The James Logan Courier

By Anne Chen, Courier Editor-in-Chief
Photos by Anne Chen
There were a five main stages this year, including the Lucky Stage, Van's #13 Stage, the Hurley Stage, the Smart Punk Stage, the Hurley.com Stage, and the Ernie Ball Stage. On the Lucky Stage was The Briggs, Pepper, Yellowcard, Tiger Army, New Found Glory, The Vandals, Circle Jerk, Pennywise, and Bad Religion. Playing on #13 was Funeral For A Friend, Circa Survive, Killswitch Engage, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Chiodos, Cute Is What We Aim For, Gallows, Paramore, and Coheed and Cambria. For a complete list of the participating bands visit www.warpedtour.com .

Everyone was very all-out enthusiastic, sporting their favorite band shirts and enjoying themselves. The crowd went wild for well-known Warped veterans such as New Found Glory, Meg & Dia, Paramore, and Pennywise. Many people gathered at the stage a few sets early just to see singer Hayley Williams of Paramore sing a collection of songs from their sophomore album "Riot." Tiger Army returned from Live 105's BFD last month and were invigorated to be greeted by an even bigger fan base. Coheed and Cambria took to the stage and shredded it with their fusion of Claudio Sanchez's inimitable vocals and vicious metal. And although one of the last bands to play, L.A. punk iconoclasts Bad Religion did a great job of hyping up the crowd and closing up the day. Fists pumped up and down to "And there will be sorrow no more" from their infectious song tittled "Sorrow." As the band wrapped up their song and began to exit to stage, it was clear that fans wanted more Bad Religion, many chanting "One more song, one more song!"

Warped is also where new and upcoming bands come to make a name for themselves.

Lead singer of Yellowcard, Ryan Key, recalls himself as a teenager before his band made it big. He used to volunteer at the Warped Tour in Florida in order to pass out cassettes of his band's songs to anyone who was willing to listen. And now he is back again, this time as one of the main performers. The Matches- from our very own Oakland, California- is another band making it big at Warped this year. They were the winners of the Energizer online voting competition and were chosen out of all the other bands by fans to play an extra ten minutes longer during their set.

One of the must-see performances of the day came from an emerging British punk band called Gallows. The quintet filled the venue with their brand of ferocious post-hardcore and literally demolished the stage with explosions of energy. Singer Frank Carter and guitarist Steph Carter got very interactive with the crowd (almost a little too interactive for security to handle) and put on one of the most intense, ear-blasting performances of them all. That would explain the constant ringing in my ears that won't go away.

The weather was almost perfect, except for the relentless wind that blew the dust in every direction and clouded the view. Frontman of Bad Religion, Greg Graffin, encouraged everyone to help keep the dust to a minimum by not jumping up and down so much...And of course people responded by doing the exact opposite, leaving the entire venue looking as if a dust storm just blew through it.

Other than music, Warped also brought along The Brother's Grim and their old school traveling freak show. Revolution Mother, featuring pro skater Mike V, had their own mini skating exhibition and ramp where fans were encouraged to show their own talent. A new addition to this summer's Warped was a tent featuring Lucha Libre, better known as Mexican Wrestling.

This year the tour claims to be working with more nonprofit organizations than ever before. And sure enough, one was sure to find a way to support the cause just around every corner. An organization called Music Saves Lives helped spread word about the fight against leukemia. Over the summer when school is not in session, blood donations often drop and fewer blood is available for patients in need. To help combat this, Music Saves Lives offered VIP passes to people who donated blood at one of their donation centers. For info about how you can help, visit www.musicsaveslives.org Other organizations included Action For Animals (afa-online.org), One Campaign (one.org), Amnesty International (amnestyusa.org), and Lohaki Outreach (lohakioutreach.org).

All in all, this year's Warped Tour did prove to be the "Lucky 13th." Warped now heads off towards Canada and the rest of the states. The traveling circus will then loop back and make their last stop farther down South in Los Angeles on August 25Th. But for those who missed out on this opportunity, do not fear! There will be another great noisefest next year- hopefully at the piers.