Another year at Warped Tour, beating the crap out of my body. It's what I used to live for. Now I make the annual pilgrimage to what's left of this heaven on earth for punk rockers. At least they manage to have a few good names on the list still.
This year I unfortunately missed Anti-Flag...at least they weren't like my must-see band. They would have been awesome though.
Instead, I started the day with Alkaline Trio. Just about my favorite band ever. I love these guys...they make morbidity fun. Not in the I'm-sad-and-emo, or I'm-going-to-scream-your-face-off kind of way. I somehow fell about two albums behind with them, so I only knew the old shit, but they played a couple of my favorites. Armageddon, Calling All Skeletons, and Blue Carolina come to mind. The latter...funny story. It just so happens that the boyfriend and I completely relate to it thanks to his being in the military and disappearing for weeks at a time. We're now one of those couples that has a song. Didn't see that coming. At least it's not some cheesy mass-produced bullshit love song!
After Alkaline, had to hunt down some water, my friends, and whatever the fuck stage The Casualties were supposed to be on. So at the Gorge, the main amphitheater stage is usually the "Main Stage" for Warped. Not this year. For some reason they chose a tiny grassy area surrounded by tents at the top of the hill for the Main Stage. Not the big open area designed for large crowds. Go figure. The Casualties played on the amphitheater stage though, so that was cool. Except that the blacktop was so hot it was burning my feet through my Chucks. But it's the fucking Casualties, so it was worth it. By the end of the set, I wasn't sure whose sweat I was soaked in...plus I'd moshed with Rick and Jake! They jumped down and played Riot in the center of the pit. On their way back to the stage Rick gave me a high-five too. During another song they instigated a pretty sick wall of death...I opted not to participate, after my trip to the hospital last year stemming from a rough crowd watching Less Than Jake. Not trying to make any friends at Quincy, that's for sure.
Post-Casualties it was time for more major hydration (it was fucking hot out!), and I wandered around the tents and kept out of the sun waiting for Reel Big Fish. Saw a few Oompa Loompas too. Yeah. You read that right. Turns out they were doing a bit on the main stage before RBF. It was....interesting. And then I got nailed in the back of the head by Wonka candy being thrown to the crowd from the VIP tent (remember the whole trying to avoid the hospital thing?) Finally RBF hit the stage. They're one of my favorite live bands. Their setlist doesn't change much, but they're awesome when it comes to engaging the crowd. Like testing the crowd's flexibility when it came to musical styles--playing part of the same song in different ways, and getting everyone to dance to it. So we had skanking, booty-shaking, head-banging, square-dancing...ridiculous, yes, but everyone always loves it. I actually got a lot more roughed up at that show than I'd expected...apparently a lot of the younger crowd confuse skanking and moshing. Really guys? I stuck around for some Dropkicks after that, but there's only a few songs I like by them.
Unfortunately, Sum-41 didn't make it to the end of the tour (thanks, Japan). Otherwise I would have been in Portland today too. So I wrapped up my day with a little Everclear. That's right, Everclear at Warped. Don't hate, they were way cooler than 80% of the bands there. So at the beginning of the set, this guy in a wheelchair right in front of me lights up a j. Okay, whatev. Then he's passing it around, kept trying to pass it back to me. Sorry man, not my thing. Once it's gone around to all the randos in the area, he jumps out of his wheelchair and tilts it forward....and out come about a half dozen more! He hid them in the rail of his chair. After that there were several just going around. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny :D
I did find a new band to like :) They're called The Sparring. Super new, super small, super awesome. I think they have a MySpace or something, but not much beyond that. Their singer used to play bass for Tiger Army, but they're not a psychobilly band. Just straight punk, and a good time.
I was also please to see a few more punks this year. I'm sure the presence of the Casualties boosted that a bit...it was too bad that bands like Pennywise and Bouncing Souls didn't finish out the tour. Last year I was disappointed to see that I was likely the only one rocking liberties at both the Boise show and at the Gorge.
Ended up riding home with my buddy instead of camping (turns out it was a good call--I got a hot shower and a bed last night; my other friend? Passed out face-down in the grass at the campground, liquor bottle in hand). I've almost caught up on my hydration, can't hear for shit, and I'm still finding bruises...but it's always worth it :)
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