Wapred Tour '09 @ Monmounth Racetrack 7/19/09
15 years of the Warped Tour...what started out as a touring punk & skate fest, has certainly morphed over time. There used to be multiple large half pipes set up throughout the venue for skaters, but for the last few years there has been just one small half pipe...looking rather lonely and sad. And while Punk and ska bands are still a large part of the festival, the styles of music that play the Warped Tour now run the gambit. This time around it included an adult-contemporary sounding pop songstress, southern hard-rocking outlaw music from the kin of a legendary Country artist, dance/club music, hip-hop, and lots more.
The last few years the Warped Tour was held at Raceway Park, which although I live 15 minutes from, on average it took me an hour and a half to get to and from the venue each year. This year the fest was held at Monmouth Park, and while I know there were serious delays that people who showed up later faced, Jay Mazeffect (click here to read Jay Mazeffect's review) and I arrived with only a little bit of traffic on the way in and very little traffic on the way out. That right there was a big plus.
Getting there around 11:30, we went to look at the big inflatable board and see what the schedule was. Marking down several acts we knew we wanted to see, we wandered around and checked out the new location.
As always, there were somewhere around 10 stages, with at least half of them having performers on at the same time. Despite that, there was little bleed through sound, unless you were standing way back from one of the stages.
There was also the merch tents…lots of merch tents…and tents for various causes. The strangest sighting was a tent for the Libertarian Party?!?!? Sponsors all had tents where you could learn about phones, play video games, drink energy drinks, and look at new cars!?!? More than half the crowd at the Warped Tour looked like they were in high school or college. Most students I know aren’t able to afford to buy a new car, so that particular sponsor seemed a bit out of place.
On to the music…
Sparks Will Fly looked like the Jonas Brothers, and sounded like early Dashboard Confessional if DC had had 3 part harmony. Not bad, but really not my thing. Teenage girls seemed to be a large part of their audience.
Caught a few minutes of Dance Gavin Dance, but they were one of many screamo bands playing the festival. I don’t like screamo. Moving on…
Lights was one of the odder acts to be a part of the Warped Tour this year. Lights is a young woman who sings adult contemporary synth-pop songs. Surprisingly there was a pretty big turn out for her set, and the young audience seemed into it. I imagine 15 years ago if she had played the Warped Tour people would have thrown stuff at her until she got off the stage.
And that’s probably a change for the better. As someone who has been to at least half of the Warped Tour shows over the last 15 years, I’ve seen lots of surly, rude crowds. This year, I really didn’t see that. Sure, people still threw plastic bottles in the air for no good reason, but the mosh pits looked smaller and safer than I’ve seen in previous years. And the most popular t-shirt I saw people wearing said , “free hugs”. That sentiment seems more Woodstock than Warped Tour, but that’s cool by me.
Back to the music and the main stage for Anti-Flag, who put on a solid punk rock set. My only complaint is the simplified political statements made during their set. Things like, “We’re not for any bail outs for any rich banks”. Unfortunately guys, the bail outs can’t be summed up in one simplified statement like that and it’s kind of silly to try. It’s a complicated set of circumstances that one shouldn’t try to explain during a rock show.
Went back to a smaller stage to see Meg & Dia. The last time I saw them at Warped the female fronted pop-rock band pulled out a straight-laced cover of John Mayer’s “daughters” that not only surprised me because it was so mellow at a loud festival, but more because it was so good (I’m notoriously picky about covers). I didn’t catch any covers this go ‘round, but did hear a few good songs during their set.
One of the nice surprises of the day was stumbling upon Tat. A female fronted three piece band from England, they ripped through Joan Jett-esque rockers, with a hint of Pat Benetar. A really fun set. I hope Tat comes back to the states to tour more often.
Getting hungry after all this rockage, I noticed it was $4 for a pretzel, but only $3 for a slice of pizza. The pizza was definitely a better bargain, even if it wasn’t great pizza (made by a major chain that shall remain nameless here). This year they did have some other vegetarian options, but sadly, they didn’t look very appetizing.
Back to the rock, and another odd placement on the Warped Tour, one I was really looking forward to seeing.
Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings, continues his father’s outlaw country legacy, but with a southern-hard-rock twist. When Shooter and the band started playing there were only a handful of people around, but by the end of the six song set there was a nice sized crowd (admittedly mostly of people out of their teens) basking in the sweat soaked rock that they brought, setting a new high mark for other bands to try to top.
The rest of the day became all about the main stage.
I’ve never been more than a casual fan of Less Than Jake, but I’ve never been disappointed when I see them play at the Warped Tour. This set was no exception, as they regaled the audience with fun ska punk.
Sadly, they were followed by NOFX, who put on a very uninspired set. They started out surly, and not in a cool or funny way, and melted down to where they did a song that was punctuated by very politically incorrect jokes that weren’t funny. Midway through their set they did pull themselves together to do a lively song with special guest Angelo Moore (from Fishbone), but it was all downhill after that. Doing shots between songs didn’t help compose themselves any better. I was really disappointed by their set.
Thankfully, my disappointment ended with NOFX’s set, as following them were Flogging Molly. A band I first discovered on the Warped Tour 8 or 9 years, they always deliver an amazing high energy set of Irish punk rock. Their 40 minute set breezed by all too fast, but that may also have made it the most fun of the entire day. The set also contains my favorite comment of the day as lead singer Dave King looked at the audience dancing to the music and stated, “It’s like Riverdance with Mohawks!” Brilliant!
Next up was Bad Religion. I think of all the bands I have seen on the Warped Tour over the years, I’ve probably seen them the most.
Here’s what you can always expect from a Bad Religion set: high energy punk rock, and the songs, “21st century digital boy”, “American jesus”, and “infected” will always be played. Sadly, the last of those three songs sounded like they were tired of the song and just going through the motions. I suspect they feel the need to play the song because 15+ years ago it received some radio play, but since the average Warped Tour audience member wasn’t old enough to remember that, I don’t think they need to play it every show any longer, and if they aren’t enjoying playing it, they shouldn’t.
The rest of their set was much better, but would not rank as one of the best performances I have seen from them. Even still, there set was better than a lot of bands.
There were still bands playing on all the stages at 7:35pm when Bad Religion ended their set, but after standing in the sun for 8 hours (admittedly on a much milder day then usual), it was time to get into an air conditioned car and head home.
The Warped Tour continues to be one of the most enjoyable annual concert tours. With about 100 bands playing on multiple stages, if you don’t like what you’re hearing on one stage you can walk a few hundred feet and give another stage a shot. With ticket prices still under $40, this has to be one of the most reasonably priced tours going. I saw about a dozen bands, many of which charge $20 or more if I was to see them headlining, and admittedly by the latter part of the day I just hung around the main stage and didn’t try running around to catch other bands while the main stage was setting up the next band, so I could have seen even more.
I’m already psyched for next year and what new bands I may be exposed to, as well as what venerable classics I will be able to see once again.
www.warpedtour.com
PHOTOS
Sparks Will Fly
Dance Gavin Dance
Lights
Anti-Flag
Meg & Dia
Tat
Shooter Jennings
Less Than Jake
NOFX
Flogging Molly
Bad Religion
15 years of the Warped Tour...what started out as a touring punk & skate fest, has certainly morphed over time. There used to be multiple large half pipes set up throughout the venue for skaters, but for the last few years there has been just one small half pipe...looking rather lonely and sad. And while Punk and ska bands are still a large part of the festival, the styles of music that play the Warped Tour now run the gambit. This time around it included an adult-contemporary sounding pop songstress, southern hard-rocking outlaw music from the kin of a legendary Country artist, dance/club music, hip-hop, and lots more.
The last few years the Warped Tour was held at Raceway Park, which although I live 15 minutes from, on average it took me an hour and a half to get to and from the venue each year. This year the fest was held at Monmouth Park, and while I know there were serious delays that people who showed up later faced, Jay Mazeffect (click here to read Jay Mazeffect's review) and I arrived with only a little bit of traffic on the way in and very little traffic on the way out. That right there was a big plus.
Getting there around 11:30, we went to look at the big inflatable board and see what the schedule was. Marking down several acts we knew we wanted to see, we wandered around and checked out the new location.
As always, there were somewhere around 10 stages, with at least half of them having performers on at the same time. Despite that, there was little bleed through sound, unless you were standing way back from one of the stages.
There was also the merch tents…lots of merch tents…and tents for various causes. The strangest sighting was a tent for the Libertarian Party?!?!? Sponsors all had tents where you could learn about phones, play video games, drink energy drinks, and look at new cars!?!? More than half the crowd at the Warped Tour looked like they were in high school or college. Most students I know aren’t able to afford to buy a new car, so that particular sponsor seemed a bit out of place.
On to the music…
Sparks Will Fly looked like the Jonas Brothers, and sounded like early Dashboard Confessional if DC had had 3 part harmony. Not bad, but really not my thing. Teenage girls seemed to be a large part of their audience.
Caught a few minutes of Dance Gavin Dance, but they were one of many screamo bands playing the festival. I don’t like screamo. Moving on…
Lights was one of the odder acts to be a part of the Warped Tour this year. Lights is a young woman who sings adult contemporary synth-pop songs. Surprisingly there was a pretty big turn out for her set, and the young audience seemed into it. I imagine 15 years ago if she had played the Warped Tour people would have thrown stuff at her until she got off the stage.
And that’s probably a change for the better. As someone who has been to at least half of the Warped Tour shows over the last 15 years, I’ve seen lots of surly, rude crowds. This year, I really didn’t see that. Sure, people still threw plastic bottles in the air for no good reason, but the mosh pits looked smaller and safer than I’ve seen in previous years. And the most popular t-shirt I saw people wearing said , “free hugs”. That sentiment seems more Woodstock than Warped Tour, but that’s cool by me.
Back to the music and the main stage for Anti-Flag, who put on a solid punk rock set. My only complaint is the simplified political statements made during their set. Things like, “We’re not for any bail outs for any rich banks”. Unfortunately guys, the bail outs can’t be summed up in one simplified statement like that and it’s kind of silly to try. It’s a complicated set of circumstances that one shouldn’t try to explain during a rock show.
Went back to a smaller stage to see Meg & Dia. The last time I saw them at Warped the female fronted pop-rock band pulled out a straight-laced cover of John Mayer’s “daughters” that not only surprised me because it was so mellow at a loud festival, but more because it was so good (I’m notoriously picky about covers). I didn’t catch any covers this go ‘round, but did hear a few good songs during their set.
One of the nice surprises of the day was stumbling upon Tat. A female fronted three piece band from England, they ripped through Joan Jett-esque rockers, with a hint of Pat Benetar. A really fun set. I hope Tat comes back to the states to tour more often.
Getting hungry after all this rockage, I noticed it was $4 for a pretzel, but only $3 for a slice of pizza. The pizza was definitely a better bargain, even if it wasn’t great pizza (made by a major chain that shall remain nameless here). This year they did have some other vegetarian options, but sadly, they didn’t look very appetizing.
Back to the rock, and another odd placement on the Warped Tour, one I was really looking forward to seeing.
Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings, continues his father’s outlaw country legacy, but with a southern-hard-rock twist. When Shooter and the band started playing there were only a handful of people around, but by the end of the six song set there was a nice sized crowd (admittedly mostly of people out of their teens) basking in the sweat soaked rock that they brought, setting a new high mark for other bands to try to top.
The rest of the day became all about the main stage.
I’ve never been more than a casual fan of Less Than Jake, but I’ve never been disappointed when I see them play at the Warped Tour. This set was no exception, as they regaled the audience with fun ska punk.
Sadly, they were followed by NOFX, who put on a very uninspired set. They started out surly, and not in a cool or funny way, and melted down to where they did a song that was punctuated by very politically incorrect jokes that weren’t funny. Midway through their set they did pull themselves together to do a lively song with special guest Angelo Moore (from Fishbone), but it was all downhill after that. Doing shots between songs didn’t help compose themselves any better. I was really disappointed by their set.
Thankfully, my disappointment ended with NOFX’s set, as following them were Flogging Molly. A band I first discovered on the Warped Tour 8 or 9 years, they always deliver an amazing high energy set of Irish punk rock. Their 40 minute set breezed by all too fast, but that may also have made it the most fun of the entire day. The set also contains my favorite comment of the day as lead singer Dave King looked at the audience dancing to the music and stated, “It’s like Riverdance with Mohawks!” Brilliant!
Next up was Bad Religion. I think of all the bands I have seen on the Warped Tour over the years, I’ve probably seen them the most.
Here’s what you can always expect from a Bad Religion set: high energy punk rock, and the songs, “21st century digital boy”, “American jesus”, and “infected” will always be played. Sadly, the last of those three songs sounded like they were tired of the song and just going through the motions. I suspect they feel the need to play the song because 15+ years ago it received some radio play, but since the average Warped Tour audience member wasn’t old enough to remember that, I don’t think they need to play it every show any longer, and if they aren’t enjoying playing it, they shouldn’t.
The rest of their set was much better, but would not rank as one of the best performances I have seen from them. Even still, there set was better than a lot of bands.
There were still bands playing on all the stages at 7:35pm when Bad Religion ended their set, but after standing in the sun for 8 hours (admittedly on a much milder day then usual), it was time to get into an air conditioned car and head home.
The Warped Tour continues to be one of the most enjoyable annual concert tours. With about 100 bands playing on multiple stages, if you don’t like what you’re hearing on one stage you can walk a few hundred feet and give another stage a shot. With ticket prices still under $40, this has to be one of the most reasonably priced tours going. I saw about a dozen bands, many of which charge $20 or more if I was to see them headlining, and admittedly by the latter part of the day I just hung around the main stage and didn’t try running around to catch other bands while the main stage was setting up the next band, so I could have seen even more.
I’m already psyched for next year and what new bands I may be exposed to, as well as what venerable classics I will be able to see once again.
www.warpedtour.com
PHOTOS
Sparks Will Fly
Dance Gavin Dance
Lights
Anti-Flag
Meg & Dia
Tat
Shooter Jennings
Less Than Jake
NOFX
Flogging Molly
Bad Religion