WARPED TOUR IS BACK ON TOP WITH SOLD-OUT SHOW IN NEW YORK

Despite the intense heat, the parking lot of Nassau Coliseum on Long Island was packed with upwards of 24,000 kids of all ages, coming to see their favorite bands, and hopefully discover some new ones. With 62 bands scheduled to play, ranging from hard-rockers Killswitch Engage, to old-school punk kings Bad Religion, to the young and energetic Paramore, a little heat couldn’t keep these kids away from the all-day event.

This year is a very pivotal year for the Warped Tour, now in its 13th year. After growing for 11 straight years, the tour saw a drop in attendance last year, which might have signaled the end of the aging tour. “The dynamic of the show changed,” explains Kevin Lyman, the tour founder, “Kids were much more single oriented. They stood in front of a stage all day. They passed out in the sun. It wasn’t that hardcore Warped fan that wants to go see a lot of bands... I looked at the show and realized that I needed to take it back to what the tour really was about.” To achieve this, Kevin scaled the tour down from 100 bands to just over 60, and booked bands from a slightly wider range of music. This year Kevin went back to the original blueprint of the tour, “If you look at the 1995 lineup, we had Sublime, No Use For A Name, No Doubt, Quicksand – a very diverse lineup for that time and place. When I was booking the lineup this year, I said I’m going to book a lineup [where kids can] come explore music, and that’s what I think we have achieved again. Kids are excited about coming here."

The first band I was able to catch was the Tennessee band Paramore. With all of the buzz surrounding them at the moment, I expected to see a band with more inflated industry backing than true talent, but my initial opinion of the band changed immediately as they began to play. Most impressive was the overpowering vocals coming from the tiny 18-year-old Hayley Williams. She stands at barely over 5-feet, and is skinny as a rail, but can sing with such confidence that she lifts the band on her small shoulders. With songs like 'Hallelujah' and 'Emergency' this is the type of band you can get obsessed with. I am certain that they will go far as they mature as musicians, as long as the fame doesn’t get to their heads.

As Bad Religion took the Lucky Stage, the excitement in the air was palpable. These legends of punk rocked with such energy, that only the balding of lead singer Greg Graffin and wrist brace of bassist Jay Bentley gave away the fact that this band is 27-years-old. The highlight of their set was the super-catchy 'Infected' from their 1994 release, 'Stranger Than Fiction'. I left not knowing whether the members of the crowd just wanted to tell their future grandkids that they saw Bad Religion live, or whether they were truly enthusiastic about experiencing this old-school form of punk. Neither would surprise me.

The most intense set of the day was Killswitch Engage's on the 13 stage. To get a feel of how different the Warped Tour is to this heavy metal band, I spoke to Howard Jones the lead singer before their set. “You’re definitely dealing with a much younger crowd, and a lot of them aren’t really sure how to absorb us, or some of the more aggressive kids that come and watch us,” says Howard, “but I don’t know – it’s just kind of worked out. Our usual show is just a lot of sweat and a lot of big dudes just yelling and stinking.” Surprisingly, Howard was right, it did work out. The crowd responded to the intensity put out by the band on songs like 'My Curse', and 'The End Of Heartache'. Halfway through the set Howard told the crowd that it was time for what he calls "The Wall." The crowd splits in half down the center, and as the song starts the largest mosh pit that you will likely ever see, breaks out in the center. Even with the departure of guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz from the tour due to health reasons, this band still rocks with the same intensity as on their latest release, 'As Daylight Dies'.

Coheed and Cambria was interesting to see live. They drew a much younger crowd, and their feeble attempts at crowd surfing - most likely due to less experience and weak upper body strength, left many thrill seekers falling in the middle of the crowd.

The biggest disappointment of the day was Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, which I should have seen coming. This emo band, who some try to mistakenly pass off as a punk band, are just plain awful. Their stage presence was dry and boring, and their songs left me wondering why they are so popular at the moment.

In the spirit of the Warped Tour, I wanted to discover a band for myself. A band that isn’t overly hyped, and shoved upon me. I went through most of the 62 band lineup, before I came across the band All Time Low from Maryland. Their acoustic version of the song 'Jasey Rae', written as an apology to a girl of the same name, which is featured on the 'Punk Goes Acoustic 2' album, captivated me with its complex lyric structure, and melodic vocals. With my musical interest raised I sat down with the band on their tour bus to find out more about how the band got together. “As I remember it, an annoying kid [Jack Barakat, lead guitarist] kept IM’ing me, asking me how much I like Blink-182,” explains the bass player Zack Merrick, who went to a rival school down the street from the three other band members. Zach wasn’t the only band member that Jack brought to the band. “Jack nearly stalked me for about two months before we actually played together,” says Rian Dawson the bands drummer. The band began playing together during the summer of 7th and 8th grade when the members were 13 and 14-years-old, and were signed to a record deal as high school seniors.

All Time Low played the last time slot of the day, two stages over from Underoath. While Underoath had a much larger crowd in front of their stage, All Time Low had a much more energetic crowd. When I glanced out into the crowd, nearly everyone seemed to be singing along to every word. The band's stage presence and antics appear to be directly influence by the likes of Blink-182, which gets old quick. However, their catchy songs are what really make this band shine. If they continue writing songs like 'Coffee Shop Soundtrack' and 'Jasey Rae' they will have a great shot at making it big. You should expect great things from this band in the years to come.

The Warped Tour is doing everything right this year. The fans are responding to the diverse lineup, and the atmosphere that started this tour back in 1994 seems to be back. As Kevin Lyman puts it, “My biggest thing this year was to challenge myself and the kids with the lineup we did, because if the attendance dropped again this year I probably would have said maybe it’s time for someone else to take over and do their own thing, but you know what – it’s revitalized, it’s energetic, it’s vibrant. I got to start thinking of a title for the 15th year.”

Catch the Warped Tour through the end of August in a city near you.

LINKS:
To read more of the interview with Howard Jones of Killswitch Engage, CLICK HERE.

To read an interview with Kevin Lyman, founder of the Warped Tour, CLICK HERE.

Van's Warped Tour
Killswitch Engage
All Time Low
Coheed and Cambria
Paramore
Bad Religion
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus