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Festival Review |
Inarguably, the most accessible and youth-driven summer tour in the U.S. is Vans Warped Tour. Originally a showcase for skate punk, third wave ska and extreme sports, Warped Tour first entered the scene in 1994, taking its name from the short-lived Warp Magazine. Since then, the Vans Warped Tour has expanded across the United States as well as overseas, featuring as many as 100 bands per show ranging in small-town local bands to big name bands, like Against Me!, Motion City Soundtrack, and Rise Against.
One of the most popular venues on the Warped Tour circuit is Comerica Park in Detroit, MI—the festival itself is held in the parking lot, with smaller stages and merchandise tents erected inside of the stadium, with open seating around the ball field to allow concert goers to rest in the shade.
July 17, 2008, temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit, worsened by the blacktop of the parking lot and the close proximity of the several thousand people in attendance. These minor discomforts were easily overlooked upon soaking in the enthusiasm from both audience and musicians. Spirits were high, saturated in the scent of beer and cigarettes and heightened by the thrumming pulses filtering through each daunting tower of amps.
Right from the get-go, the opening bands came out strong to set the day off right. The Bronx, one of the first bands to play for the day, came roaring out of the gates with an explosion of energy and furious fills by drummer, Jorma Vic. They were received by an equally animated audience as soon as they took the stage, spurring on the giant circle pits that formed in their crowd and pushing their listeners into a frenzy of sweaty, vigorously-moving bodies. Lead singer Matt Caughthran spent more time in the crowd than on stage, rolling out a long microphone lead at one point to join in the mosh before returning to finish the song.
Later on in the afternoon, Reel Big Fish’s set was delayed by technical difficulties. Normally, such hindrances are met with an uproar of malcontent from the crowd, angry concert-goers throwing empty Gatorade bottles and food containers and any other projectiles they can get their hands on (sounds extreme for a crowd comprised of mostly teens, poser-punks and emo kids, but hell, just last year at the Warped Tour in Cleveland the crowd turned violent when Paramore cut their set early because of weather conditions). Luckily, Reel Big Fish’s mad improv skills saved them from such a fate—lead singer Aaron Barrett and trumpeter Scott Klopfenstein quickly developed some entertaining banter about shitty sound equipment and the glory of Detroit before proposing an impromptu photo shoot. The whole band immediately leaped into action with amazingly synchronized movements to pose goofily at the front of the stage for the crowd to capture on film, effectively sating any uppity fans before any unmerited bitching could occur.
However, despite the enjoyment of skanking to Oreskaband and crowd surfing during Against Me!’s set, hands-down the most intensely entertaining moment of the day had to come from Cobra Starship and their performance of “Bring It (Snakes on a Plane).” Not only does the song have its own hand signal to wave along to the music (roughly mimicking the shape of a cobra with fangs extended), a sign which the fans produced with vigor when frontman Gabe Saporta asked for it, but it also features special guests on both the original recording and live performances. William Beckett, a close friend of the band and lead singer of The Acadamy Is… sent the crowd into a frenzy of screaming, emerging from backstage to accompany Saporta in the chorus of the song. Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes also made an appearance, storming the stage halfway through the performance to deliver a powerful freestyle intense enough to set a tangible electric current through the crowd. By far, the sudden appearance of these talented and well-loved performers was possibly one of the best surprises Warped Tour offered at Comerica.
The tour settled in for hibernation this August in Carson, CA, and its 2008 completion adds finality to summer’s last, shuddering death rattle.
