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Emo Rules Warped Tour '06, But AFI Draw Biggest Crowd
from: mtv.com
by Gil Kaufman
JOAN JETT is sentimental favorite at festival; attendance down this year.
CINCINNATI — The Warped Tour ought to consider hooking up with
Baskin-Robbins as a sponsor next year. Because when the 12th edition of the
longest-running U.S. summer festival touched down at the Riverbend Music
Center on Wednesday, it served up 36 flavors —
approximately 30 of which were variations of the punk taste of the past few
years: emo.
With few exceptions, angsty, tattooed white boys with a lot to scream about
ruled the day for the 11,000-plus fans who wandered among the eight stages
and endless collection of band merch and sponsor booths. The exceptions were
goth punks AFI, who drew the day's biggest crowd with their dramatic
dinnertime set, and old-schooler JOAN JETT, who provided one of the few true
cross-generational bonding moments for the many families in attendance.
Unlike last year, when breaking bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy
and Avenged Sevenfold drew big crowds and lots of hype (see "My Chemical
Romance And A Very Stiff Chicken Rock Milwaukee Warped Tour Stop"),
three-quarters into this summer's dates, Warped attendance is down slightly,
according to tour founder Kevin Lyman. Still, he said Warped '06 is on track
to an expected total draw of approximately 600,000.
With fewer mainstream bands on the bill, Lyman says he feels fine about the
lower attendance figures. And judging by the crowds that lesser-known acts
like Cartel and Emery drew to some of the smaller side stages, it was clear
that rabid fans will turn up for their favorite bands no matter which stage
they're on. Whatever the final numbers, Lyman, who brandished the top-secret
'07 roster (albeit at a safe distance), is certain that Warped will be back
next year.
Nearly every strain of emo was on display in the scorching 90-degree heat
over the course of the nine-hour marathon: screamo with two lead singers and
one guitarist (Marilyn Avenue); screamo with one singer and two guitarists
(Classic Crime); screamo with a metal edge (Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, the
Bled); goth-tinged screamo with scary pancake and scar makeup (Aiden);
classic-rock-inspired emo (the Sunstreak); the three guitarists/ two backup
screamers variety (Vaux); the Coheed and Cambria-type (the Junior Varsity);
and straight-up, classic emo (Thursday, Emanuel).
Some bands added signature metal touches: Every Time I Die weren't afraid to
do some athletic spin kicks, whip their heads around and show off their
Kiss-style unison guitar-swinging. Warped veterans Valient Thorr brought
Motörhead-style metal thunder to their set, with some hammer-swinging Nordic
jams that rocked way too hard for 1 p.m. The only hip-hop act on the bill,
Gym Class Heroes, moved the crowd with a combination of live instruments and
the head-bobbing ode to MySpace addiction, "New Friend Request."
Then there were political rockers Anti-Flag, who staged a fist-pumping
mini-rally against oppressive governments, sexism and lots of other isms
through subtle message songs like "F--- Police Brutality." Sets by Saves the
Day and Motion City Soundtrack had a more pop-punk feel, with plenty of
chant-along choruses and a lighter touch than some of the day's more
tortured acts.
Sweden's the Sounds — one of the few female-fronted acts — brought a bit of
class to the proceedings thanks to singer Maja Ivarsson's black heels and
clingy cocktail dress. The formal wear was just a front for an unhinged
stage persona that paid serious homage to late punk priestess Wendy O.
Williams of the Plasmatics, right down to the partly shorn blond hairdo and
a few unladylike glimpses of her panties during some deep knee bends. As a
bonus, the Sounds were one of the few bands at Warped to bust out the
cowbell, which they did proudly during the catchy "Song With a Mission."
Though they had the day's most iridescent hairdos, there was nothing elegant
about hardcore punk survivors the Casualties. The New York kings of the
Day-Glo Mohawk tore through a set that included the tough-as-nails punk
ballad "Punk Rock Love" and their tribute to the three deceased members of
the Ramones, "Made in NYC." Their set also inspired the day's biggest circle
pit, a 50-foot-wide swirl of bodies that tore around the sound booth. The
crowd was less juiced up by the Pink Spiders, who, between their pink
spandex pants and fingerless gloves, seemed to confuse some of the kids with
their Ramones-meets-Loverboy sound and look.
Old-schooler JOAN JETT was the sentimental favorite of the day and the unofficial cell-phone champ, as half of her crowd held their cellies aloft during her set. Lyman says he invited her along as a lesson to the rest of the bands on the tour about the history
of punk rock. Jett and her BLACKHEARTS delivered a tight, half-hour set of
classics, including "I Love Rock N' Roll," "Crimson and Clover," "Do You
Wanna Touch Me" and her latest hit cover, Sweet's "ACDC" (see "Warped Tour
Nabs Trailblazing Rocker JOAN JETT For Trek").
Jett, who started out as a member of the jailbait all-girl punk group the
RUNAWAYS as a teenager in 1976, has never forgotten the first rule of punk:
The chorus needs to be easily chantable (think "whoa-whoa-whoa" or "yeah, oh
yeah, oh yeah") and the guitars need to rip like buzz saws.
Doug Pyle, 21, drove up from Knoxville, Tennessee, to attend his third
Warped Tour show, and he admitted to not really being into all the emo bands
on the bill. The heavily pierced, Mohawk-sporting Pyle, clad in a Rancid
T-shirt, was on the same page as Dayton, Ohio's John Fritz, 24, who lamented
the emo overload and tagged Jett and the Casualties as his favorites of the
day. "Man, she's still really hot!" Fritz said of the lean, ripped Jett.
Theatrical California goths AFI rambled from punk to goth and electronica
without losing a step. After a day of blazing temperatures, nature seemed to
feel the heaviness of singer Davey Havok's inner vampire, as gray clouds
rolled in to block the sun during the band's set. Havok, a
bilevel-haircut-sporting dude in distress, waved his tattooed arms and threw
off panicky jazz-hand gestures while screaming and thrashing around during
the Depeche Mode-like gothtronica tunes "Love Like Winter" and "Silver and
Cold."
Thanking Ohio natives Devo and the Dead Boys, Havok tore into the band's
current hit single, "Miss Murder." The crowd re-created the video's
fist-pumping rally theme, bringing what looked like a momentary smile to
Havok's pale face (see "AFI Blow Kisses, Play Gothic Bumper Cars At Dramatic
NYC Show").
At an intense fest full of throat-scraping screams, karate-kicking
guitarists and microphone-cord tourniquets, it was the message on a simple
black T-shirt worn by an emo-looking dude that brought plenty of laughs to
passersby during the day's otherwise heavy proceedings: "Girls pants are for
girls."
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