2002 was the last year I went to a Warped Tour. It was fuckin’ horrible. There’s was a ridiculous amount of stages and an abundance of shitty bands. The breaking point came when I was trying to watch Goldfinger on the main stage, but couldn’t hear them over the Union stage which was positioned facing the two main stages and was much louder. Lame shit. Now that all these make out clubbing, black market wearing emo-screamo-core clones are taking over the world, it’s no surprise they’re now the ‘highlight’ (no pun intended) of the Tour. Not only have they brought their sucky music with them. Their rockstar attitudes and corporate sponsors have tagged along for the ride. I saw a short clip of Yellowcard’s performance on MuchNews and couldn’t help but notice the giant inflated Pepsi 6 pack in the background. Very nice.
Anyways, if you’ve attended past Warped Tours and miss the good old days of returning home from a punk shows covered in bruises. You’ll probably enjoy Chart Attack’s review.
Grumble as this jaded reviewer might, it comes mostly from bearing witness to an outright division within the tour. Sentiments ran thusly: the old guys who remember what punk “used to be,” sounding like tired grandpas afraid to let the new guard take over. The young ‘uns, who forget that punk was created in response/direct confrontation to the bloated egos and rock star attitudes of the rest of the rock world, are now the biggest offenders. Of course, there were exceptions but they were so few and far between, they were lost in the fray.