Warped Tour in Kansas City: I’m Too Old For This Shit

By Danny R. Phillips

Prior to August 4th, it had been eleven years since I had last joined the tattooed masses as an attendee of The Vans’ Warped Tour. I was younger then in both body and mind. Standing on the boiling pavement this year watching the crowd pass me like a pierced, dyed, rainbow bedazzled tsunami, I saw two distinct classes, scratch that, generations, go by.

One was an older, punk-appreciating culture with fading tattoos and greying hair that grew up on Bad Religion, The Descendents, Fugazi, Bad Brains, The Zero Boys, and the Circle Jerks (I, obviously fall into group A) and the other was the day glo “skittle core kids” who worship The Devil Wears Prada and Attack! Attack! like they were the Dead Milkmen or The Ramones.

Dragging myself between five stages and countless bands, it dawned on me (and my trusty photographer) that at 15, the Vans’ Warped Tour was experiencing a midlife crisis of sorts and was, in fact, no longer the festival of years gone by. It is clear that I am a dinosaur stuck in a tar pit named Hot Topic. Like Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon flicks, “I am too old for this shit!”

Though I am not what one would call a fan of the new breed of cookie cutter bands that seemed to dominate the day, there were a few young bucks that mixed elements of punk, hardcore, metal, dance, and pop who fleetingly grabbed my attention before I moved on to another one of the corporate sponsored stages.

Chiodos had an energetic circle pit and drew one of the best and most obviously dedicated fans and crowds of the day. The Dirty Heads from Huntington Beach, CA garnered a somewhat smaller crowd but showed much potential for the future with their reggae-infused, Sublime-inspired jams (I just hope they lose the Jack Johnson fetish before it’s too late).

Hit The Lights (taking their name from a Metallica track on Kill ‘Em All) handled the stage well in all their synchronized jumping and posing glory but produced a sound too similar to that of Fall Out Boy for me to stomach for more than a song or two.

The Gallows are a fierce combo from Great Britain doing everything they can to seize the day and bring punk back to its Black Flag hardcore days. Not content with being confined to a stage, the singer took to the crowd, singing and punching himself all while whipping the crowd into a frothing, sweaty frenzy. At least that’s what I was told by some kid as we waited impatiently for Bad Religion to begin their set.

It seems that somehow I had missed The Gallows set. Maybe it was too early in the day? Maybe the set up for stages was too haphazardly done? Maybe, like a dumbass, I just plain missed it. Whatever the reason, I missed the most talked about set of the day. Maybe next year.

Senses Fail drew one of the best crowds of the day and could’ve easily been a headliner if Warped Tour believed in headliners. The band’s grasp of melody, lyrics, intensity, and crowd interaction positioned them as a band that plans to be in it for the long haul and has what it takes to last when so many young bands do not.

Click here to read. . .

Review of Bad Religion’s set
Interview with Adam Phillips of The Architects
Interview with Shooter Jennings
Final thoughts

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5