Rock N Roll Experience - Warped Tour 07

Ok, so when you think of the Summertime, if you are a concert goer, there's a few key touring music festivals that tour every year, & the Warped Tour is the largest punk oriented tour out there! The Warped tour is usually thought of as a punk oriented tour, but to be honest with you, I've always seen loads of metal tossed in along with skw & other forms of rock, & this year, Killswitch Engage is as metal as it gets! Anyways, more on that later!

The weather was absolutly beautiful, I mean it was kinda hot in the sun, but when isn't it? There was no rain, the humidity wasn't bad, so I'd call the weather ideal for a rock show & most of the bands agreed! One thing I have to admit, particularly this year, the Warped Tour crowd is primarily a younger crowd, & when you see older people there they stand out like a soar thumb which is pretty funny actually...the old men there look even older than normal & I can't say anything bad about that really, because I saw alot of parents there with their kids for a fun day of music!

The firs band of the day that I saw was Anberlin & they were interesting..the guys are kinda glammy, they were definitley wearing girls cloths, & they rocked pretty hard...the emo kiddies really dug these guys!

If you've never seen the Warped tour before, there's usually 3 stages or more going at once, so it's impossible to see everything, but I did my best to run back & forth between stages, take pics, & talk with bands, so needless to say, this is a show that's kinda like running a marathon at times & yes, by the end of the day, you WILL be tired! It's actually even hard to figure out where to begin the show review, I mean the vendor stands were cool & offered everything from oeverpriced sunglasses & studded belts to Bob Marley flags & cd's from every single band there, & there was also some politically motivated booths.

Vincent Black Shadow were good...they played a much larger stage this year as opposed to last year & the crowd seemed to love them!

I got to chat with Bobby, the former drummer from STUN & he was telling me that the band never officially ended, it's just that the guys couldn't get things together & hopefully one day the band will get back together & Bobby will spike his hair & dye it black again! Bobby was offered drumming jobs in She Wants Revenge & My Chemical Romance, but he wasn't interested in those gigs! Bobby later commented to me that one particular acoustic driven act was making it like Woodstock & this WASN'T Woodstock!

Chiodos were great live..I'd seen them before, but seeing them in the daylight, outdoors was interesting & their guitarist has the dirtiest feet ever! I asked him if he ever wore shoes or was afraid of getting his feet hurt or infected, because his toe nails are literally brown, & his response was no, he likes being barefoot & didn't care about that stuff! In response to his attire (the short shorts & boobie top), he replied that the shorts were better for movement & the shirt was given to them from some breast cancer thing & he wore it because it was funny.

Haste the Day rocked the ampitheatre & their set was alot heavier & way more exciting than their cd is, although I am not knocking their cd, it's just that their stage show is ALL energy! I spoke with the band, but my interview was accidentally erased, so I apologize to the guys..they were great, & I had a fun little interview with them talking about Guns N Roses & Slash & old school metal bands!

Paramore was the surprise band of the day for me..I was told by a few people that they were excellent, & I thought, sure, ok, we'll see...well, guess what...the band is a poppt, heavy, hard rockin' machine that's got positive energy, cool vibes, & their singer is cute as a button with very blonde hair that was just as yellow as her pants, if not more! Musically, Paramore was my favorite band because they just brought something different!

Coheed & Cambria rocked the place with shredding guitar solo's & I kept thinking to myself, wow, that guy's gotta be sweltering under that HUGE mop of hair that's very similiar to Sideshow Bob from the Simpsons! I only saw about 10 minutes of their set because I had to run back over to the side stages to get more pics, so I apologize for my limited reviews on each bands set!

During Killswitch Engage's set, Adam was wearing a viking helmet, & my friend Greg was taking pics alongside of me up in the pit area, & after we were done, Greg was telling me his head hurt, & I asked why, & he goes, that horn from his helmet fell on my head & it hurt! Apparently, the horns on his helmet were harder than they looked! Killswitch's bassist cut his are pretty bad prior to the show & was doing fine by show time!

Bad Religion were probably the essential, ultimate Warped Tour group on the bill...Greg's vocal are pure punk & his lyrics are political & powerful, & Brian's guitar playing is really amazing..to be honest, I think Brian's guitar playing it to clean to be punk, but overall, Bad Religion was the best punk band on the bill. New Found Glory got an amazing response response as well, but I found their set to me more poppy then the Bad Religion set, but the crowd probably got off more on the New Found Glory set & NFG did a cover of Sixpense's "Kiss Me" which was actually pretty good!

I left after New Found Glory finished..there was another band or so, but to be honest with you, I was there for most of the day, I was tired, I saw what I wanted to see & it was time to go! Warped Tour 2007 is over for Maryland now, & I think most people left this show feeling fulfilled, & to be honest with you, the way this tour runs, certain other touring festivals could learn a thing or 2 from how Warped operates, because Warped IS the smoothest running festival out there in the USA! Oh yeah, I almost forgot..there was Mexican Wrestler's walking around too, but I only ran into those guys in passing...that was something I've never seen at a rock show...Mexican Wrestler's sporting those weird masks..Only at Warped! lol

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