By Kieran MacIntyre and Drake Zimmerman Sep 5, 2009, 21:55 GMT
Monsters and Critics' review team of Kieran MacIntyre and Drake Zimmerman were dispatched to cover the Warped Tour August 23 date in Carson, California.
NOFX WARPED Carson, CA August 23. Photo by Drake Zimmerman ©M&C
It was our fourth year at the Warped tour, and it seems that every year things get more expensive and smaller. There used to be more free stuff, games and activities but this year seemed more into taking your money.
The bands we were mainly looking forward to such as Bad Religion and a few others dropped out, and The Home Depot parking lot seemed more congested this year, smaller.
Seemingly there were more people than last year and they also took out some stages and free space, but it was hard to navigate around and it seemed semi-unorganized. It was humid as hell, and they had the nerve to charge three bucks for a small water bottle!
The Warped scene has definitely taken a turn from its original pop/punk/rock festival to a scene/hardcore/fashion scene. There were a lot of posers and attention freaks. There was a good mix of age groups and there ended up being a surprising yet small amount of good bands.
Our M&C favorites were Chiodos, The Devil Wears Prada, Thrice, NOFX, and Less than Jake. It great to seem many of these punk legends while they are still around, like the UK Subs, FEAR, The Adicts had the most excited crowds and great stage show and awesome set.
Famous Scream Core Band, Attack Attack performed and Saosin, screamo veterans - though they had a large crowd, most of these bands didn't exactly have the greatest performances.
Saosin - despite their many hits- the singer's vocals were off-key, but instrumentally they were on it.
All Time Low, The Devil Wears Prada, Chiodos and 3OH!3 these bands were the head honchos of Warped tour.
All Time Low, their rendition of Nothing Personal was excellent and had rendered hundreds of girls screaming mad, their crowd seemed heavily female as well.
Since we have attended Warped, it was a slightly more intimidating environment, thanks to diverse crowds that encompassed punks to forty-year olds there to see the old school bands like FEAR, and the Adicts.
This year the punk crowd is seeming to diminish with Warped tour's growing popularity - the tour started off with punk and Ska, and now has the addition of screamo bands and electro pop groups and metal.
Warped tour in June at Ventura had more of a beach community feel to it, The Warped tour in Carson, near Compton, had more of an intense punk vibe to it, especially at the punk rock stage, (punk bands in previous Warp tours used to play on the main stages, now they have been pushed to the marginalized "punk" stage)
The crowd was more violent; we saw gages, piercings and old dudes covered in tatts. The circle pits appeared more intimidating than previous Warped tours, and it was fun, despite more fights witnessed this year.
Enjoy NOFX and Saosin photos:
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