Vans Warped Tour Entertainment Art Alpine Valley Tinley Park, IL August 2, 2008

Granted, Warped tour has grown tremendously in the past years and has created quite a buzz, the show has now expanded itself for all crowds and generations, from the “newly” famous Katy Perry, all the way to old school punk from Pennywise, electronic based Cobra Starship to the witty and charismatic style Say Anything. And as Warped tour had its final bow recently in California, many of us in Chicago are still recouping from the show at the beginning of the month and psyching ourselves up for the next year to come.

As the gates of the First Midwest Bank Amphitheater opened at 10 am, many emo teens ran to their nearest stages to catch the first act of the morning, kicking off at 11 am. But it wasn’t just one stage that they all rushed to. Their anxiety was clear as day on their faces as groups of friends split up to pick and choose from the eight primary stages: Hurley.com, Hurley, Skate Ramp, Kevin Says, Ernie Ball, Smartpunk, Route 66 and Highway 1 (not including the six smaller sponsored stages). At the speed of Warped is going, next year we will be seeing 20 stages and as owner/founder Kevin Lyman says, “We will have a Ritz Cracker stage one day.”

First band to set the tone was Arizona screamo-based quintet, Greeley Estates at the Hurley Stage, who was placed on Warped tour for the entire three month span. But they are no virgins to the tour; third year on, still kicking ass and taking names. Similar sound to Blessthefall , the boys of Greeley Estates shows a softer side on stage. I had a chance to sit down with Telle Smith, bassist and vocalist for Greeley Estates, where he explained that Warped isn’t all glitz and glam. “Waking up at 7am and working till 9pm, can be a little rough. And if you add on the fact that for a stretch I didn’t shower for 13 days. When you feel gross working all the time during the day, you don’t feel too positive,” says Smith. “But you know at the end of the day, you’re doing what you love.” 13 days and no shower? Smith goes on to say, “Being so busy on tour, while being on a stretch where we can’t get hotels or anything… being so exhausted that when you can take a shower all you want to do is just fall asleep. You add that all together and that equals 13 days without showering.”

But it’s not just playing the short hour set daily Smith explains, “We are the ones helping our merch guy put up the merchandise, setting up our gear and making sure everything is set before our show. We don’t have the opportunity to sleep in till noon, like some other bands, because they have techs.” But on the contrary, Smith explains that Greeley Estates still finds time to relax, unwind and party. “We all know that we have responsibilities and we have to wake up, regardless of what went on the night before. Trust me, we know that,” he says. And true to form he was, when I passed by their booth and saw Telle Smith and drummer Brian Champ, trying to sell merch around 5pm.

Despite the fact that the temperature felt like it was getting worse due to the hot pavement and humidity at Tinley Park, notable bands during mid-day were veterans Story of the Year and Anberlin. We the Kings, who became uberly-popular from the inevitable MTV’s TRL, played a pretty good set minus the fact that by the time they played at 2 pm, every teenager was sweating profusely on top of each other, which made for a funky odor. They ended their set with their hit “Secret Valentine.”

To the opposite end of Hurley stage, sat the Kevin Says Stage, where There for Tomorrow jumped on stage eager as ever. Recently signed to Sub City/Hopeless Records, There for Tomorrow did a twist of a cover song, version of Punk Goes Crunk with Ice Box from Omarion. Funny, but definitely left a lasting impression. Vocal range and inspirational touch from There for Tomorrow should be dually noted.

While hiking cross-country to get into the indoor stages of Smartpunk and Hurley.com, a beer and shade was necessary. Having a change of pace from heat stroke, Four Year Strong entered into their set. Cartel meets Escape the Fate was the feel from this Massachusetts quintet.

Of course, the highly anticipated and hyped Katy Perry was essential to watch. This is her first major tour and a pretty big one if you ask me. But while the 105 lb. short black haired female sang songs like “Ur so Gay,” the crowd seemed less than pleased. It was only when she ended her set with the Billboard Top 10 “I Kissed a Girl,” did the female teens in the crowd (which only took up 10% of total population) starting singing, while their emo boyfriends were looking at the other stage eager for the band following Perry, Bring Me the Horizon. A poor decision on behalf of Warped as instead of Perry, they should have opted for Haley Williams of Paramore to play the entire tour, instead of only seven shows, Chicago not being one of them.

Thank God for Bring Me the Horizon’s force and energy, because Perry set a dull atmosphere amongst the crowd. As they entered the stage, the crowd went nuts. This five member foreign band from the United Kingdom gave the crowd exactly what they wanted and brought in a huge visual appeal. Not only did they have a break-your-jaw-back-n-arm style, lead singer Oliver Sykes was playful with the crowd. “Open the crowd up,” screamed Sykes, “not good enough, open it bigger… bigger… bigger.” As they entered into their third song, the entire floor of the indoor amphitheater was completely bare, gray cement and all. Every person was wall to wall. Within the first kick of their song, about 100 kids from each side ran full-force into each other. It looked like a scene from the movie 300 and left eyes in a stare. They gave a new meaning to word ‘mosh pit’ and definitely gave other bands a new pinnacle of live performance.

Local Chicagoans of The Audition (minus lead singer, Detroit native Danny Stevens), approached the smallest stage at Warped, local stage - Ernie Ball, towards the end of the evening. But stage size doesn’t necessarily hold true compared to crowd size. The Audition drew in the most people to Ernie Ball for the entire day. Large following, one would say. “This is our first time playing all of warped tour,” says Stevens, “we’ve only done two weeks on Smartpunk, two years ago.” But to the opposing side of Greeley Estates, “its been a party every night.” But it hasn’t been a walk in the park for The Audition. Stevens says, “We got rid of our bus in St. Louis because we couldn’t afford it. Then (lead guitarist) Seth Johnson and myself rented a minivan and did 2 ½ weeks of acoustic set. We have never done acoustics, so it was a good challenge for the Audition; after all we weren’t prepared and just kinda winged it.”

Primary headliners and newbies to Warped Tour, Say Anything was one of the most anticipated sets of the evening. After all, Say Anything was one of four bands to be the actual ‘face’ of Warped, although it is their first year round. “Warped is a completely different style of show, compared to others we have played like Bamboozle and honestly, we were scared,” says Lead guitarist Jake Turner. “But it seems like everything has worked out for the best.” Turner goes on to explain that he is so grateful to be playing Warped tour for the first time on the main stage. “I remember coming to shows back in 1996, when I was 11. I remember watching The Used back in 2000 on the smallest stage ever, same with Underoath; they all made it the huge stage,” says Turner. “But truly, it is a big honor just to be on the main stage immediately.”

Say Anything stands out on their own amongst the other bands headlining or even playing Warped Tour this year. Their strong usage of puns and metaphors in songs throws fans for a loop, because there seems to be two sides to every song. “Max [Bemis, lead singer/songwriter] is smart; there is always an underlying and indirect message within every song. It makes you go back and re-listen to the wording of each phrase. Funny thing though is… we don’t have a ‘gimmick’ to our show, clothing or style. We just play music we want to play and love,” says Turner, “and that’s rare to come by especially in the music scene today. When you think about Queen, they wanted to play really different music and they ended up being on a completely different angle and level.”

So to end a very-very long heated day, accompaniment of sunsets and underage troopers, Say Anything arrived late for their scheduled 8 pm set. An awkward entrance was displayed, when an array of fifteen people gathered on stage including Justin Pierre, lead singer from Motion City Soundtrack and Stephan Christian from Anberlin, but Max Bemis was missing. Apparently, Turner explained that Bemis had been feeling really sick from strep; disappointed to say the least when Bemis didn’t arrive with the rest of his band. But instead, Say Anything started off their hour long set with a different band member for each song; a nice surprise from the sextet from Los Angeles. “Every Man has a Molly” and “Admit it!” was sang by others, while Bemis joined the entourage for the end of their set, looking pale as could be, but still trying to belt out the lyrics to “Alive with the Glory of Love.”

Warped Tour has been standing strong now for 14 years and could be around for years to come. If there are kids that love alternative music along with teen rebellion and mosh pits, Warped tour isn’t going anywhere soon. They did pick bad and good artists to play the 2008 tour, but hey, you can’t win them all. As long as the good keeps weighing out the bad and tickets stay under the $100 range, we are all in good company.

Comments

Laurie Luvs ELS Written by Guest on 2008-09-04 10:29:44 Nice pics!!!

Written by Guest on 2008-09-04 11:46:13 awesome photos, amazing!!!!

aligirl Written by Guest on 2008-09-05 13:45:06 Awesome pictures!!!

Post477 Written by Guest on 2008-09-25 17:07:10 Great article Tiffany

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