The Warped Tour made its triumphant return to Vegas after seven long years away from our city and sweltering heat be damned, I knew I had to be there to experience the whole thing from start to finish. And hot it was, with the cramped quarters and blistering black top making it almost unbearable for the warmest parts of the day. Luckily, a nonstop barrage of great music helped take my mind off the heat and made the day well worth the sweat.
Full disclosure, I was initially disappointed with this year’s lineup. Luckily I checked out a few of the bands I hadn’t heard of in advance and realized how wrong I was. While much of the main stage wasn’t reflective of my tastes (outside of my favorite agro-political punks Against Me! and longtime favorite ska punks Less Than Jake, (each of which put on unbelievable sets) the side stages were overflowing with great talent.
Chief among these were local punk rockers Battle Born and pop punkers Last Call on the Ernie Ball and XPOZ stages. Each took the opportunity of playing the festival they grew up with seriously, giving the best performance I’d seen from each band (a hard feat considering their regularly exciting sets). At the opposite end of the spectrum location-wise was SHARKS from the UK, playing the Kia Kevin Says Stage. They were one of the main reasons I wanted to attend, having never seen them before and not sure if they would come all the way out here again anytime soon and thankfully they did not disappoint one bit.
However the Tilly’s/AP Stage is where I found myself most of the day (along with most other late-20s music fans like myself, it seems), watching country-punks Lucero, dirty reggae players The Aggrolites, ska punk septet Big D and the Kids Table and the street punks in Street Dogs (including a special guest appearance by Against Me! drummer Jay Weinberg, who scaled the mountainous stage speakers to belt out a cover of Black Flag’s “Rise Above”).
The Nintendo 3DS Stage served as the sister stage to the Tilly’s stage and had plenty of exciting performances. The Wonder Years in particular, who along with Against Me!, tied for best set of the day in my eyes. Frontman Dan “Soupy” Campbell always manages to make these large shows feel more intimate, something that is particularly important with such personal lyrics. This time was no exception, with Campbell treating the largest side stage crowd I saw that day by leaping onto the barricade and sharing the mic for set closer “Washington Square Park,” the whole audience singing every word.
After seven long years without a Warped, it was well worth the wait and ranks with the best editions of my youth. Hopefully they don’t make us wait seven more years to experience it again.
Photos by Emily Matview | https://www.flickr.com/photos/holdfastnow/
and Tyler Newton | http://500px.com/spottedlens
The Aggrolites were my favorite to see this year at Warped….Excited to see them again in San Diego!
And, great pictures! 🙂
loved the reggae vibes this year courtesy of the aggrolites, expendables, pepper, and passafire!