Warped. So many bands on so many stages and so little time. Seriously, it would take at least a week of following the tour to see every band perform just once. Between the interviews, photos, and reviews, this was a day to pace ourselves.

The first thing we did, before having a chance to see any bands perform, was to interview Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage. He was expecting to go on shortly after the interview, so in the interest of time he held a group press-conference rather than on-on-one interviews. He looked a little wary of us half-dozen press geeks gathered in a semi-circle around him, but was very cool to talk to.

Later on, we learned that Killswitch Engage swapped slots with As I Lay Dying, I assume so they could play later to the home town crowd. As I Lay Dying walked out onto the 13 stage and the crowd immediately started going crazy. The most brutal mosh pit of the day formed during their set. The crowd was throwing water bottles, hats, and shoes (yes, shoes) into the air. Men and women (boys and girls) alike were trying their hand at crowd surfing.

As I Lay Dying sounded great. Their set was very tight, and their 30 minute performance was over too quickly. I look forward to listening to their upcoming release, An Ocean Between Us.

We headed back to the press are to interview Rob Kirkham, then we had a bite to eat before we went to check out The Vincent Black Shadow on the Hurley.com stage. A decent sized crowd had gathered in the amphitheater. Cassandra Ford is very captivating to watch and listen to, while the Kirkham brothers, (Rob on guitar, Anthony on drums, and Chris on bass), along with Mary Ancheta on keyboard, rip it up on stage. Rob is one of the more energetic guitarist I've seen live. He was erratically moving all over the stage, and hamming it up for the crowd.

There were so many people in the crowd that it was very difficult to navigate between stages to catch the different acts. Next we ploughed through the massive crowd and headed over to the Lucky stage to check out Pepper. This Hawaiian band mixes elements of reggae, punk, hip-hop, and pop in their music. Not only are they tremendously talented, but their unique rapport with the crowd makes them a fun band to watch.

At the Hurley stage was Gallows, further proof that UK punk rock is far from dead. These guys are the real deal. Vocalist Frank Carter taunted the crowd. "Seen any good bands today?" Then crowd yelled "yeah". "Don't lie, this is the Warped tour" he quipped. At one point he also jumped into the crowd, and incited the crowd to start a circle-mosh around the sound booth. Exhausted and bloodied, he pulled himself out of the pit to complete the set.

Back at the Lucky stage, Flogging Molly was up. One thing I've notice consistently with the bands playing on this tour is that all of them made great efforts to invoke audience participation. Flogging Molly had the entire crowd singing along to their Irish-American punk-folk rock.

Bad Religion came on next. I've been enjoying their latest release New Maps of Hell, and was really looking forward to this performance. The set was a balanced mix of new songs, like New Dark Ages, and their older work. They kicked ass, and this time it was me singing along. What was striking, as these punk veterans worked the stage, was the fact that a large percentage of the Warped crowd hadn't even been born yet when they release their first album.

We headed back over to the 13 stage to check out Killswitch Engage. We had heard Adam Dutkiewicz would not be performing due to lingering back issues, so we were all pleasantly surprised to see him walk onto the stage. Vocalist Howard Jones joked "Adam's back!" after the first song. Adam taunted the emo-friendly crowd, taking so much time that I feared they would run out of time to play. I watched the set from the side. It was amazing to watch the waves of crowd surfers during Holy Diver. The home town crowd was insane.

Also watching the Killswitch Engage performance nearby was Andrew Borstein of Monty Are I. Disappointingly, we had missed their set earlier, and the autograph line at their tent was very long, so we took this opportunity to briefly say 'hello'.

The last act we caught was the pop-punk act Paramore. They opened their set with Misery Business which immediately enlivened the crowd. Many of their songs are structured for crowd interaction during a live show so it's not surprising that Paramore had some of the best crowd sing-alongs of the day. Hayley Williams puts out so much energy, and is such a talented vocalist. I still can't believe such stage presence comes from an eighteen-year-old... and I've seen it firsthand.

Nearly ten hours after it began, it was time to end this journey. We met a lot of cool people. We walked away from this show tired, but satisfied. I wonder what next year's tour will bring?

| 08.09.2007 | Review by J. Pierson |