After Mayday Parade, I walked clear across the venue to the Vans Highway 1 stage to actually see a band I had heard of before!
Street Dogs
Street Dogs
Street Dogs
Street Dogs
The Street Dogs were the reason for my lengthy walk. They had a pretty huge crowd waiting to see them play and there were Street Dogs banners set up out in the audience. They played a catchy style of street punk complete wtih a lot of sing along parts that the crowd ate up. I didn’t stay for their entire set, but unlike the last time I saw them, this time what I saw of their set was cover-free which made me appreciate them a lot more than the last time I witnessed them. They were one of the few actual punk bands on the tour so it was actually kind of cool to get to see them.
Since it was so close to the halfpipe and the skating was still happening, I stopped by and took another break from the bands to watch some more skateboarding trickery. This also served to kill some time for me as my next destination was the very same stage the Street Dogs were playing on.
Against Me
Against Me
Against Me
Against Me
Against Me was the next band I checked out and the one that I made a point to want to see. I had heard of them for quite some time and knew that they were fairly popular among modern punk record collectors (I think there is something like 20 or more different pressings of their Reinventing Axl Rose album!) so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. Having seen them I sort of understand, they were excellent. They had power but were still a bit melodic and their sound totally fits on the No Idea label so it made sense to me that they had records out on that label. I’m going to make it a point to pick up at least one of their albums. I stuck around for nearly their entire set which made them the band I spent the most time watching the entire day.
Katy Perry
Katy Perry
I went over to the Hurley.com stage again to check out Katy Perry. For those who don’t know, she’s the one with the big hit song, “I Kissed a Girl” that apparently is a mega hit that is played on the radio every five minutes. I never listen to the radio ever and the only reason I knew about the song was from the fact that they talked about it on the Howard Stern Show and Sal the Stockbroker went so far as to make a song parody of it. When I got there she was already playing so I was only able to snap a couple photos before security kicked out all the photographers. As I suspected she made the crowd sit through a full set of her other songs before saving the big hit for last. While watching from afar I overheard a bunch of kids saying things like, “just play the song already, enough”. Her other songs weren’t bad and were in more of a rock vein, but it was pretty clear the large crowd of young teens she drew were there for one reason and that was to hear the one song. Unfortunately for Katy Perry she’s likely destined to make it on a future episode of VH-1’s One Hit Wonders. Live the song was still pretty catchy but without all the fancy production it sounded kind of flat.
Bring Me the Horizon
Bring Me the Horizon
Bring Me the Horizon
Next door on the Smart Punk stage Bring Me the Horizon took the stage as soon as Katy Perry was done. They attracted a pretty good sized crowd of kids that were there for the crowd surfing and the moshing. Their metallic hardcore hybrid was a strong contrast to the pop songs that were on the adjoining stage just minutes before. Their songs were fast and hard and laced with metal licks and growling vocals. The crowd ate it up as if they were rebelling against the girl pop they sat through waiting for this band to play!
3OH!3
3OH!3
3OH!3
I stuck around to see 3OH!3 because the girls I was in charge of said they were going to watch them so I wanted to check out what it was they were excited about seeing. They were an odd band that was mostly a sort of electronica dance band with a bit of hip-hop and rock thrown in. Calling them a dance party band would be a pretty accurate description. There were a lot of people dancing and shaking their asses throughout their set.
Horrorpops
Horrorpops
Horrorpops
About a half hour later on the same stage the Horrorpops started playing. I was curious about them as I’ve heard good things. I instantly recognized their guitar player as being from the Nekromantix. He doesn’t sing in Horrorpops though, instead they have a female singer who also plays the stand-up bass. She had a really good voice and I was digging their psychobilly rock sound. I watched a few songs and then went to collect the kids and catch a couple songs of the last band of the evening.
Motion City Soundtrack
Motion City Soundtrack
Motion City Soundtrack
Motion City Soundtrack had the distinction of being the final band of the show so they had a very large crowd of people watching them, plus a sea of people stopping by for a few minutes on their way out of the venue. They were a very melodic pop band and they had more than their share of young fans. I snapped a few photos and listened to a couple songs and then hit the road to grab dinner and drop off my caravan of teens.
Overall this years Warped Tour was a pretty decent way to spend a day outside. The perfect weather made checking out a bunch of bands that normally aren’t my cup of tea a pretty pleasant experience. If I was about half my current age, there would have been a lot more to my liking this year. I’d have liked a few more actual punk rock bands but the lineup was pretty diverse overall, just lacking any “classic” bands who are still active. For what they are charging for admission it is still pretty much the best deal out there as far as summer concerts goes and there is plenty to see and do.
Additional photos from Warped Tour will be posted tomorrow on MXV’s flickr stream.
Well, we all know how you feel about new punk bands doing covers of old punk songs but how do you feel about Katy Perry blatantly ripping off an older song title? If you recall, back in 1995, Jill Sobule had a minor hit with her own song titled “I Kissed a Girl.” Here’s her take on the whole thing…
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/06/katy-perry.html
I vividly recall the Jill Sobule song and when I first heard about this Katy Perry song my first thought was “she ripped that off!”. I like to think of it this way… I think Jill Sobule really did kiss a girl and liked it and I think Katy Perry kissed a girl as a gimmick to sell some records. I can’t think of a better example of a one-hit wonder than this. In 10 years or so we’ll be seeing her on a VH-1 special about 1-hit wonders just like we did with Tony Basil.