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hot
sweaty
lots of bands
big ones
......so much to do, and so little time.
At the Warped Tour in Jacksonville on July 27th, thousands of kids got togther to praise the bands of their choice.
Over 50 bands in one day and only about 12 hours to listen, I'm surprised that this event even works. Step into my shoes
for a second, AFI (A Fire Inside) is playing on the main stage, Slick Shoes (just making it spectacular punk) is playing
on the Maurice Stage (a side stage), and on the smallest stage of them all, The Know How from Gainesville is putting on an
electric Robot Skank show that puts most bands in their grave. Not to mention that there's also tons of vendors and
merchants vying for your money, spiritual gurus vying for your soul, and about six tons of trash, composed mostly of empty
water bottles and pizza boxes, in between you and your favorite band.
I'll tell you though, the whole atmosphere was spectacular. My wife and I brought a younger friend of ours, Stephanie,
to the tour this year. It was her first concert, and the bands responses to her little self sitting in front of the
stage was phenomenal. As Stephanie rocked in front of the stage for S.T.U.N., a hard rocking punk band, the lead singer
climbed onto the roof and held his fist in the air, but before he left the stage when he came down, he picked Stephanie up
onto the stage, put her on his shoulders and carried her back stage. The security guards allowed me and my wife Amanda
to go backstage and Stephanie was chilling with the band. And you know what, before the day was over Stephanie had sat
on the shoulders of Andrew W.K., become friends with the right hand guitarist Nick (an awesome guy by the way), as well as
met Davey Havok who gave her a kiss and an autograph. Everyone was mush in her hands I suppose, I mean, she is the cutest
young girl on the planet. If only I had her charm.
All in all for Four One Forty, the highlights of the day were definately The All American Rejects, with their girl tugging
performance (I feel was the best show, God bless their electric sound), then with Andrew W.K. who gets best crowd pumping
acting. I couldn't believe how much he moves up there; the best part of Andrew's show was when they lifted up a kid
from his wheelchair and had him sing on Party Hard. I also enjoyed my first viewing of S.T.U.N., whom I'd never heard
of before. I suggest anyone to check out their hard hitting punk sound. I enjoyed their fervor. Tsunami
Bomb was the first band I saw and the female vocalist heading up this band had an excellent performance. AFI pleased
the crowd, but it was the audience that ruined their show. Despite a wonderful show, a few drunk moshers were on every
corner hurting people. I guess I was just to Indie for that. I pushed one kid to the side and got my wife out
of there and we watched the rest on pizza boxes on the side of the crowd. AFI isn't really that hard anymore, I guess
these kids didn't realize that (but then again, they were really drunk). Quick mentions go to: Dropkick Murpheys - Excellent
show, I loved the Irish American flag - I'm from Boston ya know. Vendetta Red - I heard your good but I almost entirely
missed your set - sorry. The Know How - See them at the warped tour, their energy is electric, I love Skyler - the singer
that is. Less Than Jake - still what they were and always will be. And to all the other bands, congradulations, it was
a nice day in the Jacksonville Fairgrounds - despite the sunburn, peace out.
reported by daniel griswold at 9:54 am January 28th, 2003
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