Various Artists – Punk Rock Summer Camp [DVD]

Warped Tour. What more can I say? 50 some bands traveling from on town to another, from one country to another, from one continent to another. Making friends, meeting new people, creating a family. Around 10 weeks of pure non stop punk rock fueled by the love of music and the cheer of the crowd. SideOneDummy decided to capture this masterpiece 5 years ago (1998). The one and only, Punk Rock Summer Camp.

Before your form any misconceptions, this DVD is not only live performances of the bands. Live performances do take up lots of space on the DVD, but it is so much more then that. It is a documentary of life on the Warped Tour, with interviews with the bands, professional athletes (skates, bmx, etc.), roadies and all the people behind the scene who make this yearly event  possible for you to enjoy. It really opens you eyes to all the people it takes to create this masterpiece and how much they sacrifice to make it work. Personally, I learnt so much about the tour and what they do at the tour. Maybe they only did things like the Punk Rock Karaoke and Vans Mural Project in 1998, never having been to the tour I must wait until next year to find out.

The live performances are quite interesting. They are all filmed during different days and pieced together flawlessly. There also seemed to have been many more ska bands on the tour back in 1998 compared to this years tour. Most of the live performances are quit interesting, the two worst would have to be the Deftones and The Specials, other then that they are all pretty good. For the most part, the audio quality is pretty good for the live performances. Unfortunately, It isn’t as good for most of the interviews. There seems to be some strong traces of wind during those parts and just seem to be lacking some production needed at times.

Overall, the Punk Rock Summer Camp DVD is a really nice addition to any punk rock fan, especially a constant Warped Tour visitor.