Warped Tour 2018

This year’s Warped Tour is the last one ever. I can’t fathom that. It’s been around for 24 years, and while yeah, I’d say its prime was probably the early-mid 2000’s, it’s Warped Tour. It’s a summer staple. And now it’s over.

I was more or less happy about the line-up for this last cross-country run, aside from a few complaints that some bands I wanted to see weren’t coming anywhere near me (Sleep On It, The Interrupters, a few more I’m sure). I ALMOST hit the Ventura show in SoCal just to see Taking Back Sunday, but decided at the last minute that driving the 5+ hours straight from the Mountain View show did not sound fun.

Speaking of not fun…  Getting into the venue was literal hell. The line specifically. I got there at noon, spent about twenty minutes trying to get to the end of the line, and then it was 2pm by the time I made it in.

What. The. Hell.

Frustrated from the line already, I’m finally inside Shoreline Amphitheater’s grounds, and I’m hot and dying and miserable and all of a sudden not sure why I was willingly there. I downed two bottles of water IMMEDIATELY.

Another complaint: Hail the Sun was one of the first bands of the day, so I never stood a chance at seeing them with that line from hell. Oh well.

I ran into Chris Hinkley, bassist of I the Mighty, at Don Broco’s tent, and gave him a hug and some of my water because he was dying too. I the Mighty toured with Don Broco on their last tour earlier this year, and ITM’s tour manager Aaron was working with Don Broco on Warped. Long way of saying: I shouldn’t have been surprised he was there saying hi to the boys.

I talked to a guy at one of the record label tents (can’t remember which one tbh) about I the Mighty and the Matches and we realized (as I tend to do) that everyone somehow knows everyone. Small friggin world, this music industry stuff is.

I couldn’t walk past the record label tents without grabbing free sampler CDs. Kinda my favorite part of Warped. That and the compilation CD that was only $5. I know they’re not really a thing anymore, but I still love CDs.

And then as if running into Chris wasn’t enough, I ran into I the Mighty’s guitarist Ian Pedigo and frontman of Demon in Me, Kylle Reece. So random.

3OH!3

I was most excited to see 3OH!3 out of everyone on the line-up. Want has been one of my favorite albums since it came out a decade ago, but I’ve never seen them live before now. I was pretty stoked about it.

But this is a giant festival, remember. And I am not a huge fan of festivals/festival crowds.

There were wayyyyyy too many people in this crowd so I was not nearly as close as I would’ve liked to have been.

One of my best friends Mary (not a music friend! I have real life friends too believe it or not!) didn’t want to physically come with me, but somehow she got through the line with no trouble at all and still managed to catch all of 3OH!3’s set. So basically I should have just left with her and not bothered trying to be there early. Cool. Anyway.

They combined “Punkbitch,” “I’m Not Your Boyfriend, Baby,” and “Chokechain,” into one song, which was kinda weird.

And they played “Colorado Sunrise,” which I love.

“How many of you are trainwrecks?”

Oh hi, yes, I am a trainwreck actually.

They had a saxophone playing Katy Perry’s part in “Starstrukk” instead of the original bridge, which to me, a Want fanatic, was a little disappointing, but Mary gave me an explanation that made sense. They were probably trying to drop the gun reference, because, well, today’s society. But it’s a dick reference, not a gun reference. Okay, also taboo today, sure, whatever. But still, I love the original. I guess the saxophone was pretty cool, but it was not what I was expecting at all.

They didn’t just play Want, though. They also played “Double Vision,” “My First Kiss,” and “Touchin’ on My.”

But of course they closed with “Don’t Trust Me.”

While the entire crowd FINALLY went nuts, I peaced out to avoid the mass exodus that was bound to happen. That was seriously the only song that everyone went nuts for. Obviously a lot of people were into the whole set, but there was a big difference between the rest of the set and that song.

The whole album’s good, my dudes. Get with it.

I texted Mary to meet me at the owly.fm stage, which was significantly smaller so she should have no issue finding me there. Spoilers: she had zero trouble finding me.

MC Lars

I just found out that morning that MC Lars was playing just this one date because it’s his local show. Amazing.

I wanted to rap the entirety of “Hot Topic is Not Punk Rock” like the insane person I am, but he didn’t do that one. Slight disappointment.

But regardless, he’s so much fun and I love him. He has one song he did called “Mr. Raven,” that involved a raven puppet onstage, and Edgar Allen Poe literally in rap form. Apparently he’s the original nerdcore rapper. I believe it. There was also audience participation on that one, shouting lyrics back at him.

After his set, Mary and I went off in search of food, and guess who I ran into. Again. Ian Pedigo! He was eating fries so I asked where he got them, and rather than answer the question, he just handed them to me and said I could finish them. Reasons why I the Mighty is LITERALLY the best. They share food with me. Oh how I love them.

Then because I am a total piece of shit, I sat on the floor of the bathroom to charge my phone. One girl bitched at me for it. Whoops?

I don’t understand how at a festival this size I could KEEP running into people I know, but keeping with the unintended theme of the day, I ran into a fellow I the Mighty fan Janet in the bathroom. Because of course I did. We caught up for a bit, and it sounded like she had already seen at least double the bands I did if not more. She was on a mission. I was… hot and tired already. Ya know.

Doll Skin

I had only started listening to Doll Skin the week of this Warped date. I pretty much instantly fell in love with them, but I loved them even more after seeing them live.

Holy shit they killed it.

Mary hid under a tree while I partied. As soon as the first few notes of “Daughter” came on, I ran to her, handed off the (blue?) lemonade I was drinking, and ran straight into the pit.

Doll Skin is so young but they have SO MUCH TALENT and I am hooked. They’re an all-female band that was discovered in high school, so that was enough to get me interested. But their music is hella good. I had to buy a CD when they finished their set. Manic Pixie Dream Girl, would recommend.

Don Broco was playing the same stage (still owly.fm, same as MC Lars), so after Doll Skin I went to the backstage area and yelled for Aaron to come say hi. We talked for a bit before he had to go back to work. Apparently there’s a 20 day stretch with no breaks toward the end of Warped. Lovely. Best of luck, my dude, and I hope the rest of the country isn’t this hot for your sake.

I know it’s probably worse. I’m a spoiled Californian with this perfect weather year-round.

Simple Plan

Simple Plan was playing the Right Foot Stage, which I remember two years ago was directly to the right of the Left Foot Stage. Well this year at this venue, it was moved HELLA far, to the point of we almost couldn’t find it.

Also it was all seated. Why.

It was such a packed stage that we almost got turned away… like multiple times. But eventually we squeezed into a row of seats and two girls left, letting us take their places. Score!

I loved Simple Plan even before I loved Green Day (which is my longest running love affair), and this was my first time ever seeing them live. Serious throwback.

During “I’m Just a Kid,” frontman Pierre Bouvier got on the drums while drummer Chuck Comeau stagedove and frontman of We the Kings, Travis Clark, sang. The crowdsurf did not go very well, but it was fun. Don’t worry, dude, my crowdsurfs don’t go well at least 50% of the time either.

Don Broco

Don Broco always fucking kills it. I am just in love with them and wish they would get big in the US already. They deserve it. I’m sure one day they’ll have a following here like it is in the UK (where they are basically gods if I’m not mistaken).

The crowd was into it and knew the words, which is a definite start, but I just still felt like they (the crowd, not the band) could’ve done better.

The circle pit they had going was WAY too spaced out and gave me horror movie flashbacks to blacking out during the Mr. T Experience at Punk in Drublic last year. Concrete and too much space between bodies is a bad combination. It doesn’t take much to knock you down, and there’s no one there to catch you or keep you upright. I was not about to relive that experience, so I stayed on the edge and partied there instead.

And during “T-shirt Song,” my shirt went over my head, like ya do. Mary stayed out of the pit, and I was glad she did then because she’d just give me a hard time about the sunburn I got during the day. She was giving me a hard time the rest of the day while my shirt was on ANYWAY.

Their set was exactly the same as it was on the tour with I the Mighty, so no surprises there.

Mary and I left the park after that for dinner and to catch an uber from farther away. It was a good night, but I was very tired and sore.

I had already decided to skip The Shell Corporation, on account of not even knowing they were playing. They were on the local stage, which was all a surprise pretty much, and I didn’t even realize they were local to me, but I’ve been digging them lately.

However, skipping the Used was a last minute decision. I adore them, but had we stayed, we would be leaving with a MUCH larger crowd, as they were the last band to close out their stage. Festivals are weird anyway, I’d rather see them headline.

So… in skipping Ventura as well, that would be my final Warped. I think I was too tired to be sad about it honestly. Which means it was definitely a good day.

I’m excited to see what founder Kevin Lyman does next. Warped was how we discovered new bands for years. This may have been the final cross-country run, but I don’t believe it’s ALL over. Guess we’ll just have to wait to find out.