Warped Tour 2009, Shakopee, MN

My dad needed me to write up a review for this year’s warped.  it should have been out on Sunday night, but I was too tired to think. It should have been up on Monday, but I was at a funeral, 3 hours away, with no internet access. So here it is, i guess it’s technically Wednesday now, so it’s really late…

A Day to Remember started what was going to be a day to remember.  They came out a little bit late, but since they were the first band of the day, it was forgivable. They opened with “The Downfall of Us All” and about halfway through the song, I realized that the shorts I wore were definitely a bad pick, I only almost lost my phone seven or eight times that set, which put a damper on my experience.  ADTR played absolutely amazingly; they are a killer band, live or recorded and had a great crowd.  I came out injury free, but missing everything from my left pocket, my ear plugs and a sharpie. Their set list included, definitely not in this order (my memory isn’t that good), “The Downfall of Us All”, “I’m Made of Wax Larry, What are You Made of?”, “Mr. Highway’s Thinking About the End”, “Fast Forward to 2012”, The Danger in Starting a Fire” and I want to say they played “My Life for Hire” and possibly “Start the Shooting” but I can’t be positive.  They ended with “The Plot to Bomb the Panhandle” and that’s how they should end every show for a long, long time.

The Devil Wears Prada: Loud, Loud and Louder yet.  I’m not a fan; I just couldn’t help but hear and see them, while looking at the list of bands and such.  They actually sounded good live, I think, but since I haven’t listened to them since 2006, they may or may not have been that great.  They did however have a man dressed as a banana in their pit, so that’s always a plus.

All Time Low is amazing live.  I don’t care what anyone says, they are a good band.  However, their crowd was beyond horrible.  Alex (or Jack?) had to stop the show, and teach the crowd (of “14 year old prepubescent girls, with zits” to quote Chris from LTJ) that when people fall, you pick them up, you don’t step on them, a girl walked by me, after the 7 or 8 people that were down got back up, her face was covered in blood.  They played a good set though, even though 75% of their crowd had the mindset of trying to smash the life out of everyone in front of them just to be close to Alex.  I went up about 20 minutes into it, because I hadn’t breathed in the last 10 minutes, but they sounded and looked good from the back of the crowd with a nice big water bottle in my hand.  They opened with “Weightless”, and played (again, not in any order) “Break Your Little Heart”, “Damned if I Do Ya (Damned if I Don’t)”, “Lost in Stereo”, “Dear Maria, Count Me In”, and more songs off their first albums that I don’t know, but I think “Jasey Rae” was the song they stopped to teach the crowd how to function.

Chiodos was well, Chiodos.  I’m still caught not knowing if they were good or not.  They had a good stage presence and all, but something seemed off with Craig, because the rest of the band seemed really good.  But I feel like Craig’s voice was off, but I haven’t seen them in a couple years, so maybe it’s changed a bit?  But overall, I really enjoyed their show.  During “A Letter from Janelle” Craig had the crowd try and break My Chemical Romance’s  60 people surfing in a minute record, which they did… and then they banned surfing for the rest of the show.  Craig came into the audience for the last song, “There is No Penguins in Alaska”, but a lot of people thought they could have picked a better song to end with.  Besides the two songs mentioned above, they played “Is It Progression if a Cannibal Uses a Fork?”, “Bulls Make Money, Bears Make Money, Pigs Get Slaughtered”, “Teeth The Size of Piano Keys”, “Baby, You Wouldn’t Last a Minute on the Creek” and “The Words ‘Best Friend’ Become Redefined”, they may have played some more, but too many people kicked me in the head surfing for me to remember anymore.

Escape the Fate played at basically the same time as Chiodos, but I did catch their last song “This War is Ours” (I think, heat + physical abuse = bad memory).  But it sounded really good, and I wish I could have seen more of their set, I hear they had an epic wall of death.

Sing it Loud, they came on late, due to technical difficulties, and I’m glad that I was just waiting for Saosin who was playing after them, or I would have cried.  They were horrible.  They actually are somewhat decent recorded, but they were bad live.  I had to go walk around after their first song, and waste time, until I could sneak into the last bit of the last song to claim a good spot for Saosin, so maybe they got better, but I doubt it.

Saosin = let down of the year.  Well, that’s exaggerating a bit, Beau, Justin, Chris and Alex were stellar, Cove well, I hope that his mic was messed up, at the beginning of the show he was bitching to the sound guy about his mic, but I don’t know if he was bitching about the bad tape job, or because the tape was green, or because it was messed up.  Even when no one around me was singing, all I could hear was the crowds’ voices.  The crowd sang “You’re Not Alone” in its entirety; I don’t even think sound came out of Cove’s mouth.  To his defense however, maybe he was sick, he was drinking tea, but he might just do that.

After a quick nap on the barrier, I was so stoked for Gallows, I started listening to them they day after Warped two years ago, I was crushed I couldn’t see them and Bad Religion later that fall, and my one goal was to see them before Frank called it quits.  Needless to say, I had high hopes.  Gallows opened with “I Dread the Night”, Frank wearing black pants and a black jacket, would have impressed me even if he sang like a dying cow, because it was hot.  The second song hadn’t even started and he shed the top half of his clothes, only to yell at the middle of the crowd to move, expecting a wall of death seemed logical, until frank climbed over the barrier, followed by Stef and about four camera men.  A circle pit was created and in popped Laurent and Stu. I was pissed, but being lucky, the spot on the barrier by me was security free, so I grabbed a seat on that.  They played another song off “Grey Britain” and another, and another.  ALL IN THE CROWD.  My mind was so boggled it wasn’t even funny.  Frank however, was a huge asshole bitching about this and that, and dedicating a song to all the shit bands that shouldn’t be on warped like The Millionaires and brokeNCYDE.  Eventually someone threw a beer at him and he bitched about that for a while.  And they had a HUGE circle pit going around a tent, it looked epic.  The then played “Abandon Ship” and “In the Belly of a Shark” for which I had to get into the pit for.  During the last song, (don’t ask what it was, my mind was still boggled) they finally went back on stage and called for a wall of death.  I figured I had nothing to lose, since I was bailing on that stage after Gallows, so I went for it, on the front line.  I only bled a little, but was so hopped up on the energy from the show that I didn’t even realize it (two days later if the wind blows too hard, I think my elbow is going to fall off).

BAD RELIGON may be old, but they’re definitely not washed up old guys.  They were one of the best shows of the day, but with 29 years of experience, what else can you expect.  They were the first band of the day that I didn’t try to get close to, but more watched the crowd.  There were old biker dudes, drunken 20 year olds, and kids that couldn’t be more than 11.  It was great.  Other than the amazing quality of their songs, they had quality ‘talk to the crowd time’, including a bit about football (and more than a few ‘boos’ from the Viking fans in the crowd) and a bit about the rain (at this point it was sprinkling enough for the crew to bring out tarps).  Overall, I can’t tell you what they played because I was too enthralled by everything to properly function, all I know is that if you’ve never seen Bad Religion, you need too, it should be in that book 1000 Places to See Before You Die, even though it’s not a place…

When I thought nothing could top Bad Religion, Less Than Jake came out.  I saw them last summer with Goldfinger, so I knew they were good, but maybe after witnessing the greatness that is Bad Religion (and not Big D and the Kids Table), I appreciated life more. They opened with, the star wars theme song? Maybe.   About halfway through the set, Chris told the audience he wanted a naked Catwalk, and had the middle of the crowd, from the front to the back, turn and hold hands with the person across from then… then had people walk across their hands.  Surprisingly, it worked really well, however most people kept their clothes on.  After, Chris said he was surprised how well it worked, and that it was the result of him being bored for three hours.  They also had a bunch of huge circle pits that most of the crowd got into at one point or another.  I know they played “The Science of Selling Yourself Short” but, of course, I don’t remember what any of the other songs were. I took a few hits to the head and a fall of at least 10 feet (word of advice, unless you know you can do it, don’t get three guys to launch you…), and even with a few bruises and some blood loss, their set, along with Bad Religion’s, seemed much longer than the 30 minute Warped Tour slots.

“The Catwalk”

For me, the day ended with Bayside, rather than 3oh!3.  Out of the last 3 times I’ve seen them, they played the best show at this year’s warped.  I don’t know why it was better, but I think the whole band just sounded better, everything just flowed nicer than before.  They opened with “Tortures of the Damned”, which was a nice change from most bands, which seem to open with whatever is the newest single, or at least something from the newest album.  Bayside, however played only one song off their latest album, “Boy”, and kept most of it off of 2005’s self titled.  At one point, Anthony began yelling at kids who were leaving (the stage was very near the exit), about FTSK, and that they should come back in 10 years… he also called for a giant circle pit, yelling “Don’t let them leave!”  Bayside became a nice end to the day, playing, other than the aforementioned songs, “The Walking Wounded”, “Blame it on Bad Luck”, “Phone Call from Poland”, a cover song of some sort, and closing with “Devotion and Desire” (however, I might be missing a song or two, I was at the point of exhaustion).

Overall, this year’s warped was the best I’ve been to.  It was great weather, a bit of rain towards the end, but just enough to cool everyone down.  There was a ton of great bands, more than I could see, which bummed me out (Aiden and Underoath need to come back soon).  It was a long, tiring day, but every minute (including not being able to breathe during ATL and listening to Sing it Loud) was worth the amount of bruises, cuts and soreness I got.

*All pictures, except Gallows, were taken by my awesome dad, who willingly comes with me every year =]

~ by ldbx on August 5, 2009.