Playlist Rewind: Warped Tour

AKAs When Phillyist decided to cover the Warped Tour, we knew we had a lot to look forward to. We're happy to say that we weren't disappointed. There was a little something for everyone in terms of both music and vendors, both of which were on full display on that sunny day in Camden. We were happy to find the weather cooperating, save for a few light sprinkles that seemed to refresh concertgoers and all in all everyone acted cool, which is always appreciated. Overall we couldn't complain. Oh, except when it came to the $4 bottles of water. That sucked a lot, as did the fact that if you wanted a lineup of the bands to carry with you, that would be $2. And if you wanted a beer, well forget about it unless you had $9(!!!) to pony up. Oh well...on to the rock!

Old-schoolers like this Phillyist has a blast watching NoFX, Less Than Jake and Flogging Molly take the stage and bring us back to the innocent days of our punk rock youth. An amazing highlight was the Philly-based band The AKAs. We knew we'd love them as soon as they took the stage and proudly noted that they had a new album coming out in which none of the songs were about "breaking up with girls or breaking up with boys but about fighting, fucking and overthrowing the government." Now that's something we can get behind. They continued to indeed rock our faces off, delivering true punk rock to a very enthusiastic audience.

Phillyist also noted an interest in The Ivy League. Yes, they were a little poppy for Warped but they had a funky ska/hip-hop influence not seen since bands like Sublime were on the tour back in '95. In the middle of their set, they broke into a pretty hip group drum solo accompanied by improv theramin. What's a theramin, you say? Remember the song Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys? That instrument at the end that sounds like it came from space? That's a theramin. The music teacher in this Phillyist definitely geeked out and although it might sound strange for a venue like Warped Tour, trust us—it was pretty awesome.

We could have done without some of the "screamo" bands like The Devil Wears Prada and brokeNCYDE. With TDWP, the screaming overtook the stage entirely and we honestly couldn't understand (a) what was going on, and (b) the crowd they drew to their stage. As for brokeNCYDE, their presence—both onstage and on their MySpace page (go look, it's laughable...don't worry, we'll wait)—was douchey enough to turn us off from song one. We should have known it was going to suck when they hadn't played a note and yet told us to "put our motherfucking hands in the air." Number one, stop screaming at me. Number two, why don't you put YOUR motherfucking hands in the air instead. You're horrible. Thankfully, they were one of the first groups on the lineup, so we had plenty of rock to bandage that wound.

As a female, this Phillyist was very happy to see a heavy girl presence, both in the crowd and in the vendor lineup. Amethyst Jeans, a denim company out of Connecticut had their bright pink bus handing out jeans to gals in the crowd. Glamour Kills, a graphic tee company was there as well and of course, tour sponsor VANS along with dozens others. We were impressed with the addition of To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit group whose focus is bringing awareness and support to teens dealing with depression, self-injury and suicide. It was great to see the Warped Tour bring such an organization along and even greater to see teens flocking to the booth all day in support.

It's interesting how the landscape of the Warped Tour has evolved through the years. Fifteen years ago when the Warped Tour first began, it definitely had a hold of the punk rock scene and although you could see smatterings here and there of bands like No Doubt, 311 or Beck, it's skeleton was still built on punk rock. This was the first Warped Tour in a long time for this Phillyist and we're a little saddened to say that the music that first brought the Warped Tour together is now an almost nostalgic afterthought to the new-wave pop-punk bands we're seeing a lot today. Sure, there were plenty of great bands there but we were just hoping to see more PUNK in our rock. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the Ramones and 1 being that shitty brokeNCYDE band, we'll give it a solid 7. Lots of fun, lots of sun and—thankfully—lots of rock.

All photos by author.