WARPED TOUR 2004: AUSSIES IN NORTH AMERICA

I live in a city called Perth, which is the capital of Western Australia.  Perth is the most isolated capital city in the world.  It’s a three-hour flight to the nearest major city (Adelaide).  Because of this, big touring acts rarely include Perth on their itineraries due mainly to cost.  We were getting tired of reading about the bands that were visiting our Eastern states counterparts, so late last year my sister and I decided to save up and go to the Van's Warped Tour.  If the bands weren’t going to come to us, we would go to them.  In order to see the most bands we planned our trip so we could go to one West coast show (Vancouver) and one East Coast show (Philadelphia).  After nine months of planning and saving, we left Perth on July 11^th.  We would have to fly to Sydney, than to Los Angeles, then to Vancouver, making our journey 32 hours long, including stop-overs.  We arrived in Vancouver at about 4pm on July 12^th, with our first Warped Tour being the next day…

Rather than waking up jet-lagged and exhausted, we woke up feeling pretty good.  We had seen some bands walking around Vancouver the previous night, which got us excited about Warped.  We were also pretty nervous, as we didn’t really know what to expect.  We got ready early, grabbed some breakfast and got on the bus to the University of British Columbia.  When we got inside the venue we went straight to the schedule (once we could find it) to carefully plan our movements.  As there was nothing we really wanted to see for the first hour or so, we just walked around looking at the booths.  We were excited that every band had their own tent.  We watched a bit of hardcore band, Underminded’s set on the Smartpunk stage.  My sister liked them, but they were too heavy for me.

My sister Emma is a fan of Taking Back Sunday, so we went to the main stage to watch them.  On the way I noticed a line forming at the Warped Live trailer.  I stopped to check it out and saw that the Bouncing Souls were doing a signing.  As I’m a huge fan of them, I lined up while Emma watched TBS.  We met up when they finished and she said she was disappointed with their performance.  We watched a bit of Coheed and Cambria and then made our way up to the Volcom stage to see Pulley.

My Chemical Romance was playing on the Maurice stage while we were waiting for Pulley.  With a few songs to go, they lost power and rather than ending there, the band went into the crowd and launched a massive sing along with their fans, which was awesome. Unfortunately, the power didn’t come back on for a while, leaving Pulley not knowing what to do. While they were waiting around I asked Scott (lead singer of Pulley) to sign my CD, which he was more than happy to do.  He told me that they would be coming to Australia in November, but couldn’t promise that Perth would be included.  Eventually the power came back on and Pulley were able to start their set, but as they were about half an hour late, we could only stick around for a few songs, as Bouncing Souls were starting at 4pm on the main stage.  We watched "Bad Reputation," "Hooray For Me," and "Lost Trip" before having to move on.  Pulley had excellent stage presence and what we saw of their set was awesome, so it was a shame we couldn’t stay.

When we got to the main stage, the Bouncing Souls had just started, opening with "Sing A Long Forever."  They did a really good mix of songs from all their albums, such as "That Song," "Hopeless Romantic," "Kids and Heroes," and my highlight, "True Believer."  At the end of the set, Greg came down into the crowd and we managed to have photo with him while the band was still playing, which was awesome!

After that, we had a rest while Yellowcard were on.  They had a big crowd and favourites were "Breathing," "Way Away," and "Ocean Avenue," which they finished with.  The next band up was Anti-Flag, and I was particularly looking forward to them.  They opened with "Fuck Police Brutality" followed by "Rank-n-File."  They played mainly older songs such as "Underground Network," "Captain Anarchy," and "Die For Your Government." They played "Death of a Nation" and crowd favourite, "Turncoat" of their new album.  They were unreal and worth the wait.

After that we walked around a bit more, when we saw a bit of a crowd at the Anti-Flag booth.  We headed over and saw the band signing autographs and chatting with fans.  The band signed my CD and we had a chat with Justin Sane, who is the nicest guy ever!  He said they would be coming to Australia in early 2005 and promised they would do their best to come to Perth.

Unfortunately while we were chatting with Anti-Flag, we missed The Vandals.  New Found Glory was on after them, so we got a good spot to watch them.  They opened with "Understatement" and followed it up with "Head On Collision" and "Better Off Dead". During "My Friends Over You," Ryan from Yellowcard, who we noticed had been watching and signing on the side of the stage, ran on stage, grabbed a mike and sang the chorus with NFG.  They finished their energetic set with their latest single off new album Catalyst, "It’s All Downhill From Here".

Straight after NFG, Thursday was on.  I’m not really a fan of them but since they are Emma’s favorite band, we watched them.  I couldn’t really get into them but they played a few songs I knew including "Jet Black New Year" and "Paris In Flames."

At the end of Thursday we rushed to the left main stage for NOFX.  Quite a crowd had built up and it was hard to see.  They did a great set with mostly old songs off Heavy Petting Zoo and Punk In Drublic. They also played their single off their latest album War On Errorism, "Franco Un-American."  Of course they still spent about a third of their set talking and cracking jokes but it was funny so no-one cared.

We moved to the right stage during NOFX’s final song to get a good spot for the final band of the day, Bad Religion.  They opened their set with the killer opener to their latest album, "Sinister Rouge."  They played other new songs "God’s Love" and latest single "Los Angeles Is Burning" and older classics such as "American Jesus," "Generator," and finishing up with "Sorrow," which was awesome.

We were pretty stoked with our first Warped experience and saw more bands than we thought we would.  We noticed nearly all the bands had some sort of political comment to make about America and most congratulated Canadian’s for not having such a screwed up country, which was kinda weird for us, as we knew nothing about Canadian politics or their stance on the War in Iraq.  Overall it was a brilliant way for us to start our holiday and it made us really excited about having the chance to catch another show at the end…

After nearly four weeks of travelling in between this and our last Warped Tour, we were still just as excited to be going again, although Vancouver seemed like it was years ago.  We were staying in New York City so to get to the Warped Tour in Camden, New Jersey, we had to catch a Greyhound bus to Philadelphia, which took two2 hours.  On our walk to the Tweeter Centre, two guys came up to us and asked if we had tickets, as the event had sold out.  People had told us the Warped Tour would never sell out, but luckily we had bought tickets earlier in the week just to be safe.

As soon as we got in the doors, we realized there were way more people at this show that at the show in Vancouver.  We located the main stage area and realised that Tiger Army was about to start.  They opened with the intro from their latest album, III: Ghost Tigers Rise. Singer Nick 13 declared that they loved everything about the Warped Tour except playing in daylight before playing "Nocturnal." They played new songs "Ghostfire," "Rose Of The Devil’s Garden," and my favorite "Atomic."  Tiger Army is definitely a band that is better live than on CD, so if you get a chance to see them, do it.

Immediately following Tiger Army was Lars Fredericksen and the Bastards.  Their set was awesome, and despite releasing their new album Viking only three weeks earlier, they played mostly stuff off their debut album.  Songs included "Dead American," "Wine and Roses," and "To Have and Have Not." Lars dedicated songs to his Rancid band-mates and also to New Found Glory, who he declared the "hardest working band on the tour," as well as great friends.

After Lars and the Bastards, Emma went to see Rufio and I headed over to the Tiger Army merch tent, when I saw they were doing a signing.  I went to the AP tent and met the guys and got a photo and a poster signed.  After that I walked around for a while just meeting people.  Everybody was really friendly and picked up my Aussie accent straight away.

I went to wait for the Bouncing Souls, as Flogging Molly were finishing their set.  These guys seem to be hugely popular and really got the crowd going.  One girl was even Irish dancing!  They finished their set and the Bouncing Souls came onstage, opening with "Sing A Long Forever." They played an awesome set of old and new songs, finishing with "True Believers," with Chris #2 of Anti-Flag, who watched their whole set and sang at the side of the stage, joining them onstage to sing.

We were walking around when we saw a line forming.  We asked a girl what was going on and she said "Lars Frederiksen."  Him being one of my heroes, we promptly joined the queue.  Meeting Lars was awesome.  He may look rough but he was really sweet.  He signed both my Bastards CD’s and made the autograph out to me personally, which was cool.  Definitely a massive highlight for me.

After that, we went to watch the second half of The Vandal’s set.  The Vandals weren’t even meant to be there, but when Guttermouth left the tour, The Vandals took their spot.  They were really funny and were entertaining to watch.  Then Anti-Flag started their set, one that we noticed was identical to the one we’d seen in Vancouver, with even the same politically charged statements being made between songs by singers Justin Sane and Chris #2.  Anti-Flag were just as good the second time round, and we probably appreciated them more.

We walked around for a while and on our way to see Rise Against, we caught a bit of Billy Talent’s set.  We saw "The Ex" and "Try Honesty," which were both awesome.  Every time lead singer Ben spoke, we would laugh, cause his voice sounds like a cartoon character.  They were awesome though and I was bummed that I couldn’t hang around and watch more.

We went to the Maurice stage to see Rise Against.  They opened with "Heaven Knows" and played almost every song off Revolutions Per Minute, which was awesome, cause it meant I could sing every word.  The only downside was when the band had to stop their set when a massive brawl erupted in the pit.  The band looked on in disbelief as the mob ignored singer Tim’s pleas to stop.  The alleged antagonist was dragged away by friends and the band resumed their set.  Apart from that, Rise Against was probably the best band I’d seen all day.

After that I tried to watch New Found Glory, but the crowd was so big I couldn’t see a thing, so I didn’t really enjoy it.  We then went to Rise Against’s tent to meet the band.  They were really cool and I got yet another one of the CD booklets I’d brung halfway across the world signed.

We then watched Taking Back Sunday.  They had a huge crowd and everyone seemed to like them except me.  I didn’t know any of their stuff except "Cute Without The ‘E’" and that song drives me crazy anyway.  I just couldn’t get into them and the half an hour they played seemed to go on forever.

By now it was dark and the last band of the day was Thursday, which only excited me marginally more than TBS did.  We couldn’t see a thing, (not that I minded) but we were bombarded with crowdsurfers, which is really irritating.  Thursday was ok, I can say that I respect them as a band and appreciate their music, but I still wouldn’t call myself a fan.

At the end of the night we headed over to the Vans tent, where we met a fellow Australian working there.  His name was Scott and we got chatting to him.  We told him that we were maybe gonna go to the NYC Warped Tour the next day, but we could only stay for a few hours cause we had to catch a flight home.  He gave us his number and told us to call him and he would try to get us in, which was cool of him.

After that it was time to head back over the river to Philadelphia and catch the bus back to New York.  We didn’t get back to NY until 1:30am. We were exhausted, but more than satisfied with our day.

We woke up early cause we had heaps to do.  We had to pack all our stuff (and somehow fit it all in our suitcases), check out and find our way to Randall’s Island for the show.  We got the Subway but got off at the wrong station, so we had to go back.  The station was packed with people on their way to Warped.  We got the bus to Randall’s Island and were shocked with the scene we saw when we got there. There was the biggest line we’d ever seen, it was unbelievable, it took 15 minutes just to walk to the back of it. We could already hear bands playing and the line wasn’t moving.  We asked a guy behind us if we could pay him $5 to use his cellphone.  I rang Scott from Vans but it went straight to his answering service.  We got talking the guy who’s phone it was and him and his friends said we could go with them to their friend, who was closer to the front of the line.  When we got there, Scott rang the cellphone we had used and he said he would come out and find us.

When we got to the front of the line (after nearly 2 hours!), the show was sold out.  Scott from Vans came out the front to the rescue and gave us VIP passes to get us in.  We were totally stoked.  He took us to the Vans tent and insisted we meet Steve Van Doren from Vans, who gave us free Vans shirts.

We watched Anti-Flag and by now, we were almost able to recite their set word for word.  We walked around a bit and had to buy bandanas to use as facemasks.  The place was so dusty, it was hard to breath and even see at times.  We didn’t really care who we saw, we just felt like everything today was a bonus.

We stumbled across the AP tent and realised Thursday were doing a signing.  Emma waited in line to meet them.  There was a no-photo rule because there were so many people.  However, I set myself up at the other side of the tent and took photos anyway.  The guys seemed reeeeeaaaaallly nice and Emma was stoked to meet them.

Then we watched most of Tiger Army’s set before going for another walk.  Rise Against were playing at the Maurice stage.  They sounded awesome but we couldn’t even see them, as the pit was stirring up all the dust.  Once again they played all songs off Revolutions Per Minute and not a single song off their new album, which was being released the following Tuesday.

We watched a bit of NFG, before deciding to leave to ensure we had enough time to pick up our luggage and get to the airport for our flight to London.  We didn’t mind leaving, as the day had been pretty good for us.  We said goodbye to Scott and thanked him and headed off.  We saw Big Jay Bastard from Lars and the Bastards at the Subway station, which was weird.

While waiting for our shuttle to the airport on Park Avenue, we used baby wipes to clean some of the dirt off our dusty bodies, which cause us to cop some weird looks from passer-bys.  It had dawned on us that we couldn’t have a shower for at least the next 40 hours!

By the time we got home to Perth, we were even dirtier (if that was possible) and the Vans Warped Tour seemed like it had never happened, even though we were still wearing the same clothes and we had bags of merch as hand luggage.  Even now, we still can’t believe we actually did it, but we’re still glad we did.

XROXX Concert Rating: XXXXX (5 X's out of possible 5)

Kristie Batten
kristie.batten@XROXX.com