The Warped Tour..Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bad Religion

Review by Jay Mazeffect

The Warped Tour..Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bad Religion.

When I go to the Warped Tour, I hope for three things: 1) to find a band that I have never heard of before blow me away, 2) that the main stage bands don't turn in a by-the-numbers, banal, lifeless set, and 3) some sort of food vendor that does not warrant me taking out another loan from my already beleagured local financial institution. This year, I'd like to say I went three for three.

Upon arriving at Monmouth Raceway (due to the deft driving of scholar and gentleman Lazlo (click here to read Lazlo's review), who knew enough of the backstreets-yeah, so I threw in a Springsteen reference-to navigate around the already immense traffic), and winding our way through the gauntlet of vendors and merch tents to find the big, blow-up schedule in the middle of this fracas. Lazlo and I then decided on our course of action: wander around checking out the setup and the local bands, Lights, Anti-Flag, Meg & Dia, wander around, food, Shooter Jennings, The main stage for Less Than Jake, Flogging Molly, Nofx, and Bad Religion, then home.

Checking out the local acts on all of the small stages had me feeling like they were all one band, cloned from the same screamo-infused-with-jockish-mentality DNA. I wondered if this clone army would rise up and march against the throngs of kids populating this event, but then again, if they did, I'm sure if you pinched them hard enough they'd just cry, turn in their instuments for a sports car, and go back home and complain to their divorced parents about how the kids didn't like 'em. If I didn't already know a bunch of great local bands, I'd be seriously worried about the state of music in New Jersey. Also, the layout of the stages didn't make too much sense this year, at least from a fan point of view. The main stage had a smaller amount of room for fans (but also sandwiched right by the merch booths, without a doubt on purpose) and the side stages spread out over a rather large, open parking lot. From a fan persepective, they should've alloted the bigger space for the main stage, but alas, commerce over comfort. But anyhoo...

I was looking forward to seeing Canada's own Lights, for sometime. I heard her tune "February Air" on some sort of commercial (which in this day and age has become more or less the videos of yore) and instantly dug it. She hit the stage with a keytar and two backup musicians, and a whole slew of wires dangling from keyboards and sequencers and the like. First song in, the setup has a glitch and tanks the first song. She recovered quickly enough by playing "February Air" second, but I was already lost in the thought of "This wouldn't of happened if the stage was filled with more musicians and less computers". Lights then launched into a song from her forthcoming album, which sounded uber-pop, and a little more adult radio-friendly then I would've liked. So instead of sticking around, we wandered over to catch Anti-Flag.

Anti-Flag hit the stage with a fury. Their energetic performance ignited a fire under the ass of the crowd, and really got the Warped Tour off to a proper start. They worked the stage and the crowd with enthusiasm. The bassist even stage dove into the crowd, whist their roadie picked up the bass and continued to play the song for him in the wake of his flight. All of this had my blood pumping until the little political diatribes between songs became a little ham-fisted. The talk of not bailing out Wall Street and letting them stew in their own juices may have been lost on this particularly younger crowd, and if it wasn't, it was sort of irresponsible. You see, Anti-Flag, it's not nearly as simple as that. Sure you may be over-simplifying, but give your audience credit. Hopefully they aren't as dumb as you think they are. Talk about the politics on your website. By the end of the set, I started thinking about the age-old rock and roll maxim, "less talk, more rock".

Meg and Dia were, well, tight enough, but felt as if they were going through the motions for me. Not overly interesting, sadly enough.

While wandering around before Shooter Jennings, number one on my list of Warped Tour requirements were met. Enter the band Tat. Lazlo and I just sort of ended up standing near a side stage that had a girl with her guitar slung low, and drummer with his cymbals set up way to high, and the bassist all wandering around the stage soundchecking. "Okay" I think to myself, "we've got time to kill, let's see what they can do..." There were only about ten or twenty people standing by the stage once they started. Tat immediately struck a chord with me, playing a sort of hybrid of Green Day meets Joan Jett with a dash of Pat Benatar sprinkled over the top. Each song was a melodic should-be hit. On a side note, I hate it when any guitar player looks afraid of their instrument. Tat (short for Tatiana, apparently) had no such shortcomings. She played the hell out of her guitar. It really seemed like a natural extention of her. Kudos to you, Ms. Tat. As they continued their set, more and more kids seemed to gravitate towards the stage. By the end of the set there had to be about one hundred kids there, bobbing their heads along to the songs. By the last song, when Tat asked the crowd "How many of you have heard of us before?" and the original ten kids screamed, she followed it with "How many of you heard of us NOW???" and the rest of the hundred screamed, I thought to myself "this is how you do it. This is how you go from being an unknown into a force to be reckoned with". Tat, consider me converted.

Food time: The cheapest on the block (and most appetizing looking, which is saying something) was Dominos. Two slices and a soda for ten bucks. Not much different than New York prices, so I was satisfied. Another requirement met.

Next it was Shooter time. There were literally, like ten people in front of the stage as he and his cohorts walked on. Shooter looks just like his daddy Waylon, and his band looked like cast extras from Boogie Nights. But great googely moogely, can these guys rock! Big, fat, southern stoner rock riffs, coupled with some old time country mannerisms, made for a heady brew of music that definitely stuck out from the rest of the punkish sort of rock going on around us. It was a no-nonsense, "we are going to rock wether you pay attention to us or not" sort of set, that as it progressed, made more and more of the passer-bys stand up and pay attention. Shooter Jennings may be small in stature, but he was huge in rocking. Again, requirement one met again, with a vengeance.

Now it was time for the main stage back to back rockage. Less Than Jake came across as seasoned veterans who were still having the time of their lives. LTJ gave the kids what they wanted (the "hits") as well as all of the crowd participation the masses could hope for. It's amazing after all these years that songs like "Automatic" and "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts" can still be delivered in a fresh, exciting performance, and still garner the reception it does from the fans. Also, best moment of the Warped Tour overall goes to Less Than Jake, who called out one Mikey Erg (standing on the side of the stage) as a jerk for breaking up his band. Definitely funny, guys! These guys took care of another one of my afore-mentioned requirements to enjoying Warped Tour.

Nofx, on the other hand, we're crap. Seriously. What a disappointment. They lived up to the "I Heard They Suck Live" moniker. Not so much the band, but moreso Fat Mike himself. His bad attitude (he claimed he had his penis probed by a metal wand earlier in the day) coupled with his obvious drunkeness (not in that fun "hey we're the Replacements" sort of way, more like that disgruntled drunk in the corner of the room muttering to himself. I mean he was doing tequila shots in between songs, and you know how short those songs are, right?), on top of his voice being a hoarse mess (sure he's not Pavoratti by any means, but you know how he's supposed to sound...) just made the set a rambling, less than charming set. It seemed especially lame after the superior set by Less Than Jake. I could chalk it up to Nofx just having a bad day, but I gotta say I'd be hard pressed to pay for a ticket to see them again.

This particular date of the tour happened to be Floggin Molly's last, and they turned in a spirited, tight performance, interjected with Dave King's charming stories about his 85 year old mother. There is a reason why this band is so successful nowadays, and it was on display in full force. Another top notch performance.

Final act of the day, for Lazlo and I, anyways, were Bad Religion. I had high hopes for them, considering I have somehow always missed them everytime they've been around these parts in the last 20 years or so. They enterd the stage and proceeded to exude what I always want to see and hear in a veteran punk band: A bunch of older gents having a good time, not letting the politics get in the way of the rock (take note, Anti-Flag) and putting in a solid performance on caliber with the younger bands. In effect, showing 'em how it's done. The only down spot was a rather turgid version of "Infected", but that was quickly remedied by following it with "American Jesus". Ending their set with "Fuck Armegeddon", Bad Religion sent me on my way, thinking to myself "you know, there's hope for you, Warped Tour, there is hope for you yet". Kids need to be exposed to bands like Bad Religion, Shooter Jennings, Tat, etc, and at 35 bucks a ticket, that's a lot of bang for your buck. Considering this may be the only chance all summer long that kids across the lower 50 may get out to a concert in this economical climate, they could do a lot worse. Warped Tour, you've redeemed yourself. I just might see you next year...

-Jay Mazeffect

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