Warped Tour 2006
I had been looking forward to this year's Warped Tour for some time now. I mean, why wouldn't I? 8 Stages of live music, morning to night, my kind of thing! This year was excellent, despite the 4 hours of rain, and I just thought I would share some of the festivities with you, my readers... if there are any...
I arrived at Tinker Field around 9:15am, as my ticket said gates opened at 10. Well... the ticket was wrong. Gates opened at 11 so I sat in line and joyfully thought about the poor souls who would get stuck in tremendously bad traffic, and outrageous parking fees.
After gates opened, I was on my way. My first mission was to locate the giant schedule to see what bands were playing at what time. For any of you who have never been to a Warped Tour, the biggest bands don't always play last. All the bands are set on the stages, but the times change daily as they all draw numbers out of a hat in the morning. The first band on my list:
Emery. I'm not a HUGE fan of them, but they put on a decent show, and I'm actually MORE of a fan now. Surprisingly enough, there were alot of people here already at noon.
Next up:
State Radio. A fun little Indie/Reggae style band with the clearly shaggy lead singer. They were really good. I would have bought their CD, but I only had 20$ to last me the day.
The ShiraGirl stage is a smaller stage set up specifically to showcase bands with female lead singers. This particular band was called the DollyRots, and I actually REALLY liked them. They were alot of fun, very upbeat.
Next up was ZoX, an indie/reggae/ska band, they sounded alot like Sublime actually. I had heard of them before and made it a point to stop by and check out some of their set. Very bouncy, great time.
I loved ZoX's fiddle player, very interesting touch to the music.
Next up on the main stage were Punk Rock Icons the Bouncing Souls. VERY good band. All the mohawk sporting punks started a big circle pit for them.
The best band of the day was next up. By this time I was finally joined by Kristin and we together could watch the legendary JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS!!!
And you can watch a little clip too!
Click Here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v338/woodstocker0990/?action=view¤t=DSCN1447MOV.flv
Best show of the day. Playing the hits "Bad Reputation", "Cherry Bomb" and the obligatory "I Love Rock and Roll", Joan stole the show at only 1:30 in the afternoon.
Next up was Less than Jake. A Warped Tour favorite for their punky ska and hits such as "Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sell Outs" and "Sugar In the Gas Tank", LTJ rocked the house!
By now it had started to rain, so I only took a few more pictures.
Hellogoodbye put on a very funny show. Always entertaining. Last time I saw these guys they were dressed up as different condiments like Ketchup, Mustard, and Mayonnaise and they had a giant cardboard cutout of Beyonce on stage. This time, not so much, but they were still alot of fun. Great band!
Atlanta rocker's Cartel were up next on the Ernie Ball stage. I haven't heard too much about them, maybe a song or two, so Kristin and I decided to check them out. They were amazing. And do I need to mention that the lead singer and the bassist are incredibly hot? Well.. see for yourself... see the orange and yellow shirts? yeah. HOT.
The next band on the main stage was Paramore. Kristin and I love them. And after this performance, we love them more. This was one of our "must-see" bands on this years tour, and they put on a great show! They opened with "Pressure", played other tracks including "Whoa", "Here We Go Again", "All We Know" and more. It's amazing that Hayley, the lead singer, is only 16.
Although... I'm sorry Hayley, but as an active member of the Warped Tour Fashion Police, I'm going to have to take you in to custody...
The Last band of the nite was Motion City Soundtrack. These guys are one of my FAVORITE groups ever. Always a GREAT live band. They keep the pace, keep the audience bouncing, and just seem to love what they do and enjoy every minute of it. Kristin and I got to meet the guys earlier in the day and get a poster signed and they were all so very nice! I love it when bands do that!
I did get to catch alot of other bands, but because of the heavy rain (at times) i didn't want to take out my camera. Other great performances of the day came from Thursday, Anti-Flag, NoFx, Rise Against and more.
Overall... Warped Tour is my favorite tour of the year, and you can bet I won't ever miss one as long as I can help it!