It’s that time of year again. Yep, the Warp Tour has once again started the engines on its traveling carnival of sorts and you can bet it will be carrying a whole bunch of bands, athletes, and, well, circus freaks with it.
I don’t remember seeing this guy on previous Warp Tours, but it was pretty cool seeing someone getting blasted out of a cannon. Don’t worry though, he made it into the net just fine. In fact he made it down to earth a lot safer than some of the kids that were dropped on their heads that day while crowd surfing.
That’s right, the pit was in full force during some of the band’s performances that day. Some of the best bands there (of course this is only my opinion) were Hot Water Music, Jurassic 5, and Weezer. Hot Water Music played on the second stage around 3:00 PM and I guess the California sun was a little too much for the crowd because they didn’t really get into Hot Water Music’s set as much as I would have expected. Jurassic 5 came on later and delivered a set of intelligent hip-hop backed by the turntable wizardry of Nu-mark and Cut Chemist. These guys take hip-hop back to what it’s supposed to be, creative lyrics layered on top of music rather than the minimal beats and stupid boasts of most of today’s rap music. You should definitely check these guys out if you get a chance.
Weezer also played a good set and the crowd response was a little better for them than it had been for the rest of the non-punk bands that day. I guess that had to do with the sun beginning to set and the pavement cooling off. Some of the bands that are on the tour that I missed are Green Day, NOFX, MXPX, Milencolin, and The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones. My biggest complaint is that each band only gets to play for 30 minutes, I would have liked to have been able to hear them a little longer.
I missed a lot of the bands that day because I was watching the Vert ramp being dominated by legendary skater, Steve Cabellero alongside bike riders Lee Ramsdell and Rick Thorne. All three of these guys were riding really well that day, along with a bunch of skaters that I didn’t recognize.
The Warp Tour is on the road now and if they aren’t coming to your town, they are probably coming to a town nearby. I would definitely recommend checking it out if you are into music, sports, or guys being shot out of cannons. The entertainment factor is easily worth the price of admission.
