them.  However, 311 is a band that makes the impossible, possible.  They rocked through, Beautiful Disaster,” off Transistor, “Down,” from the bands smash album, 311, and a song from their new album, From Chaos, including the new single, “You Wouldn’t Believe.”  311’s singers, Nick Hexum and SA Martinez jump around the stage like kangaroos on speed.  Bass player, P-Nut kept the bands funky edge going, as Tim Mahoney kept the rock rolling with his hard as a rock guitar lines and Chad Sexton made sure the band stayed together on drums.  311 made their 30-minute set go by faster than the Baha Men’s music career. 

     River Fenix closed the show with their silly brand of pop punk.  The band is not a bad punk band but they just severely lack originality, can anyone say Blink 182?  Well I know they can, since their manager is Mark from Blink and they are on MCA Records, Blink 182’s record label and they relocated from Texas to San Diego, CA, Blink’s hometown.  Musically, the band has the same, funny punk band angle singing about girls and their daily lives.  So instead of watching the bands set I figured I would just go home and listen to some old Blink and get the same effect.

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     To close out this epic show review of the Warped Tour, I would say that overall the show was a major success and I truly had a good time.  The only thing that was lacking from this years tour, was the lack of well-known and talented skateboarders and BMX bike riders.  This has been a staple of the Warped Tour, which sadly was pushed to the sidelines at this year’s tour.  Aside, from that aspect, all of the acts did a great job and all of the elements were in place for a grand punk rock tour.  Hopefully all of the stops are as good, if not better than the stop they made in the little town of Los Angeles. 

- Joe Licavoli