Warped Tour 2000
Wednesday July 19th @ LaSalle Park, Buffalo, NY

The Vans Warped Tour has always been a two-headed beast. On the one hand, you have an opportunity to experience a whole day of great punk rock bands, along with skateboarding demos, tons of merchandise tents, and other cool exhibits. On the other hand, it is an outdoor festival, which means crappy sound, long line-ups and exorbitant prices for food and beverages, musclehead jocks who like to bodysurf, and long term exposure to the sun (or other, possibly more severe, weather problems). As the Warped Tour gets more popular, however, the cons are beginning to outweigh the pros. More people translates to bigger venues, more commercial sponsorship, higher ticket prices, and less focus on smaller indie bands.

It was a tough call about whether or not to go this year. The line up was looking pretty good, but unfortunately we had seen most of the bands numerous times before. I couldn’t really find anything to get excited about, especially considering that at least three of the main headlining bands had just released new albums which I personally had been less than impressed with. We talked about it, and basically left everything up in the air until at the last minute, when we finally decided to go.

I think one of the main reasons we ended up going this year was because we didn’t go last year. I say this not because we feel that we missed out on an amazing experience last year, but rather because our crappy experiences from the years prior to that were probably long forgotten. We were naïve enough to think that this time around things would be much better.

Two years ago, the Toronto show was held at The Docks, which was a terrible outdoor venue. There was no grass or dirt, only gravel. This meant that huge dust clouds were being stirred up anywhere that people were dancing, and that by the end of the day we were completely caked in dirt and dust. We certainly were not anxious to repeat that experience, so we were not going to the Toronto date if it was at The Docks again. (Actually, I heard that last year it was held in the parking lot instead. That still sounds pretty crappy though.) This year, as it turns out, they had to move the Toronto date to a bigger venue: Molson Park, which is actually in Barrie. That seemed like a long way to drive for Warped Tour. So we turned our attention to the Buffalo show, which was being held at Lasalle Park, as it is every year. Lasalle Park is actually a really nice venue, as long as it doesn’t rain. (Which it did, the last time we were there. All day long. That sucked too.)

So, anyways, we were on our way to Buffalo probably by 11:00 am. After a quick stop at the duty free shop to grab some American coin, we crossed over the border. We then proceeded to drive throughout the American streets blaring Iron Maiden, Stan Bush, and the German version of “Barbie Girl” by Aqua, looking for a parking spot. At the time, we didn’t pay much attention to exactly where we were, we were just following the crowds of people. Later on we would find out that it wasn’t the best area of town. Not that there actually are any nice areas of Buffalo.

We arrived at the front gate to hear Millencolin playing on the main stage. Damnit! This was the second time I missed them at Warped Tour because they went on first. At the time I didn’t really care much, but now that I look back on the day, I realize that I really wanted to see those crazy Swedish boys rock out.

By the time we actually got inside the park, Jurassic 5 were just taking the stage. I didn’t get much of a chance to watch their set as I was checking out the layout of the place, and trying to find the schedule for the day. However, what I did hear of them was pretty cool. Rap, for the most part, is not my thing, but there is something very exciting about seeing hip hop played live. Especially old school style hip hop.

Good Riddance were up next. They were one of the few bands that I was familiar with, but had never seen live before. They really impressed me. Their last couple of releases have been going in a more hardcore direction that I am not too keen on, but what I saw of their set featured mostly songs off “Ballads of the Revolution” and my favourite GR album, “A Comprehensive Guide to Moderne Rebellion”. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay to see the rest of their set because I had to make my way over to the Volcom stage to check out the Planet Smashers.

The Smashers were definitely one of the highlights of the day for me. I’ve seen them play before many many times, but it didn’t matter. They just never get dull. If anything, they keep getting better every time I see them. They know how to play ska, and they know how to have fun. Their songs were so infectious that they had everyone in the area dancing and moving around. They played a great mixture of classics from their 3 full length albums. No new songs, but hey, that’s alright. A good time was had by all. It was about then that I realized that I had forgotten to wear sunscreen. This would prove to be less than brilliant.

Once the Planet Smashers had wrapped up their set, we were still trying to work out our itinerary. We headed towards the South stage, and as soon as we were in earshot, we were met with a short lecture on the evil of corporations… We exchanged amused looks as we realized that there could be no doubt that Anti-Flag were currently on stage. It did seem a little odd to me that a band who are so strong in their political views would choose to play the Warped Tour, where corporate evils abound. I guess they felt it was an opportunity for them to reach a wider audience, and I really can’t argue with that. Either way, I wasn’t all that excited that they were playing. Apparently Justin Sane had previously been sick for 3 weeks, and Anti-Flag had nearly dropped off the tour, but a friend of theirs was able to fill in on guitar while the bassist took over the vocal duties temporarily. Whoopee. Justin Sane, looking like a young Mike Ness, performed a Billy Bragg-ish solo song, and then the band ripped into Drink Drank Punk, followed by a couple other anthemic punk songs, much to our chagrin. Then, as we were heading off towards the Tiki Tent, we could hear the kids eagerly chanting the words to “Die For Your Government”. Again, we exchanged amused looks and lobsided grins.

We hit up the Tiki Tent at approximately 2:15 pm to catch the second set of the day from The Stingrays, an extremely young but talented three-piece surf band from California. I’m not quite sure how they got added to the Warped Tour, but I’m really glad they did, because they were one of the most interesting bands that we were witness to that day. Unfortunately, they got stuck playing off in a corner of the park where not many kids were able to watch them play. The first song they played may have been a cover, because I recognized it. They seemed a little unsure about playing in front of just a handful of people, but they got better as they went along. The band was completely shocked when someone from the crowd actually called out a request for one of their songs. (Apparently he had found them on MP3.com.) During one of their songs, we heard a loud bang and looked behind us to see a guy getting launched out of a cannon!!! Rock!! That was when I remembered that the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were currently playing on the main stage. I felt really bad when we decided to leave about halfway through the Stingrays’ set to see the Bosstones. I felt even worse when I found out that they had done an interesting Jimi Hendrix medley at the end of their set, and I wasn’t around to see it. Unfortunately, this is the Warped Tour we’re talking about, and some sacrifices had to be made.

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones… well what can I say? Judging by the magnitude of the crowd that had gathered around the main stage at this point, these guys were definitely one of the main reasons people had shelled out 26 american dollars to come to this show. I couldn’t see much during their set, and there was a huge circle pit in front of us, with a large group of shirtless jocks throwing themselves at each other. The Bosstones, decked out in matching green shirts, steered clear of material from their new album, but still didn’t shy away from hits like “The Impression That I Get” and “Someday I Suppose”. By the end of their half hour, a large group of the shirtless jocks had somehow made their way to the stage to stand triumphantly alongside Dickie. Their set was pretty good, but it was at this point that I really began to get annoyed with many of the people in attendance. This trend would continue throughout the day.

At this point, Save Ferris took to the South stage, and we decided to take a break to get refreshments. The Distillers were also playing at about this time, on one of the side stages, but by the time I realized this it was too late. I am sorry I missed them, I have a feeling they are an excellent live band.

Mxpx were the next band to hit the main stage. Yawn. A few years ago these guys seemed fresh and exciting to me. Since then, their music has gotten really watered down and become quite mediocre. Their performance at Warped Tour this year wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t anything to write home about either. I was digging it when they played that one song with the long title from Slowly Going The Way of the Buffalo, but then they lost me when they followed with a bunch of new material. They had a habit of stretching out some of their songs by just sort of stopping and talking aimlessly to the crowd in the middle of them. It really threw off any momentum they had managed to build up throughout the set. They closed with an upbeat rendition of Punk Rawk Show.

Now I was getting really hungry, so we grabbed some cheese pizza while Papa Roach did their thing on the South stage. Getting food was easier this year than in past years, although no less expensive. For some reason, the cheese pizza they sell at the Warped Tour always tastes great. Even though it looks disgusting and smells disgusting, I am always so hungry that my body tells me it is the best damn pizza I’ve ever had. Anyways, regarding Papa Roach, well, I honestly didn’t pay much attention to what they were doing. All I know is that there was a lot of swearing along with the standard N Sync jokes in between songs, and all of the jocks seemed to be enjoying them. They were loud, they were heavy, they were macho… what more could you ask for?

Next up: punk rock legends NOFX, backing up their newest release, “Pump Up The Valuum”. There was no disputing the fact that all the kids love these guys. As soon Fat Mike said that the beach balls being thrown around were annoying, all the kids immediately wrestled with each other to see who would get to pop the balls like good little punk rockers. Anyways, if you know NOFX, you know that they like to talk a lot while they are on stage. Their antics never fail to amuse me. They opened with Linoleum, and played a lot of the standard songs. No, they didn’t play The Decline, unfortunately. That would have ruled if they just came on and played one long song though. It would be interesting to see. All I really have to say about NOFX is that the neopolitan coloured guitar amp was neat.

As soon as NOFX had exited stage left (or is that stage right?), we were faced with another tough decision. Gob or AFI? Well, for us anyways, the answer was pretty simple: gob won, hands down. We got to one of the side stages just in time to catch Tom from gob, sporting a sweet meshback hat, treating the audience to a one man dancing show. Gob were tight, as usual, and put on a great show. I always find it amazing how gob manages to play some of their older, pop-punk songs along with a selection of heavier, more emotional sounding songs from their latest album, and still make it sound like it all came from the same band. They tried out a newly written song from their upcoming album. It was a poppy sort of love song, and it left me wondering, could this mean yet another stylistic change for gob?

After gob ripped through Self Appointed Leader, I thought I would run over to check out what AFI were doing with their time slot. I arrived just as they went into their last song of the day, a cover of the Misfits’ Halloween. Lead singer Davey had the whole horror Misfits image going for him too; dressed all in black, with black make-up around his eyes and a devilock as well. They put forth a lot of intensity, and I felt a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to see their whole set.

After this, we split up. Some of us went to check out Bif Naked’s set, while others were eager to see the Suicide Machines, and still others wanted to secure a reasonably good location for Green Day. I couldn’t see or hear much of the Suicide Machines from where I was standing, but to the best of my knowledge, they also opted to play little or no material from their newest album. I just don’t get it. What’s the point of making a new album if you have no intention of playing the songs live?

Finally, it was the moment that almost everyone had been waiting for. Green Day scrambled on stage with mischievous looks on their faces and leapt right into Welcome To Paradise. They followed that up with Hitchin’ A Ride, and then followed that up with Geek Stinkbreath. A pattern slowly began to form. It seemed Green Day were only playing the hits. Quite literally, nothing else. Each song was met with a roar from the crowd as people realized “Hey, wait a minute, I know that one too!” I was finding it really difficult to enjoy myself, what with all the body surfers kicking me in the head. Towards the end, they played their version of Operation Ivy’s Knowledge, which may not be a radio hit, but is certainly one of their more popular songs. They pulled someone out of the crowd to play guitar for the end of the song. Unfortunately, it really started to drag on after a while because it took them like 10 minutes to find someone who was competent enough to play three chords on a guitar. They finished by playing a request for Going to Pasalacqua, and then trashed their instruments and lit the drum kit on fire. Actually I doubt that the drum kit was harmed in any way, since it was doused in lighter fluid. Green Day definitely know how to give the crowd what they want, but unfortunately, I saw an almost identical performance by them a year or two ago at Edgefest. It wasn’t as exciting knowing that they had probably done the exact same thing a million times before. I am kind of puzzled though, as to why they would play all of the radio singles at the Warped Tour. I can understand them doing that at Edgefest, which is a big commercial radio music festival with tons of other commercial bands and casual music fans. But the Warped Tour is primarily a punk rock show, with punk rock kids, and I am sure that there were more than a few people who wanted to hear some of Green Day’s older material. As for me, well, I wanted to hear more stuff from their album Insomniac. Oh well.

After Green Day, people were beginning to slowly trickle out of the park. We wouldn’t be sticking around for much longer, so I decided to do one last tour of the place, checking out the merch booths and stuff. I was disappointed to find that a lot of the booths had already packed up, or were in the process of packing up. I was also disappointed cause it seemed like no one was giving away free stuff anywhere! Long Beach Dub All Stars were on stage during this, and I temporarily stopped to watch when they played one of my favourite Sublime songs, “April 29, 1992″. I figured their set would be mostly mellow dub with a lot of sparking up of the J’s. I was surprised to hear the All Stars doing a couple punkier tunes though. I think a lot of the kids had smoked all their shit earlier in the day though. Too bad!

Hot Water Music was the last band we would check out on this year’s Warped Tour. They played with a lot of passion and aggression, but unfortunately for them, the sound system was really holding them back. The guitars sounded like nothing more than a mush of noise, and all their songs quickly got monotonous. We all agreed that we probably would have enjoyed them more if they had played earlier in the day, and we decided to ditch while they were in the middle of their last song.

As we left, we walked past the South stage again where Snapcase were dedicating songs to their posse or something. I didn’t even turn my head to watch them, partially because my neck was burnt to a crisp, but mostly because I wasn’t the least bit interested.

On our way back to the car there were all kinds of police cars patrolling the streets. They advised us to hurry back to our car because it was “getting dark quickly”. That was a little unnerving. We began to realize that we had parked in the projects or something. It felt like we were in the movie Judgement Night. Luckily, we found our way back to the van without incident, and then crossed back into Canada and found the nearest 7-11 so we could replenish our bodily fluids.

The Warped Tour is definitely designed for punk rock kids with a very short attention span. This year there were 6 freakin’ stages. That is just crazy. When there are that many stages you know that you are going to be constantly having to choose between more than one band that you really want to see. By the end of the day, you have seen a lot of stuff, but you feel like you haven’t really seen anything at all. The sets are too short, there is simply not enough time to digest everything that is going on around you.

This year’s show was fun, but I can’t help but feel that I had seen it all before. I think the Warped Tour could benefit by adding a better variety of bands. Some people have complained about adding hip hop to the mix. If you ask me, I think it’s great, but it should not stop there. Let’s get more indie rock bands, more surf bands, hell, even more electronic bands! If the Warped Tour wants to continue to be successful, they are going to have to keep branching out in the future. I am definitely getting tired of seeing the same old thing every year. — Sean