Good Riddance

6/29/00 
Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim, CA
Written by Aimee Schwartz and Scott Harding 

Warped Tour 2000 June 29th, 2000 Luckily our group split up or else we would have missed some of the great performances of the Warped Tour this year. The lineup was chock full of old returning favorites and many new on the scene bands hoping to continue their good luck. Held this year in Anaheim at the Arrowhead Pond for two consecutive afternoons, they used the parking lot for their 4 stages. It was hot!!! Being on hot blacktop, which always makes your shoes hot, with no shade, and with water costing a mere $3.00, beer at $5.00, and sodas at probably water prices, its a wonder more kids didn't pass out from heatstroke. The beer, other refreshments and food vendors rape you with their prices, but being that you are never allowed to bring anything in, you are forced to pay whatever they are gouging you with. My friend even told the guy taking tickets that he had only one kidney and needed his bottle of water but of course, "No outside drinks." Well, fuck you very much. Anyway, a real bummer at this Warped Tour was that if you were over 21 and wanted to drink, you were forced to drink in a cage. Literally, they put up a chain link fence with about 18 tables and chairs and that was the only area you were allowed to drink in. So needless to say, I missed a lot of the outside the cage action. 

Bands are listed in alphabetical order
(The Donnas) (The Dickies) (Good Riddance) (Green Day) (Long Beach Dub All Stars) (The Lunachicks) (Millencolin) (NOFX) (T.S.O.L.) ( Weezer)

The Donnas
One band that I did set my drink down for was The Donnas. After reading and seeing so much about these four girls from Palo Alto, CA which have also made a guest appearance in the movie Jawbreaker, I was intrigued to see them live. Quite a crowd had gathered around by the time I made it to the stage, but needless to say, I don't know any of The Donnas songs, but damn are they catchy. Being so far back the only girls I could see was the bass player who was wearing a shirt that said "Eat A Dick," and the singer who reminded me of Christina Ricci and Rose McGowan combined. These girls are great. I'm usually pretty biased against girl bands, but these girls can tear it up. They are a female version of the Ramones, a great live show. They have a recently new album called "Get Skintight," pick it up. Even if you're a skeptic like me, you may just enjoy it. 

The Dickies
Boy was I disappointed to find out that The Dickies were playing on the small stage that seemed to be miles from the main stage. You see this band helped create punk as we know it today! And I was a bit saddened to find that the majority of the people that were at the Warped Tour were more interested in seeing Green Day and Long Beach Dub Allstars, who were playing on the main stages at the same time. But not me, hell no! The Dickies may be old but they still kick major ass! They kicked the first half of the show with some classic's such as "If Stewart Could Talk" and "Poodle Party". Leanord even brought out the infamous "Stewart the talking penis" puppet! It was pretty cool to look around and see the true fans of the Dickies still excited to see these punks after all these years. And some evern brought their kids (click here) The Dickies continued their set with playing a few new ones, that fuck'n rocked, that will be on their new album coming out soon of Fat Wreck Chords. The Dickies was by far one of the best bands of the night, and still proved to all that they can still keepit real!

Good Riddance
I haven't seen Good Riddance in years so I was pretty stoked to see them again. And the best part is they still tear it up and they do it even better than ever before! Good Riddance took the stage and they did not disappoint. They started strong and as usual they played with such power and finesse that it was just amazing to see. And well, the crowd responded. In the middle of the set Chuck insisted that the crowd start up a huge slam pit. Well, when Good Riddance says "Jump!" we jump!  The pit got so huge that is surrounded a 10' X 10' Vans canopy and was over 20 people wide! I swear the whole audience of the Warped Tour was in it! I haven't seen a pit this huge since I was The Exploited at the Palladium in 1992! Good Riddance has a gripping catchiness and force performing live, its nearly impossible to ignore them.  And I love a band that plays a wide variety of their new and old songs. Good Riddance had no problem doing this. Good Riddance was only the second band I saw, and after seeing them I knew this years Warped Tour was going to rule!

Green Day
After more time in the beer cage it was time for me to check out Green Day. I have been a long time fan, but have never gotten to see them live. This was now my chance. But of course they were playing at the same time as The Dickies, which our group split up for. Which is probably one of the worse features of these large venue shows. We "the public" get so excited to see 25 or so bands for about $30.00, but you never get to see even 1/2 of that. There are 3 or 4 stages with bands playing simultaneously and you miss alot of them. I mean check this out, of 28 bands, I saw 5 of them. Oh well I'm through complaining, well maybe not, just check out the review of The Dickies. 

Once again, being short sucks. I could barely make out Billie Joe's head and Mike Dirnt head and that motherfucker is tall. I heard many people talking shit during their set, but I didn't care. I like Green Day. They may not be considered punk, but back in their beginning of their careers at Gilman Street, owned by Maximum RocknRoll head honcho in Berkley, they were considered punk just like the rest of them. They played their hearts out featuring songs from every album. Billie Joe even pulled some kid up on stage with him. At the end of their set Tre' started trashing his drum set then for a finale he set the damn thing on fire! You know you are at a good show when something gets set on fire, but what a way to show people that you have the funds to just trash your shit and then just go out and buy a new set. Whatever, it must be nice. I'm just glad I finally got to see them.

Long Beach Dub Allstars
Playing right after Green Day was Sublime, I mean The Long Beach Dub All Stars. Now don't get me wrong I really like the Dub All Stars, but as we all well know, they have Sublime in their blood. I have seen the Long Beach Dub All Stars before and I was so burnt out by that time, but I needed to stay to catch a couple of songs, which I did, but then I had just about enough. Of the heat, the crowd, and the beer cage. So I bailed. I can say I wont do large shows anymore, but we both know that's a lie. So, I'll see ya next time!

The Lunachicks
Un fortunately I arrived at the warped tour just as The Lunachicks were playing their last two songs. But I still feel the need to review them because this was the first time I have ever seen them. I have always loved them but when you see a band of this magnitude you gain a whole new respect for them. Now these chicks can rock a show. Wearing sexy camouflage outfit doesn't hurt the show either! Their hard hitting style was in full force with tight guitar leads and driving drums. All I can say that it might have been the first time I have seen this band live but their performance made me know it wasn't going to be the last!

Millencolin
Millencolin is a very talented band. So when they came on stage I was very excited to see them. But what sucked about that was I wasn't even near the stage because I was fighting the crowd to get back from stuffing my face with beer and hot dogs. I have only seen them once before and they were great and I wasn't about to miss them! But luckily I got there just after their first song. Although I think they lack a bit in their stage performance they sure make up for it in music quality. Their style of music has a tendency to send chills down you back. An appreciative crowd cheered and screamed while these guys pumped out their high energy tunes. When I see them I feel lucky because they don't seem to play in Southern California much. 

NOFX
The next band that I left the beer area for was the one and only NOFX. Holy shit did the stage area fill in fast. I could barely see but I could make out green haired Fat Mike and blue haired Eric Melvin. For those of you that have experienced NOFX you know that they just fucking rock. They are the punk rock comedians of the 20th century. The crowd around me sucked. It seemed as if they just recently heard of NOFX since they have been getting airplay on L.A. based KROQ, which to my happiness Fat Mike told the crowd that we would not be hearing that particular song again! Hell yes, NOFX have an album that just went gold, and all without radioplay. Good for them. They played many old favorites even Beer Bong off of the "Liberal Animation" album and some off the new album "Pump Up The Valuum." NOFX never fails to impress me, they are fun and punk rock till the end. 

T.S.O.L
Now I Think that this is my 4th time seeing T.S.O.L. this year. And you know what? It's not enough times. Way back when I started getting into T.S.O.L.'s earlier music the band was going through their infamous transfer from a punk band to a glam band so it wasn't like I was going to see them play live at that time. So when they go back as the original members I was pleased to find out I could see them! So I figure I have to make up for the lost times I couldn't see them. So what keeps me coming back? Their stage performance,  it's  like no other band. They are so good at what they do punk rock just oozes out of them. And they so it with such additude. Front man Jack dominates the stage while he moves from one side of it to the other like a caged animal. They played all the classic songs including "Dance With Me" and "Code Blue". This kept the fans very happy as they showed their gratitude the old fashioned way with a huge pit. Still tight as ever, T.S.O.L. proved to their faithful fans that they can kick it out like they did in the eairly 1980's and opened eyes to those not fortunate enough to have seen T.S.O.L. before the Warped Tour. 

Weezer
After another $5.00 beer in the cage I ran back to the stage to see Weezer. They were a last minute add on, and I was pretty excited to see them. Needless to say, since I had never seen them before I didn't realize they were on the stage till I heard one of their radio songs either Buddy Holly or the Sweater Song. They were fun to see and hear, and they definitely had the crowds attention.