THE VANS WARPED TOUR 2008 @ Parc Jean Drapeau

By Joshua Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 07/20/2008

You know the drill by now: it’s summer, and summer brings heat, humidity, mosquitoes and The Warped Tour. Give or take 80 bands stuffed into roughly 8 hours hitting all (or, at the very least, most) of the fair grounds, stadium parking lots and/or general wide open spaces of every major city in North America and only charging, generally, somewhere within the realm of twenty-five to thirty dollars. Starting out as an exclusively punk rock and ska tour, the organizers have branched out over the course of the tour’s fourteen year history to include metal and hip-hop artists, but also representatives from whatever subgenre happens to be popular on the internet that week; be it emo, rap-metal, screamo, pop-punk, watered down christian death Metal and, with this year’s inclusion of post-teen starlet Katy Perry, full on mainstream pop.

It’s no secret that since roughly 2001 the tour has been steadily marketed to a younger and younger audience. Every couple of years it takes more of a punk slant that appeals to older listeners (in other words every year NoFX plays and brings their friends along), but generally (this year included) its developed the reputation for being the kiddie emo tour with a few punk bands thrown in (for street cred of course.) This more or less hasn’t affected me since a lot of those kiddie emo bands are on MY iPod too. However, as I’ve gotten older, the bands I listened to as a kid have either broken up or have grown past the Warped Tour scene, which leaves the tour with a whole new wave (pun half-intended) of watered down whiny screaming bands that even the fans of the old watered down whiny screaming bands don't like. However, these bands have found a place in the hearts of a new generation of self-obsessed trust fund babies who like to feel bad about their perfect lives in the same way Silverstein and Taking Back Sunday did for the last generation (AKA me and my dumb friends circa 2004.) So as I wandered from stage to stage and observed the humongous crowds forming for bands I had never even heard of (and after listening to for a minute, wished I hadn't), I felt something I had never hoped to feel...

I felt fucking old.

So before I get to the actual review portion of this concert review, I’ll dish out two pieces of wisdom for those my age thinking about attending this tour in the future: one, no matter how hard you try to not grow up, this tour will STILL outgrow you (whether you like it or not) and two, when the number of people with braces dwarfs the number of people without braces at a music festival (or at any gathering really), it’s time to throw in the towel. Now all of that having been said the day wasn’t a total waste: the few post-pubescent bands that played ranged from pretty good to really fucking great and I also managed to observe some pretty terrible bands that made me think as well as took in some new and interesting (read: not sucky) performances as well.

Once I entered the park, I made my way to the oversized inflatable schedule board. Warped has maintained the relatively unique tradition of switching its schedule around every day of the tour. The upside to this, for the bands, is getting to play for different sized crowds depending on how early or late in the day they play (although there are, of course, some bands that are so big that everyone with a brain knows they will never play before five o’clock.) However the downside to this, for the fans, is never knowing when their favourite bands will play beforehand, which could potentially result in rushing to the venue at 10:30, finding out the band you came to see is playing at 6 and then, since there is no re-entry, getting stuck outside all day listening to music you may or may not like or the opposite; arriving late and missing whoever it is you came to see (I speak from experience on both counts.) I began to write down set times when I noticed that Ottawa’s The Riptides were playing at 11:40. Consulting my watch I realized it was 11:45 and quickly found my way to the Union Stage to catch the rest of the 25 minute set by probably one of, if not the most legitimate band playing that day.

Now, watching The Riptides play at The Warped Tour is pretty much like observing  an Orthodox Jew at a Hitler Youth rally, but I guess the important part is that they knew that too. Playing to a crowd of approximately ten people, they channeled The Ramones and the other early punk greats with as much finesse and raw power as they always have, all the while dishing out comments like “I think my pants are too loose to be playing here.” Montreal was the only day of the tour they played and it was on an all Canadian stage that only existed for two days of the tour, so one could imagine they were doing it as a favor to someone, especially since none of the bands on that stage even got paid. Regardless of why they were there however, they still managed to start my day off right and insert a little legitimacy to the proceedings.

I want to take a moment to talk about the particular stage I just mentioned. Starting with last year’s tour, The Union Label Group sponsored their own stage at the Toronto and Montreal Warped dates and filled it with artists from the individual labels that made up the group (including, amongst others, Montreal’s Stomp Records.) Last year I affectionately named it “the ska stage” due to the vast majority of the bands playing on it being, you guessed it, ska bands; a trend that continued this year. In fact, other than The Riptides and fellow Ontarians The Creepshow and The Flatliners, EVERY other band that played the stage featured a horn section and upward guitar strumming. That having been said, it was the location of the most consistently good performances of the whole affair…and for those who know their mid-90s musical trends…that should say a lot.

The next set I took in was Toronto’s The Flatliners. The last time I saw them was actually on last year’s Union Stage and I said then that every single time I’d seen the band was a marked improvement over the last, and this year I can proudly repeat myself. I admit to feeling a bit of propriety over this band as I first got into them shortly after the release of their first record and watching them become more and more of a force to be reckoned with (as well as being one of the very few signings to Fat Wreck Chords these days) always brings a smile to my face. Their own semi-unique brand of ska/punk (which these days is more on the punk side) has become tighter, smarter and faster and the band themselves have come into their own both as individual musicians and as a unit. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I absolutely can’t wait to see where this band will go since the potential for greatness is very much there.

I then found myself with an hour to spare, so I began to wander into the forest of tents that existed in between and around the ten stages. Including tents dedicated to each of the tour’s bands there were also representatives from such socially relevant companies such as MySpace and X-Box in addition to tents for Peta2 and something called “The Warped Eco Initiative” (which, near as I can tell, was basically just providing pamphlets on living Green and veganism, which may seem old hat to the older, environmentally conscious types I tend to associate with, but is rather important information to impart to the more or less new generation in attendance that day… so kudos to them for that.)

While I wandered, I also observed sets from Osaka, Japan’s Oreskaband and Dayton, Ohio’s The Devil Wears Prada. Now, while Oreskaband were admittedly a little odd, this all girl Japanese ska sextet brought a smile to my face and while they were pretty much just the Japanese Reel Big Fish, I was still thoroughly entertained by them. In fact, I can safely say that whatever I felt about Oreskaband, I felt the EXACT opposite for The Devil Wears Prada. Despite being one of the worst watered down Christian metalcore acts I have ever fucking heard (and I’ve seen Underoath…twice), they gathered one of the biggest crowds of any band I saw that day and were one of the most well represented bands on the shirts of the kids in attendance. How a band that sing a song about a fictional dinosaur (Reptar) from a 90s cartoon about talking babies (The Rugrats) AND throw said dinosaur all over their merch can be considered anything but the dumbest fucking shit in the world is beyond me. To their credit, they did know how to get those kids pretty riled up…though I’m pretty sure that isn’t a good sign of the road the industry is going to take in the coming months.

I didn’t get a chance to ponder this conundrum for very long, however, since the first band I was legitimately looking forward to seeing, Toronto’s The Creepshow, took to the Union Stage at around 2:30. I first observed this lovable quartet opening for Tiger Army earlier this year and have wanted to see them again ever since. Their own brand of rockabilly meets punk meets fifties doo-wop was consistent and dare I say even a little…sexy? Vocalist Sarah Sin’s smooth vocals along with The Reverend McGinty’s work on the keyboards are easily the highlights of the set, although honestly the whole package is pretty damn good. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I can’t stand rockabilly (or psychobilly…or whatever other genre name is given to bands that rip off The Cramps) but I goddamn love The Creepshow…law of averages I guess.

Thankfully I was only subjected to around ten minutes of Pennywise’s set before Boston’s Street Dogs hit Main Stage Left (however, within that ten minutes they played a cover of Minor Threat’s “Minor Threat,” and I can ALWAYS appreciate some Minor Threat love.) Now, let me tell you, I wanted to see the Street Dogs, but I can’t honestly say I was really looking forward to doing so. Don’t get me wrong, there really weren’t any bands playing that day that I would have seen instead, but I wasn’t exactly bursting my sides in anticipation…which is probably why they blew me away as much as they did. I honestly didn’t know that band COULD be that good (and I’ve actually seen them before when they weren’t…and that was only a year ago.) Raw, powerful, honest and in a weird way, respectful…these are all characteristics exhibited by the band and their legendary frontman Mike McColgan during their painfully short set (and if you don’t know why he’s legendary, look it up…then cry at your ignorance.) Hitting tracks from their last three records, they kept the energy up and the good times roaring and also managed to avoid any serious hockey rivalry bullshit (don’t get me wrong…it was mentioned…but tastefully.) Now, all of the punk bands I saw that day made mention of how few of them were actually on the tour, but only the Street Dogs seemed to embrace that fact and turn themselves into representatives of the entire genre rather than the odd men out. This may or may not have been the reason for their excellent cover of Black Flag’s “Rise Above,” although they may have just done it since they’re just that cool.

Speaking of the few punk bands on the tour, the next full set I took in was from Los Angeles’ The Briggs who I’ve now managed to see three times in about nine months and who have, little by little, won me over with every performance. While they honestly haven’t gotten any more original over the last nine months and while I still think they really do sound a lot like the west coast Bouncing Souls, for the first time that was okay. There really isn’t much more I can say (other than they were, like a few of the bands I mentioned above, pretty tight and entirely entertaining.)

After taking in a short performance by local pop-punk darlings Winslow, I made my way over to see the reason I was even at The Warped Tour that day, the band I have cited as my favourite of all time on too many occasions to count and arguably one of the few bands that have changed the course of my life as I know it: Gainesville, Florida’s Against Me! Except you know what? They were SUCH a goddamn let down. Though, to be fair, while they played more old stuff than I expected them to, the vast majority of the set was still taken up by tracks off their now not so new, critically acclaimed major label debut New Wave. I guess this makes sense, since I doubt the majority of the people gathered to see them even knew they had any records before New Wave and probably thought “Reinventing Axl Rose” was a new song (a belief the band only fed by not selling ANY of their old records.) However, the overabundance of new stuff and new fans was in and of itself not enough to ruin the set for me, but the fact that they were clearly phoning in the majority of it was. Granted, they probably didn’t really give a shit about who came to see them on The Warped Tour and were probably only playing it again (they played it in 2006 and spent half of 2007 bashing it) since the label told them to, but that is no reason for them to borrow the “get up there, play, get off, repeat” mantra of bands they should be so much better than. It was completely obvious that their heart wasn’t in it, and that is not a characteristic I’m used to seeing from them and not one I ever hope to see again. They have a chance to redeem themselves when they come back in a month and sure as hell hope they do.

The Bouncing Souls took the stage immediately after Against Me’s set and managed to, in one short half hour, bring my spirits back up. Having been responsible for influencing the vast majority of East Coast punk over their twenty year history, I’m o ten surprised by how, well, young they come across while playing live. Sure, they aren’t the only old guard punk band still playing, but some of their peers (okay, let’s be honest, I’m talking about Bad Religion here folks) actually seem to have let the years take advantage of them whereas the Souls are just as vibrant as they always were. Which I guess proves that if you make a career out of being immature, you’ll stay that way (in the absolute best way possible.) For evidence of this, look no further than their acoustic, slowed down and ballad-ized version of The Misfits’ “Hybrid Moments,” which was not only done competently and honorably, but hilariously as well (and for those keeping count, that now makes three classic punk covers heard by me over the course of the day.) Also, due to what I can only assume was poor planning on the part of Los Angeles’ Say Anything, the Souls had some extra time on their hands, which they used to close out their set with fan favourite track “True Believers” which featured a guest appearance by Mighty Mike McColgan and which brought a smile back to my face.

At this point I determined that one short Reel Big Fish set was not worth standing in the now considerable amount of rain that was coming down for another hour (though I regret my decision now since apparently they were a lot of fun.) So I made my way past the way-too-long line for the Katy Perry signing and headed home. All in all I wouldn’t call my fifth consecutive Warped Tour a waste of time, as I did make a few poignant observations and took in a few “diamond in the ruff” performances, and both of those things are almost always worth doing (and watching the relatively young men of The Flatliners talk shit about other bands is also pretty priceless.) I’m fairly certain that this was my last Warped Tour (I mean it this time, damnit.) It’s time for the new generation to enjoy it and have their fun, because (contrary to popular belief) everyone deserves to be young and stupid. Besides, one day they’ll become old and jaded too, but I can honestly hope that I won’t care enough at that point to say “I told you so” (but, sadly, I probably will.)

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