August 2006 News

Warped Tour '06 - Camden, NJ Tweeter Center, Aug. 3, 2006

This years Warped Tour - our crew’s 6th- featured JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS. This was the band's first Warped Tour - long overdue - and all through their set, they performed like they had something to prove to a generation of new and seasoned punk rockers.

Warped Tour can be confusing sometimes; Hey, wait a minute! Getting there can be just as confusing! The morning of the show, we're just printing out the directions to The Tweeter Center. Tim's printer is down, so he's copying them by hand. He's got to get ready for our 'mini road trip' so I finish writing the directions out. Frank's running errands, then we stop for breakfast. Rachel and Troy are the extended crew this trip - then back to Frank's house for his cell phone. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. With over an hour ride to the venue, we get lost for 15 minutes in Camden and finally hit the Tweeter Center around 1 pm. Actually, I probably wouldn't want it any other way. With this crew, we’re rarely on time for anything!
Anyway, back to the part about the Warped Tour being confusing. With all the official stages – there were eight this year, as well as makeshift stages that just pop up at random – it’s hard to tell which band is playing at what time on which stage. (This is even more confusing because the lineups are picked by lottery every morning so the "headliners" rotate on the main stages.) They have however made it easier to see when the bands are playing. Every day’s schedule is posted on an inflatable Tower - about a gazillion feet high – that’s double-sided, and is an easy reference.

PARSIPPANY, NJ -- Legendary rockers JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are on the road supporting their first album in over 10 years, "SINNER." To better acquaint concert attendees with the band, BLACKHEART RECORDS teamed up with DropCards, digital marketing. The collectible download cards were distributed by street teams and sent to college radio stations while the band spent their summer headlining the Vans Warped Tour.

"Dropcards are an incredible promotion tool. We used DropCards in the JOAN JETT campaign for everything from giveaways at the Warped Tour, to radio station giveaways. It's a great way to provide a variety of different media and supply a great visual ad as well," said Carianne Laguna, head of marketing at BLACKHEART RECORDS Group.

v The DropCards feature a picture of Jett on the front, and a link on the back directing fans to a custom website containing two videos. One for their latest single, "A.C.D.C." as well as footage of their June New York performances, including their gig at the infamous CBGB rock club. Photos, links and a band biography are also available on the website which is only accessible through an exclusive PIN found on the DropCard.

JOAN JETT has never tried to please anyone but herself, which may be the reason for her enduring appeal. Jett launched herself back into action earlier this year with a cameo on Peaches' recent Impeach My Bush album and some high-profile NYC gigs to show off her chops (and newly chiselled bod); she followed with SINNER, her first new album since 1994, and a spot on the Warped Tour. Ever the contrarian, the lesbian icon chose Sweet's decidedly un-PC bisexual parable "A.C.D.C." as the killer cover (and cast Carmen Electra as her trampy girlfriend in the video).

So many female rockers cite you as an inspiration -- that seeing you up there made them think that they could do it, too. Who was that person for you?

Actually, it was my parents telling me as a little kid that I could be anything I wanted to be. I just kind of took that to heart. You know, I never doubted that I could do it. Once I did see another woman do it, though, it confirmed [it] for me. That was Suzy Quatro. Hearing those records, I thought, "Well, man, maybe there are other girls who wanna do this."

The sun has come out on a rainy Warped Tour afternoon, and JOAN JETT has things to do.

First of all, the ripped, ageless rocker needs her vegan pre-show meal. That'll be a Taco Bell rice-and-bean burrito, please, and there better not be any cheese on that.

Then she has to make her way from her backstage tour bus to the main stage - one of 10 stages - where she and her band, the BLACKHEARTS, will be headlining the traveling carnival.

Whenever the music ebbed you could actually hear the sizzling of the young flesh that piled into DarienLake for The Warped Tour. I chose to limit my choices to a handful of acts: Gym Class Heroes, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, AFI, NOFX, The Lordz Of Brooklyn, and Helmet.

Gym Class Heroes offer a vigorous hip-hop/rock cocktail. These guys call Geneva home, and they had a huge crowd of fans all singing along. Bands like this are gonna keep it fresh and interesting.

Again on the augmented hip-hop tip, The Lordz Of Brooklyn mix hardcore chants with rap rants all while sportin' keen fedoras. This is what The Beastie Boys wish they sounded like.

Well, I am not sure which was hotter; the 100-degrees+ temperature in the red-hot sun or the sizzling performance of JOAN JETT and her band. The 2006 Vans Warped Tour is like a punk-rock circus on wheels. With stages set-up all over the venue, you simply walk in the gate, grab a schedule that lists each stage, and mark off where you have to be since every thirty minutes a new band is going on somewhere on one of the stages. As you are getting acquainted to the location of all the stages, you suddenly run into vendors selling all the different bands merchandise like t-shirts, buttons, and CD's. There are rows of these types of vendors, so give yourself plenty of time to make your purchases. As you walk on you see many more booths set up; these are booths from the sponsors of the Vans Warped Tour. For example, The Harley –Davidson booth had a big wheel to spin and they were giving away tons of fun items if you hit the right spot on the wheel, and HP was another vendor who gave away a color printer to a lucky punker. Of course, don't miss the Vans booth with all their funky-fun style shoes to buy. Also, as you are walking around the venue, you just might run into your favorite band member lurking around so make sure you have a pen nearby to grab an autograph. After having fun with these booths, there are plenty more vendors selling drinks, so grab one or two and head to the stage of your choice to punk-out to tons of fantastic bands showcasing their musical talents.

This year, JOAN JETT joined the Warped Tour for two good reason; to promote her latest CD entitled "SINNER" which is on her own label, and because JOAN JETT is one of the founding females of punk rock music still going strong after years in the business. Joan looking like the punk-sweetheart of the warped circus, took stage in mid-afternoon with the hot sun punching its rays down into the large crowd waiting for the show. Her attire was black leather pants and a black leather studded bra-top. After a few warm-up notes she was pumped and so was the crowd. She led off with one of her signature songs and smash-hit Bad Reputation, and followed that with Cherry Bomb. She also mixed in a few of her new songs off SINNER like the tasty A.C.D.C. (former hit by The Sweet), and songs she wrote including the political slam Riddles and a song promoting peace and unity called Changethe World. At this point the show was burning hot, so she slowed things down slightly performing the oldie but goodie Crimson & Clover that was another hit for her back in the '80's. She ended her set in high gear performing her worldwide hit I Love Rock 'N Roll, and it just took a few opening notes for the sun-burned warped crowd to figure out the tune as they joined in yelling and singing along with the BLACKHEARTS. The thirty-minute set was explosive surges of power by Joan with her Air-Jordan jumps and her classic "oooowws!"

Time has been good for Joan; she still can rock it up like the new comers and her new songs are strong in their Jett-like fashion.

JOAN JETT is a figurehead for generations of female rockers. Jett and her longtime band, The BLACKHEARTS, have been playing stripped down, loud rock-n-roll with glam and punk elements since the early ’80s, producing a classic rock hit ("I Love Rock-n-Roll") along the way.

Unlike other ’80s acts, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are still making records (their latest offering, SINNER, was released early this year) and you can catch them live this Thursday, August 9, on the Vans Warped Tour. A childhood dream of mine finally came true recently when JOAN JETT called me to say hello. The following is our conversation:

Unlike most "rock icons" of your generation, you’ve managed to stay relevant rather than become a nostalgia act. What makes you different from your peers?
I hope because I stay busy. I feel really blessed that people feel that way. I tour all the time, I never take a year off. Even though we haven’t always had a record out and stayed in everyone’s face all the time, people are still aware of it, to some degree. I didn’t go off and retire somewhere and this is not a comeback.

The video for 'A.C.D.C,' the lead single from JOAN JETT's new album, 'SINNER,' features Carmen Electra. When AOL Music visited Jett on her tour bus backstage at Warped, she told us how they teamed up.

"We played an event in the same town. I had heard that she was a big fan, so after we did our shows we hung out and talked for a while," Jett says. "This coincided with the time we were writing the treatment for 'A.C.D.C.' After we met Carmen, KENNY LAGUNA, my songwriting partner/producer, and the director, Greg Oliver, were talking -- 'Wow, it'd be really great to get somebody like Carmen in the video.'

"We started using her name as the template in the treatments, and eventually Kenny called to see if she might be interested in doing a cameo. She was totally into it."

The singer also says she may have found a songwriting collaborator on Warped. "I'm going to try and tackle Fat Mike," she says of the NOFX vocalist-bassist.

It may as well be a federal law: If you don't love JOAN JETT's "I Love Rock n' Roll," you just don't love rock 'n' roll. With just two verses, a dirty riff and an endlessly repeated chorus, Jett sauntered into a bar, fed the jukebox and scored some jailbait kid and seven weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 in the spring of 1982. A dime went a lot further back then.

"I Love Rock n' Roll" wasn't her first single and she wasn't the first to have a hit with the song. (The Arrows were, seven years earlier.) But as the title track of her second album with The BLACKHEARTS, it turned an OK album platinum. Evenly split between covers and originals, I Love Rock n' Roll sounds more '50s than '80s, and the best songs were written before Jimmy Carter took the White House. The title track, for sure, and the other single, Tommy James' "Crimson and Clover." "Nag," a modest hit for The Halos in 1961, undercuts Jett's tough but crushworthy vocals with sweet boy-group harmonies. And the Christmas standard "Little Drummer Boy," of all things, ends the record in a surprisingly stadium-ready arrangement.

Jett's own compositions are pure filler, more notable for their image-shaping titles than for the tepid tunes written around them. The midtempo "Be Straight" sounds like Lesley Gore with a mild case of rabies; the boys answer Jett's snarls like Army privates with most of the spunk beaten out of them. "(I'm Gonna) Run Away" plays on her roots in The RUNAWAYS, and "Love Is Pain" is a blueprint for the more overt bondage references that would come later.

47-years-old JOAN JETT is still (punk) rocking, as she released her 24th album in 2006, "SINNER." JOAN JETT is best known for her hit "I Love Rock 'N Roll," which was #1 on the Billboard charts from March 20 to May 8 of 1982.

Jett and her BLACKHEARTS band have also just embarked on a tour, the Vans Warped Tour. The Warped Tour is essentially a punk bands’ tour, and as such she has colleagues who are about half her age throughout the 10-stage tour.

"It's amazing," she says of Warped, talking before the show in a hotel lounge. "It's the kind of music I love, and the energy of the show is just great. And there's not a lot of ego-tripping among the bands."

SCRANTON – As cars pulled onto Montage Mountain Road, they were greeted with brake lights. The red lights that covered the road from Interstate 81 to the parking lot made it look like Christmas in August.

That was only the first line people encountered at the Vans’ Warped Tour, which made a stop at Montage Mountain on Friday. Once people finally parked on the gravel lot – in a spot that seemed close that morning, but miles away at the end of the draining day – it was a hike.

Fans made their way down the wooden stairs, past the will-call tent, down a long, steep hill and into another line. It was a line that slowly crept up to a security guard who would check your ticket, another who would gently frisk you and a third who smiled as you walked in – not exactly sure what he was looking for.

At 47, JOAN JETT looks shockingly good. The heart-patterned string bikini top she is wearing hides nothing, but there isn't anything to be ashamed of anyway. She is enviably slim, with toned arms, a flat stomach and skin that is pale and unmarred except for a smattering of ink.

It's three hours until show time, and Jett is pacing her tour bus, fielding the last of the day's phone interviews. She's talking about her new album, "SINNER," and her current stint with the Warped Tour while she walks a narrow path of carpet between two heavily populated banquettes.

It's a wonder she can even concentrate. Her spiky-haired bandmates, the BLACKHEARTS, are breezing in and out, letting the dry Pomona heat into the overly air-conditioned bus. And her publicist, tour manager and label manager are also in the immediate vicinity, talking and tapping away on their laptops.

FITCHBURG— The heat. The humidity. Oh, the humanity!!!

That was the consensus of everyone on both sides of multiple-performance stages yesterday at the only New England stop of the 12th annual Vans Warped Tour.

With a noticeable portion of the crowd golden-brown and shriveled like greasy breakfast sausages left on the skillet too long, and others beet-red like lobsters fresh out of a boiling pot, punks, posers and pimply faced teens were baking in the unforgiving, unflinching sun and drenched in buckets of sweats.

With temperatures tipping over 100, the only big difference between Fitchburg Municipal Airport and Hell was arguably that Fitchburg had a better jukebox.

NEW YORK (AP) - JOAN JETT may be 45 now, but that doesn't mean she's outgrown punk.

"I never subscribed to the idea that punk rock means you have to play fast and scream," Jett told Newsday in Sunday's editions. "To me, it means being a rebel, being an underdog, being outside and doing it yourself."

With a new album, SINNER, released on her own BLACKHEART RECORDS label, Jett is reintroducing herself to a generation that probably knows her only as that lady who sang I Love Rock 'n' Roll in the early '80s.

Armed with her first new album in ten years, 'SINNER', punk rock's long reigning queen is hitting the road once again. This time, JOAN JETT is headlining the Warped Tour, which, over the years, has become known as a venue for punk rock, pop-punk and ska bands. "They asked if I was interested in touring this summer and I thought it was a great idea," said Jett, a resident of Long Beach since 1979 and who also owns a home with her long time producer, collaborator, manager and friend, KENNY LAGUNA, in Rockville Centre. "Kevin Lyman, [the founder of Warped Tour,] wanted to bring in bands that have a reputation of being where punk rock started."

So far the Warped Tour, which is scheduled to come to Nassau Coliseum on Aug. 5, has been a "blast" and a "big, rolling, punk rock circus," Jett said. She's been having a good time touring with the younger, mostly male, bands, which often hold her punk rock stature in reverence. She plays on the main stage with many of the better-known bands, such as NOFX, Bouncing Souls, Thursday and Less Than Jake, which are bands she greatly respects, but she's also excited at the prospect of checking out the lesser known bands on the tour throughout the summer. So far, she said, the camaraderie has been great.

Laguna also said that he was looking forward to the touring with the younger bands. "Joan is interacting with them incredibly well," he said.

In a rock ’n’ roll landscape dominated largely by phonies and bullshit, you’ve got to give props to JOAN JETT for consistently keeping it real. Sure, she’s had her creative ups and downs over the years, as with any artist who’s managed to survive some three-odd decades in the biz, but the bottom line is that with Jett, truly, what you see is what you get.

Having rubbed shoulders with the woman many, many times over the course of our lives, I can tell you with absolute certainty that what you get with Jett is a chick whose passion for rock ’n’ roll is, seriously, probably unprecedented. Not to mention she’s a way underrated rhythm guitar player. Rest assured, when Jett gets up to sing her 1982 mega-hit "I Love Rock ’n’ Roll" for the sixth millionth time in her life, she means every line of it—still!

Her latest record with her band the BLACKHEARTS, SINNER, has been garnering rave reviews, and hey, if there’s any justice in the world—which of course, we all know there isn’t—might even saddle our proudly androgynous miss with yet another hit single by way of the old Sweet song, "ACDC."

DARIEN CENTER - One hundred bands. Ten stages. Unbearable heat. Water much more appealing than beer.

It must be Vans Warped Tour time again.

On Tuesday, a huge crowd - impossible to estimate in number, as the throng spread across a vast space on the Darien Lake grounds and wandered freely among stages, commercial villages, and tents where one might meet many of the bands performing during the festival - braved the mid-90-degree heat and awe-inspiring humidity to witness one of the most smoothly run and consistently successful annual tours currently hitting the boards.