Warped Tales

Every summer, the Warped tour rolls into town and many people go and spend the day in the often searing heat to watch bands in a huge crowd of sweaty people. Where is the appeal you ask? Well, here are some stories from those who went on what they liked AND didn’t like about this years Warped tour. See you next summer?
By: Lauren

1. Denise

Holiday Parade plays Vans Warped Tour 2007

One of my favorite bands, Holiday Parade, performed on the Ask Kevin Stage at Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheater in Atlanta, GA, and I was lucky enough to catch them up close. All things said, this band is pretty much in it’s infancy (no label), although it’s growing quickly as their fan base is exploding with every show they play. Their set was awesome, awesome, awesome and included all my favorites, Mixdown, My Philosophy, Never Enough and Driving Away. Then, as a special treat for us as they rocked out Gym Class Hero’s tune “Clothes Off”. Andy’s vocals were amazing (as always) and the music sounded good too! The band, which has a new line up as of May 2007, is really gelling and playing well together. Each time I see them they get better. Although the crowd wasn’t very big, I did see people singing, clapping and cheering, which is more than I’ve seen at other shows. And it was obvious as each member upped his performance level. It didn’t hurt to have all four members of All Time Low standing in the back of the crowd watching and supporting their friends. Very cool!

Earlier in the day I had the opportunity to meet and talk to Andy Albert (singer/guitarist) at their merch table. He was really nice and even came around from behind the table to snap a picture with me. I bought their EP and Andy sent his brother to get all the other band members to sign it for me, which I thought was really sweet and completely above and beyond. I told him about the different shows I had seen and asked him about the new line up, Holiday Parade name dropping, Bamboozle, Boys Like Girls shout out, Colin leaving Hit the Lights, upcoming tour, their booking agent, their new management deal and their label discussions (won’t be long… lots of possibilities). Andy is incredibly friendly and seemed to really enjoy talking to his fans. Anyone who has an opportunity to see these guys live really must go! And afterwards make sure to say hello. This band is definitely going places and they seem to know everyone! Check them out: www.myspace.com/holidayparade

Holiday Parade Photos. Credit: Denise

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2. Fe

i went to the warped tour in Minneapolis Minnesota on July 29th 2007. first off let me tell you that it was the best thing i have ever seen in my life. the thought behind warped tour is just amazing. to get a bunch of different but similar genres together to form an amazing day of music was genius. To take hardcore to pop to goth is something that is basically unheard of. It should be values as more then just a simple concert as I know many people see it but it teaches so much ore then just music appreciation. It teaches people to not to be so judgmental of everybody because in the end we are all the same. We all are driven by the same things even if it isn’t the exact same. So I know many people think that to get into the warped tour lineup you need to be able to get a mosh going to the music but that is not the case with straylight run. Straylight run is know for being a softcore indie (for those who are unfamiliar with the band). But besides the fact that they are slower they still brought the rock. Opening with the old single Existentialism On Prom Night. Which was a delightful way to get the crowd started into the day. Going on to slightly faster stuff from their new cd like The Miracle That Never Came, and the newer single Soon We Will Be Living In The Future. Which we even got to see a kid with a gruesome nose injury coming from the funeral for a friend set way gnarly. Ending with their hardest song Big Shot (Hands In The Sky) it was definitely one of the best was to get a nice warm up for the rest of the day. Next that was coming would be Paramore. Now lets face it for Paramore you would expect jumping dancing but not moshing and that is what we had. Moshing. many kids left with bruises and bloody faces from the fact that they started a push mosh. I’m not to sure how that worked out or why the security wasn’t there to stop some of the crazyness…..maybe because they were to busy yelling at the official warped tour photographer for taking pictures. But other then all that it was an amazing set by them. They definitely deserved the title of headliners. The starting line was amazing starting out with Making Love To The Camera and playing 2 new songs the crowd was so alive. They played Surprise Surprise, Way With Words, Best Of Me, and Island. Not only was the entire crowd singing along with every word and hanging on to the word of Kenny but the band seemed to be looking for the same energy from the crowd. Later on in the night as all the merch was getting put away and everything I was walking around aimlessly and ran into Kenny. Completely random and unexpected since they didn’t do a signing or anything to my dismay. But of course I totally messed it all up by being the typical kid who just met her hero and was all like oh wow do you realize who you are type of thing. But he was all cool about it and we talked for a little bit. The rocket summer is one of those bands that no matter how much you listen and no matter how much see them live you are just so impressed. This day left me speechless to how amazing it sounded. It is good to still hear a band play songs off their first cd and actually want to play them. Set list for them included Cross My Heart, Break It Out, Brat Pack, So Much Love, and So, In This Hour. This is definitely the band are would want to see to get your dance on. So that was the amazing stuff about warped tour this year…and of course there is some bad stuff to like that fact that for food and drinks you had to buy tickets. The tickets were sold in sheets of 10 each sheet cost 5 dollars. Which isn’t that bad I realize but when it costs you 6 tickets to buy a bottle of water the price adds up when your bottle gets crushed during a mosh or something. But good thing about the tickets is if you just threw them in your pocket, bag, or fanny pack you might find some left over towards the end and you can go get a snow cone! Another bad thing was at the venue I was at the security was dicks. I understand it isn’t the easiest thing in the world to deal with hundreds of people littering, moshing, crowd surfing and more, but they could have been nicer. I saw them make a girl cry because she got hit in the head by a crowd surfer. No the blow did not make her cry it was the security telling her she was stupid for not ducking her head and putting her hands up like they had instructed. Honestly and bands pay good money for the fans to enjoy the little props that they bring out on tour with them like beach balls and confetti, so it bugged me when I saw a guard pop a beach ball chiodos had thrown into the crowd. Other then all that I just have a few things to say, make sure you get their early. Listen to the bands who come up to you in line. And if they have signs to show you to tell you about themselves while you listen to their music they are most likely worth buying. Also never be afraid to go up to where you think you would want to be. If you are to afraid nothing will happen.

3. Kaila

My Name is Kaila, and I went to Warped Tour in Milwaukee on July 31st, on my birthday. All day i was walking around with my friends Leah and Lauren yelling its my birthday. I saw my favorite bands The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and The Starting line play. And since I donated blood i had a backstage pass, and i got to meet the lead singer of Paramore. The starting line and RJA both did signings, to tell you the truth, I’ve been waiting 4 years to meet the starting line, i told them it was my birthday, and i was kinda disappointed that they weren’t that nice. Don’t get me wrong, there nice for taking the picture with me, but i felt like they weren’t interested in small talk. But when i met RJA i told them it was my birthday and they gave me high fives or hugs and wrote dedication in my cd cover saying, “Thanks Kaila, we love you”, and “Happy 18 hope we made it great.” I left that day in owe on how down to earth all those guys were, it was great, and this has been the best warped tour yet and best birthday too.

4. Laura McCoy

I went to the august 1st show in Cinci

It was awesome I thought all of the bands were just amazing one of my personal favs were Paramore, The vincent Black shadow, amber pacific and hawthorne heights

but all were just inncredible

I met amber pacific and the vincent black shadow and a bunch of other people

a story was i kept running into this guy named matt and he is uber hottttt
so i ripped a paper in half wrote my name and number down and gave it to him haha i ran into him again and he said he would call

5.

i went today: in cleveland. okay i’ll tell you how it went:: so it started at 11, but with all the traffic and everything, we didnt get there till around 12. and when we got there, hawthorne heights was playing. and we looked at the schedule thing. and we had missed boys like girls, cute is what we aim for, MAYDAY PARADE, the rocket summer, and some other band but i dont remember what it was. so we were already EXTREMELY MAD. right., and we werent to pumped about hawthorne, so we decided to walk around, and we went to all the tensts and everything. we realized we missed like five of the bands signings that we wanted to go to. buttt i got pictures with valencia, so they say, and another bandd. i cant remember who right now. ohyeah and it started out at nintryfuckingfour degrees. so everyone was sick with sweat. oh i did get a mayday parade shirt and cd for 22 dollars though.=] but anyways, at three we wanted to go and watch paramore. so we went over there and we were pretty far in the back. and then it started to effffing rain. and then it started to effing pour. so we were at paramore, and we stood there for about forty minutes waiting for them to start, but they wouldnt because of the storm and all. oh and my group was in the middle of a mosh pit. haha i got really hurt. and bottles and shoes and people and everything you can think of was flying everywhere. butttt it was pouring and lightning and all so my group decided to go find some place to stay dry. we found umbrellas by the monster energy drink stand thing. and then you know what? it started to fuking hail. HAIL! fkasfa. it was horrible. and it hurt so bad. lol i have like red welt things on my arms. and thennn our umbrella started to break from the wind and hail. so someone came and took it away. so we needed to fins somewhere else to go. and all the band tents were so screwed up…like broken and laying down and all. but we found a big one to go in, and there was like no room in it. but we were semi in. and we were there for like ten minutes. and then someone came to our tent and was like:: NOTHING ELSE IS HAPPENING! EVERYTHINGS CANCELLED! YOU NEED TO GO TO YOUR CARS, ITS TO DANGEROUS OUT HERE.” this was at freaking four oclock. and so the majority of the people left. butttt when we were in our car, and in line to get on the highway, it started to freaking stop everything and the freaking sun came out. and it went back up to 95 degrees. fhldfjkashfjkal. i called my friend pj, cause i was supposed to meet up with him and didnt get to. and he was still there. i could hear some band playing on the phone. ughhhhhhh. they told everyone that it was CANCELLED and we neeeded to leave asap. fghksafsaksjhjfdsa. i dont think i’ve ever been this disappointed in my life.

6. Stephanie

I went to Warped in Atlanta this year with my friend Denise. We were looking around for somewhere to park and wanted to pay $10 on one side instead of $15 on the other so we pulled in, paid, got our little ticket, parked, and went inside. The whole day was hot but fabulous. When we left, we went inside the gas station that we had parked behind to get a drink. We heard this guy come in and ask about the “towing situation.” Cue the drop in our stomach. We walked up the hill to where our car was. Key word: WAS. The people who parked us were running a scam and did it all illegally so they TOWED OUR CAR. It sucked. We had to take a cab to the towing company. The driver of the cab almost ran over two people who were crossing the street and overcharged us. We had to pay $125 cash to get the car back. Thank god for Emergency Hoodie Money or we would have been screwed. So what did we learn? Pay the extra $5 and have your car’s vin number tattooed on your ass…just in case.

7. Kristina

i went to the buffalo ny warped tour Overall, great day. A lot happened. Annie, Rianna, and I got there shortly after doors and I called JD from the parking lot. It took him a little while but he eventually mosied over to us at the front gate and I gave him his veggie burgers and water. We chatted for a minute and he gave me $20, which I attempted to not accept. Seeing JD first thing when I got there made me so happy, we laughed about the Valencia Update JD Edition that had been put online this morning. Good fun. Then we went inside and Forever the Sickest Kids were just leaving the front gate so Rianna and I ran to catch up and we walked with Caleb, who informed us that they were playing an acoustic set at the myspace tent now. So we ran back to find Annie (who had been stopped by some monk asking her for money and showing her pictures of snakes and spears, weird), then we ran to to myspace tent only to find out that we had about forty-five minutes until their set. So we sat and waited, OHIO came to watch the set too. It was great. After the acoustic set we headed right over to the East Coast Indie stage to see FTSK play their full set. We were right up front. At some point I got whacked in the head with something, I have no idea what exactly happened. But anyway….Jonathan asked if I was ok and I said yeah I’m fine, and he rubbed my head and kept eyeing me, and at the end he kept high fiving me and what not. And Caleb and I had a moment at the end…basically he wiggled his fingers at me idk (like on the little rascals, and our fingers tips touch)…it was cute. After FTSK played I walked around for a bit. Bought a couple t-shirts. Lurked the FTSK tent, K Dirty signed my forehead. Then Annie and I went over to the Paramore signing. I got a card signed for Sam’s friend Nikki. Then we headed back over to FTSK tent. I pretty much just went back and forth between the amnesty tent and the FTSK tent for the next hour until Valencia played at 3:30. Around 3 Danielle and I went over to the general area of Valencia’s tent and stage, we met up with everyone else, and then went to the Hot Topic stage to wait for their set. The set was good, the crowd was kind of lame. But it doesn’t matter, they were great. At 4:30 Valencia had a signing and as soon as they all got to the table I walked up to the front of the line and pulled out the $20 that JD had given me, showed it to him and put it in the tip jar. George asked him what it was and JD said it was the money he had given me for the food. And then I walked away. I ended up getting in line for the Valencia signing with Sam because she wanted to get a card signed for her friend. It was mildly awkward because once we got closer they saw me; JD gave me a head nod and George and Brendan acknowledged me and it was weird that I was standing in a line to see them. Once we got up to the table Sam got the card signed and got a picture. Brendan said he liked the DARE shirt I was wearing…I didn’t hear him at first and said “whhaaaaatttt?” and George mocked me and said “whaaaaatttt”. It was cute. At 5 I went to see FTSK play their second acoustic set at the skull candy tent. They were great. Then when that was over we were hanging out by the skull candy tent and got pictures and what not. Then we went with Caleb to the side of the tent to watch Cute Is What We Aim For play their acoustic set. It was fun watching CIWWAF with Caleb. I hand fed him a ritz bit cracker at one point….put it right in his mouth, that was fun times. After that we went over to FTSK’s booth to get more pictures and say goodbye to everyone. It was sad because they are touring the west coast next and then going into the studio, so it’s gonna be a few months at least until we see them again. After saying goodbye to FTSK, I went over to Valencia’s booth because I had to leave in an hour or so and I wanted to say goodbye to everyone. I sat with George under their tent for a little bit. I told him that they have the day before the Rochester show in September off, so they should come to Rochester the 24th and hang out. He said maybe. Then he left to go shower and Brendan came over. I sat with Brendan for a little bit. Danielle, Sandra, and their other friend met up with me at Valencia’s tent. Then me and the OHIOOOOO girls went and sat under the tree across from the booth. I had about a half hour until I had to leave and I wanted to say goodbye to JD so I was waiting for him to come out. Then George said he was on the bus. So I texted him and told him I had to leave and wanted to say goodbye, but he didn’t respond, probably because t-mobile gets shitty reception everywhere warped is soooo I’m just going to assume that he didn’t get the message. So I ended up leaving without saying goodbye to JD and I was really really sad (I legit thought I was going to cry, but I didn’t).

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