The end of summer is quickly approaching which means a few things here in South Florida: heavy, relentless rain storms every day, back-to-school time, and of course, Warped Tour comes rolling into town.
For the past ten years running, Van’s Warped Tour has visited South Florida, bringing along with it the hottest and freshest acts in punk and hard rock, and this year was no exception. Preceding the hometown headliners, New Found Glory, was a slue of bands sure to rock your socks off. This year’s roster of over 50 bands focused more on the up-and-comers than it did the seasoned veterans of the punk rock scene. Bands like Sugarcult, Taking Back Sunday, Story of the Year and Yellowcard rounded out the diverse list of acts slated to rock the crowd at the Pompano Beach Amphitheatre.
However, this year, there seemed to be a subtext lying underneath the traditional punk rock facade. “Bush” was the buzzword of the day and it was on the tip of everyone’s tongue that was in front of a microphone. By late afternoon, the tour was beginning to sound more like an anti-Bush rally than a rock concert, looking back, I honestly can’t recall a band that DIDN’T voice their opinion on our country’s current political situation. Statements ranging from subtle encouragement to get out and vote, all the way to “Fuck Bush”, these bands took advantage of the fact that they had thousands of young ears paying attention to what they had to say.
In response to the political undertones of the day’s events, Tim Mcilrath, lead singer of Rise Against, one of the more political bands on the billing said, “Punk rock has a positive outlook. Something is always being said, we sing about this stuff because we love America”. His political outlook was inspiring, to say the least, he went on to discuss how these people are messing with the ideals of the nation, and that punk rock has been outspoken about such injustices for quite some time now. Punk rock has its foundations set in politics, or anti-politics for that matter, and will most likely continue to be that way even long after Bush is out of office.
With punk rock’s notorious optimism for the future of the country, their optimism for the future of punk rock is even more positive. Marko 72, guitarist for Sugarcult, said the fresh acts in punk rock today and on the Warped Tour circuit provide “a wellspring of inspiration”. He went on to say that he loves the opportunity that the Warped Tour provides to him to discover new bands, to see these hungry bands going out there day after day playing their hearts out, “They just mean it”, he exclaimed. Marko mentioned a number of bands at the Warped Tour that he had his eyes on, they include Motion City Soundtrack, The Matches, Waking Ashland and Army of Freshman, to name a few. Sugarcult may have only stepped onto the scene recently with their latest CD, Palm Trees and Power Lines, but they have been in the game for sometime. Sugarcult has only been in the public eye since their first album, Start Static, debuted in 2001, but the band, hailing from Santa Barbara, has been together since 1998. Compared to most of the acts on this year’s Warped Tour stages, over a half decade in the game makes them wise, experienced veterans.
One group who has more punk rock cred than almost all the Warped Tour acts combined is W.T. regulars, Bad Religion. The 25-year veterans of punk rock, Bad Religion are like the godfathers of the Warped Tour. Bad Religion exemplifies all that is punk rock, with 13 albums under their belt, their latest album, The Empire Strikes First, is their most political to date, according to Alternative Press magazine. Bad Religion bassist, Jay Bentley said, “We’re happy to say what really is happening … this is an unbelievably important time in our political history”. He went on to say that “this election is the most important, by far” in our lifetimes.
Politics was the running theme of the day’s concert lineup, and with good reason. Those fans in attendance are the exact people who need to vote: those who didn’t vote in 2000, either because they were too young or too lazy.
Bentley is an advocate of PunkVoter.com, which had a booth on the concert grounds that was visited by a lot of the bands who wanted to contribute by handing out flyers or just by talking to passers by. “People need to spend at least a minute to realize that this is about them”, said Bentley, “It’s one thing to be involved, it’s another to be active”. In this day and age, punk rock could use more bands like Bad Religion.
Each band, regardless of popularity, talent or experience, was allowed no more than a half hour each to perform. This did not become a problem until the show closers, New Found Glory finished their set. After a kick-ass 30 minute performance, New Found Glory had no choice but to ignore the chants of “ONE MORE SONG” by the crowd, because like it or not, they were not allowed to come back out for an encore. It was at this time that the crowd started to get a bit unruly when the chants went from “ONE MORE SONG” to “F-ING PLAY”. Not long after that, the house lights went on, and not long after that, police on horse back came riding out through the concert grounds in order to disperse the crowd. Appropriate? I’m not so sure, but I do know that it was the perfect ending to the anti-corporate themed concert, Van’s Warped Tour, presented by Samsung and Cingular.
I’ll tell you what, until that point, I didn’t really get the whole Woodstock comparison that people were making, even though there were plenty of “Mud People” walking around all day long. When I saw those cops on horseback, I felt a bit of the helplessness that those who attended Woodstock must have felt, but we now know that they weren’t helpless at all.
The day’s message of anti-corruption and anti-greed was felt by many of those in attendance, in spite of the tour’s corporate sponsorship, and hopefully the optimism and determination of this tour will follow it throughout the rest of the country.
