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Warped goes wide
Review: This year's tour has a broader range of choices and even something for the parents.
from: ocregister.com
by Kelli Skye Fadroski, The Orange County Register
Vans Warped Tour 2006 was a day of choices: punk or emo? Studded belts and liberty spikes or tight T-shirts and brightly colored running shorts? Stage left, stage right, or the slew of side stages in between?
In its stop last week at the Pomona Fairplex – it comes to Ventura today and Los Angeles on Wednesday – the show was set up in a dumbbell shape, with the two main stages on separate sides and the three major side stages smack in the middle. This layout made the outdoor concert seem more like a packed, sweaty night club, as waves of concert-goers attempted to ping-pong between their favorite bands.
Whose genius idea was it to have three simultaneous band meet-and-greet signings in the passageway between the two main stages? Accusations of cutting in line led to several arguments and had people hopping up and down just to see how much farther they would have to go to break through into some open space.
Another popular area was around the large blow-up schedule, where people were writing performance times on their arms, legs and chests. There were also cries of outrage from fans that would have to choose between two of the most popular acts of the day, NOFX and Rise Against, scheduled to play at the same time.
Although the main stages were predominately punk acts, the dozen or so side stages were controlled by pop punk, emo and hip-hop. The lineup was right on with the changing music scene. What used to be dedicated to punk rock acts is now split to include several other genres. The Warped Tour wasn't a "punk show" this year.
New York's rock-metal outfit Helmet brought raw heaviness to the stage with a set that included songs off its new album, "Monochrome." The group can also be credited with the first real mosh pit of the day.
Quite a few concert-goers cruising by the Vagrant stage on the way to see Anti-Flag stopped to check out Protest the Hero. The five-piece punk-metal group had a large crowd blocking the walkway to see them.
Before Anti-Flag even got on stage, the crowd was throwing plastic bottles, blown up Trojan condoms and beach balls. Anti-Flag played a politically charged set that had the sweaty crowd yelling along and waving their Fuse music channel foam middle fingers in the air.
Keeping the crowd pumped for the main stage acts, New Jersey's Bouncing Souls stirred the crowd with a gnarly pit that caused a fight. The band quickly stopped the show and singer Greg Attonito pointed out the person responsible for the break in the set. The guy was lucky that security got to him before the crowd did. The Bouncing Souls had the audience screaming the lyrics to "Hopeless Romantic," "Private Radio" and "True Believers."
By midafternoon the punks' liberty spikes were wilting and the emo guys with short shorts were sporting sunburned thighs.
A small break in the main stage lineup allowed for time to check out some of the smaller stages. At the Ernie Ball stage/trailer, a good-sized crowd gathered to watch Gym Class Heroes. Their blend of hip-hop and rock had the trailer swaying and the fans yelling. Girls squealed and became stalkers when they saw Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz standing on the side of the stage to support the group.
NOFX was next on the main stage and was obnoxious as ever, with a set broken up into about 40 percent mindless commentary and 60 percent music. Front man Fat Mike was right; the crowd should have been over watching Rise Against. Most of the fans who decided to bail on the chatty NOFX made it in time to catch the last couple Rise Against songs. Its crowd was fiery but took a break from moshing to sing along to "Give It All."
Another break in the set led me to a tent decked out in psychedelic décor, where a woman in fishnets and a top hat was dancing while four men beat on oil drums, trash cans, paint buckets and other junk items. This troupe of musicians is the Street Drum Corps. Although the set was short and in a small stuffy tent, it was absolutely mesmerizing.
As the sun started to go down, ska-rock outfit Less Than Jake drew a large crowd as it played some of its newer tracks, including "Look What Happened" and "The Ghosts of Me and You". People skanked through horn solos and sang along. The pit was kicking up some dirt as Less Than Jake paid tribute to Pennywise with a ska-rock version of "Bro Hymn," which created a massive circle pit around a KROQ tent and its unsuspecting occupants. Congratulations to Less Than Jake for creating the largest pit of the day.
Wrapping up the day with JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS was a spectacular idea. Jett, with her rock-hard body glistening, snarled at the crowd as she belted out "Bad Reputation." Even the parents that were stuck in the reverse baby-sitting tent came out to hear "Cherry Bomb," "Crimson and Clover" and a few tracks off of the bands new album, "SINNER." Jett ended the set with "I Love Rock N' Roll" and succeeded in not being drowned out by the singing crowd.
As the BLACKHEARTS' set ended, Thursday was starting up on the other main stage. The massive amounts of people trying to get to the next stage were stopped by merchandise tent take-downs, trash clean-up crews and those that had stopped in the middle to check out some of the other side stage acts. In other words, the show was over. The music melting pot event that was draped with colorful advertisements for teen-targeted consumer goods and services was off to the next city.
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