Vans Warped Tour 2007 – Live (July 5th, 2007)

It’s July, and we all know what that means: time for the Vans Warped Tour. Dozens of bands, half a dozen stages, sore feet and blistering sun. Yes, it’s the longest running outdoor music festival entering its 13th year and after some confusion regarding what city the tour would actually hit in Alberta this year the doors opened in Calgary and welcomed in the punks, emos, goths, and rockabillies.

After waiting in the lineup for sometime we finally walked into the Race City Speedway around a quarter after twelve. Looking around I saw some posters saying that The Briggs were playing the lucky stage at noon; and since they were one of the few bands on my “must see” list I hurried of to the main stage to see the final half of their set. From the instant I heard them playing Wasting Time it was clear that they deserved to be on my “must see” list as they ripped through songs like Song Of Babylon and Waiting In The Shadows. They even did a Clash cover for good measure, but then again, so did Pepper later in the day so that was nothing too special. However, being able to see The Briggs did send the start of the 2007 Vans Warped Tour heading into the right direction.

Funeral For A Friend then hit the “13” main stage and after watching a bit of them my friend and I wandered to the giant blow up schedule to see who was playing. To my great dismay we had already missed The Starting Line, The Matches and Amber Pacific – all of whom were bands that I wanted to see but had played at 11:30 and 11:50 (Amber Pacific, I think, was playing a bit later but in a conflicting time spot so I knew I had no chance to see them). We took this opportunity to plan out who we would be seeing next and to look around at the various other activities, before returning to the main stage to see Ontario’s IllScarlett rock the stage. There’s no doubt in my mind that these guys will become the next Sublime and will simply blow up in the next few months. Their laid back reggae style is able to get people dancing and singing along instantly -and they can pull it off live too which was evident here. Kicking off with First Shot, the band played a selection of songs from their EP and their upcoming album like NTF, Heaters, Who’s Got It and, to a great cheer, Mary Jane. They were the only band of the evening to recognize the Calgary-Edmonton rivalry and to admit that the crowd was fifty percent out of towners; but while they were a great reggae/ska act, they were just the lead in for Big D & The Kids Table who were rocking the Hurley.com stage. I joined the dust covered crowd as they were ripping through Noise Complaint and they were just as I remembered from seeing them over a year ago in Edmonton. They were energetic and entertaining, great ska punk that got the pit moving and the dust circling – especially when they ripped into the fan favorite LAX.

Once Big D ended their energetic set it was time to head back to the main stage for one of the main attractions of this year’s tour: Tiger Army. Nick 13’s fans came out in full force as they opened up with Prelude: Signal Return and played songs like Afterworld, Forever Fades Away, Where the Moss Slowly Grows, FTW, among others before ending it all with the pit moving Never Die. While they were quite good, I couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed by their performance. The sound was great and the crowd was into it, it’s just that I pictured something a bit wilder from the band live as everyone always says how good they are live. I was hoping for them to top the chaotic-ness of a live show from The Matadors but there wasn’t as much intensity as I had hoped. However, they promised they’d do a full Canadian tour in the fall so we’ll see if that can improve my opinion on them then.

Following Tiger Army, new emo upstarts Red Jumpsuit Apparatus took the stage. I listened to the first song but soon realized I had no intention of sitting through forty minutes of them (they were the ones who had won the voting competition to play an extended set) so I wandered off to the blow up schedule to see who was playing. No one at all struck my fancy, except for one band: The Automatic. I had no idea what they sounded like or who they were, all I knew was that they were called The Automatic and they were from the UK. That was enough for me so I went over to the Hurley.com stage to watch them – that decision was the smartest choice I made all day. This band blew me away – as they did to every one else in the steadily growing crowd. Everything they did was exactly what a live show at the Warped Tour should be. It was insanely intense and chaotic (the keyboardist/singer even left the stage with his mic singing through the crowd, climbing onto the sound booth and then instigated the first circle pit of the band’s set – all while still singing), the music was perfect, and the banter was sincere and funny. They even did a great cover version of Kanye West‘s Gold Digger. I highly recommend everyone who goes to anyWarped date to stop by and see these guys – although, good luck finding any merch from them, I walked around the tents a few times without ever finding a place to buy a CD or shirt from them.

Going from a newly discovered band in The Automatic to one of the very first punk bands I’ve ever heard with New Found Glory was a drastic change – but a great one because Jordan Pudnik and his band mates proved that they still knew how to rock. Focusing mainly on their older material (with only one song from Coming Home and a new track from their upcoming covers album, From The Screen To Your Stereo 2), the band played all of my favorites like Hit Or Miss, Dressed To Kill, Understatement, Something I Call Personality, My Friends Over You and All Downhill From Here. They had the crowd eating out of their hands and going wild as they played the songs with more intensity then they even come close to having on the record. On a little side note, the entire Set Your Goals ensemble was ready and rocking out in the middle of the pit which makes perfect sense considering how much of an obvious influence NFG has been to their sound.

Drenched in sweat from New Found Glory and the unbearable heat and not wanting to watch Killswitch Engage or any of the other acts currently playing, the next thirty minutes were spent getting water and food and looking at the random merchandise tables scattered around the race track. We returned to the music aspect of the festival to see Hawaii’s Pepper who were somewhat disappointing. While never being a huge fan of them, I was hoping their live show will turn me into one. Sadly though, it didn’t. While their constant jokes about sex and eating pussy suited their general persona, the numerous insults hurled towards the emo boys/girls and bands started to become a bit tiresome and repetitive after a while. No one else playing struck my fancy so I watched them play their entire set before heading across the track to see Authority Zero on the Ernie Ball Stage and unlike Pepper, these guys lived up my expectations in every way. I may not know much in their catalogue, but they brought the proverbial rock and sounded great and their fans were out in full force too.

Once they ended I wandered back to the main stages to catch the final few songs of Paramore‘s set before heading into the pit for the punk rock heavyweights Pennywise. They, along with New Found Glory, Yellowcard and Bad Religion, were one of the few bands who really had the Warped Tour vibe to them as they joked with the crowd and had a general good time out there. Of course, they melted some faces too as they ripped through eight or nine tracks including Pennywise, Fuck Authority, Same Old Story, Society, My Own Country, and ended it all with Bro Hymn. Once they left the stage I went in search of some much needed H20, returning to the schedule I planed to watch the beginning of The Unseen before heading off to see Meg & Dia, but hearing an interesting sound on the main stage changed those plans. Vancouver’s The Vincent Black Shadow were taking the stage and within the first few moments of their opening song I knew it was something I wanted to hear more of. Reminding me of a more laid back version of The Creepshow, they had a nice rockabilly vibe to them – something which I was not remotely expecting from their backdrop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay for long has Meg & Diawere playing on another stage, and the Doghouse duo were one another band on my “must see” list.

Walking across the venue to see the band I saw a curious thing though. For you see, it was thirty two degrees Celsius out there. It was hot, like unbearably so. So hot in fact that people were looking for just the tiniest piece of shade to hide under; and where was this shade you asked? Why, in the shadows of the porta potties. Yes, there were hordes of people sitting on the ground in front of the row of porta potties to get shade and cool off. I don’t know about you, but I think if there’s ever a place where the most comfortable place you can be is in the comfort of a porta pottie then something must be seriously wrong.

Ignoring the odd view, I found comfort in the shadow of the hurley.com stage as Meg & Dia were performing an acoustic set (thanks to the fact that their guitarist wasn’t allowed into Canada). They were just as good as I had hoped and played songs like Roses, Monsters, Cardigan Weather and a cover ofDeath Cab For Cutie‘s I Will Follow You Into The Dark. One of the mellower acts on the tour, this sister duo played their indie pop wonderfully and promised to come back in the fall for a full Canadian tour and I, for one, can’t wait to see them again.

The next thirty minutes were spent at a number of stages. First was the Ernie Ball stage as Social Code were supposed to be playing, it didn’t take long though to realize that it wasn’t actually the St. Albert group but someone else playing instead, so off to the Hurley stage we went to see K-Os. I watched a few songs, but it was nothing special and figuring he wouldn’t play Crabbuckit until near the end of his set I opted to leave to see Coheed and Cambria play as there was no real attraction to stay and watch K-Os. Making up for their horrible drunken performance three years ago, Coheed actually sounded really good during the few songs I saw them play, including In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth: 3 but I was really just wasting time waiting for Bad Religion to hit the stage as they were up next.

The punk legends opened up with American Jesus and were, to my surprise, the funniest band of the day. They were uncharacteristically humorous as they talked about the Stampede, cowboys and the unbearable heat – and were just really funny. On top of that, they sounded great too as they played three songs from their new album – Heroes & Martyrs, Requiem For Dissent and Honest Goodbye – along with a handful of older ones like Fuck Armageddon… This Is Hell!, 21st Century Digital Boy, Sorrow and Epiphany. Once Bad Religion ended their set a good portion of the crowd started to leave as the only two remaining bands left to play were Circa Survive and Yellowcard. Not liking Circa Survive, I used their set time to finally sit in some much needed shade and buy some merchandise before the final band of the day came on. This being the sixth time seeing Yellowcard live, there’s not a whole lot to say about them compared to their other performances other than that they ended the day off quite nicely. Fighting got a circle pit going around the sound booth and Only One got the girls screaming – nothing new there. The only disappointing aspect was that they didn’t play Believe or anything earlier than Ocean Avenue.

So lets’ recap for a second. The 2007 Vans Warped Tour was fun, but nothing special. There were no big name bands on here, and while I’m no Warped expert, it was probably the weakest showing of bands I’ve seen out of the three years I’ve been to the festival. Instead of being a mostly punk event, this year was focused towards reggae and emo much more than even before – particularly the emo side (the Smartpunk stage being the worst perpetrator of that, so much so that I didn’t see one band there that I had any remote interest in). However, it is being focused towards what’s hot now and emo is just that; and despite it all, the main point of the tour is to introduce the concert goer to a new act and they did just that with The Automatic which, in itself, made the tour worthwhile.

A good day in all, here’s a little summary of my day’s event at the tour:
Funniest band on stage: Bad Religion
Most surprising band / band you need to see if you go to Warped’07: The Automatic
Bands I knew would rock that did rock: Bad Religion, Pennywise, New Found Glory, Yellowcard
Bands I wish I had seen more of: The Vincent Black Shadow, The Briggs
Band I can’t wait to see live again in their fall tour: Meg & Dia
Bands that I’m uber pissed I’m missed and would’ve made the day that much better if I had seen them: Matches, Starting Line, Amber Pacific