Vans Warped Tour 2008 – Live (Aug. 6th, 2008)

Warped Tour 2008 has received some rather nasty press in regards to their line-up this year. Everyone seems to be complaining left, right and centre as people continue to point out who they’re missing and who’s on it that really shouldn’t be on it. Now I too am incredibly guilty of doing this as I’ve commented numerous times over the less-than-impressive line-up that this year’s tour had. However, as I walked away from the tour for the fourth time in almost as many years I realized that despite all the complaints I had beforehand; it was I who was ultimately responsible for the enjoyment of the day. I mean, if you don’t like the fact that Katy Perry is on the tour then don’t watch her. Instead walk over a stage and watch either Broadway Calls or GBH– that’s what I did anyway.

That’s not to say that the tour was perfect – it wasn’t. In fact, it started off rather poorly, making me feel that my first impression may end up being the actual result of the sunny day. After a massively long line-up that delayed my entrance to the Race City Speedway by an hour and a half, my friend and I finally ran into the venue with hopes of catching Reel Big Fish who we had heard from the parking lot. We ignored Set Your Goals and ran to the main stage; but by the time we reached the stage they were saying their farewells for the afternoon.

There went one of the few bands I had planned to see. Disappointing, but what can you do about it?

We headed to the other main stage to watch Story of The Year who put on a decent enough show with songs from all of their albums. Unfortunately, their ultra choreographed set that featured perfectly timed jumps and back flips seemed somewhat forced – particularly since they had the same jumps four years prior. Far from being horrendous, Story Of The Year wee unable to truly captivate me and I soon found my eyes wandering to the blow-up schedule for the first time of the day.

“Fuck”

The Horrorpops, Street Dogs and Reel Big Fish had already played. They were three of the bands I wanted to see, and since there weren’t many on the list that I had definitely wanted to see, it was a big deal to have had already missed three so early on.

The day was still young though so we had to make the most of it, and The Colour Fred seemed to be the best option to kick start the day. But thanks to some confusion regarding the time schedule, we got to the Hurley staged as he too was ending his set. Yet another strike out.

With nothing else to watch for at least an hour, we wandered the fair grounds, checking out merch tables as we killed time until Animo took the Kevin Says stage. Walking around we say the comical and strangely disturbing performance of Gil Mantehr’s Party Dream before the skate-punk band finally got me excited for the day. Unlike many of its tour members, Animo didn’t take themselves too seriously and had fun. They joked with the crowd and got them involved, constantly making the crowd grow bigger with each and every song they played. It was a band that reminded me of what Warped should be and was the first band to turn the day around.

Since no one playing at that time that really sparked our interested we decided to walk around again, checking out the set up and merch for the second time of the day. First I discovered that there was still an opportunity to see The Street Dogs live since they were doing an acoustic set at 3:30. Making a mental note of that I proceeded down another row of tents to see what else the bands had to offer. Reading some literature at the All Left Out booth I discovered that A) they were playing in a few minutes on the stage we had just left and B) they were from New Zealand. This new dose of information intrigued me and convinced me to check them out. So we did and their Bouncing Souls-esque sound seemed appropriate and so far the day was picking up.

As 2:50 came along we turned back to the main stage to watch Angels and Airwaves take the stage. Tom DeLonge walked on to a mass amount of cheers (along with a few boos). Having never seen Blink-182 live it was great to see DeLonge in person, even if he was fronting a different band. They started with The War and his stage persona was a mixture between the comical times of Blink with the more serious tone of AVA. He constantly begged the lackadaisical crowd for more energy, asking them to wake up as they played tracks like The Adventure, Everything’s Magic, It Hurts and Secret Crowds. They even dove into some of their back catalogue with Box Car Racer’s My First Punk Song; which sadly sounded really bad.

Once they ended we had ten minutes before The Street Dogs played their acoustic set at the Skull Candy tent but we decided to head over there anyway. On the way we passed the MySpace tent and heard The Colour Fred playing some acoustic tunes. Stopping by for the final three or four songs of his set, Fred Maschino honestly thanked the crowd for their interest and told stories about the meanings of the song. He too traveled back in time with an acoustic rendition of Taking Back Sunday’s I Am Fred Astaire before finishing with Empty House.

As he packed up and got ready for a signing session, The Street Dogs were doing their final sound checks and we grabbed a seat in front of them. Frontman Mike McColgan couldn’t simply sit and sing but instead got up and song with energy, asking for requests and getting the crowd involved in songs like Final Transmission, Saving Hill, Back To the World, Two Bottles, and Fighter. It, like Animo’s set, reminded me of what I think Warped Tour should be- slightly spontaneous, a connection with the crowd and a bunch of people listening to great music together.

I was tempted to sit and watch The Briggs play an acoustic set afterwards but since they were playing again at eight that evening I wanted to see a unknown ska band and went to the Hurley.com stage; and boy was that the right choice. My jaw dropped as I saw Oreskaband for the first time: six Japanese girls in matching ska outfits. Despite the language barrier, the band successfully communicated to the crowd, asking us if we were ready to “shake our booties” and dance a little. And dance we did. The dust flew around as everyone in the pit happily skanked along with the music. It was easily the highlight of the day and everyone who was in the crowd immediately went to the merch table to buy their CDs and meet the band.

Despite really wanting to stay and talk to the band, the lineup was way too long and I would have missed Oregon’s Broadway Calls – and I couldn’t let that happen. So off I went, past the massive crowd in front of Katy Perry and into the smaller Broadway Calls crowd. The trio played their pop-punk style with energy and hit such tracks like Call It Off and Suffer The Kids; however their shining moment came with their cover of Jawbreaker’s Boxcar followed by a brand new song (which sounded great). With a few minutes left in their set I wandered back to the main stage to catch the one and only Vandals.

They were finishing up An Idea for a Movie as I arrived and they continued to play a lot from Hitler Bad, Vandals Good like People That Are Going To Hell, I’ve Got An Ape Drape and My Girlfriend’s Dead. Stevo from Sum41 was filling in for Josh Freese on drums and looked happy to be playing with some punk rock legends; and I mean who wouldn’t want to have the chance to play Anarchy Burger or Not In My Backyard with The Vandals? Like always Warren took over the final song, but instead of I Have A Date, he comically delivered Don’t Bring Me Down.

So despite a rocky start, the 2008 Warped Tour was looking up; sadly though the next few acts brought it down a bit. Relient K, Motion City Soundtrack and Say Anything – bands who I normally enjoy and would see if they came thrown town – were really unable to captivate me. Maybe it was because of the heat and the fact that the day was getting long, or the fact that my ankle was dead and making it painful to stand; either way none of the bands were able to fully capture my attention and it wasn’t until Rise Against came on with Chamber the Cartridge that the show picked up again.

The Chicago quartet had the biggest draw of the day and other than Heaven Knows and Give It All stuck with their highly popular Sufferer & The Witness album playing The Good Left Undone, Ready To Fall and Prayer Of The Refugee. It was slightly disappointing to not hear either a brand new song from their forthcoming album or some older tracks; but the crowd ate it up and the thirty minute set seemed to fly by.

To end the day we ran back to the Hurley.com stage for one final last hurrah with LA’s The Briggs. Last year the band put on the best show I had seen all year and I had high hopes for them again – luckily they met all of those hopes. While not being able to go as wild as they did at Red’s due to the stage set-up,The Briggs still had more energy then most of the bands I had seen that day. Opening up with Wasting Time, the band played songs from all of their releases – Back To Higher Ground, Song of Babylon, Waiting In The Shadows, Mad Men, Charge Into The Sun, One Shot Down, Dead Men Don’t Tell Tales, 3rd World War and Bored Teenagers. It was a complete set, with their punk rock/oi! sound capping off the evening nicely.

So was it the best Warped Tour I’ve ever seen? Far from it. But there were still enough high quality bands to keep even the stingiest punk fan happy, you just had to pick and choose what was best. While yes bands like Schwayze, From First To Last, All Time Low and Katy Perry did all make appearances, I skipped them all and instead found bands that were more suited to my taste and what I consider to be “proper” Warped Tour bands – and in the end it all worked out.