Warped Tour 2016 Festival • Page 59

He's not wrong regarding Warped needed a kick in the ass ala new bands/acts. But finances are tight which is why they've needed to shrink a little this year.

 

Are the main stages usually in the amphitheater for our date? A friend told me they usually are but I've only been the last two years and greatly preferred the main stages outdoors like last year. I didn't even bother trying to get in and out of the pit for any bands since I was only in there for one at a time and then leaving that area.

 

I can't stop listening to Deaweight. Hopefully I can stop by ROAM's set. I haven't liked any of the tours they have been on over here in the U.S. A 30 minute Warped Tour set would be fine with me.

 

I would like to kind of see the financial situation with Warped Tour a bit. If it's costing people $30 to park, and the tickets are expensive to begin with, I'm not sure how they're not making a good amount of money.

I definitely think Warped Tour needs new bands to play the tour, but I'm not really sure what people expect. This guy is saying that bringing in Pvris last year and Katy Perry x amount of years ago was different and exciting --- how many artists blow up using the Katy Perry route of starting as a Warped Tour performer and ending up with your own perfume among other awesome things she has done? I guess if you really wanted to change the landscape of the tour, you could bring in a larger variety of performing artists - Riff Raff being his other example idea that you could build around.

I don't know what people really expect from the lineup, I guess. I don't look at this years' lineup and think, "man, this is weak". If anything, this year has a lot of cool nostalgic acts for fans (Sum 41, Good Charlotte, Atreyu, Bullet For My Valentine, I'm sure there's stuff I'm missing) that aren't necessarily there every year, and I'm not sure what new up and coming band is on the tour, but how many new up and coming bands are there in the current scene to begin with?

 

It's free to park at the Chicago date and always has been.

 

I agree about Warped needing a new buzzworthy band. I don't think it's a Warped Tour problem but more of a rock music problem. All the big rock bands have been around for 10+ years (Slipknot, Foo Fighters, blink-182, etc). Who is the biggest current rock band now? 5 Seconds of Summer? Rock music just isn't as popular as it used to be unfortunately.

 

I believe that is only for the Camden date and it is $30 to park at the designated parking lot for the venue no matter the artist/event.

 

Does anyone know what the parking situation in Holmdel is like? I saw they have "VIP" parking for $30.

 

Normal parking is free there, don't waste the money.

 

Amazing, I had no idea and was fully prepared to drop the $30 which would have sucked.

 

Another post-Warped tour.

 

More post-Warped tours.

KORN / Breaking Benjamin / Motionless in White / Silver Snakes
August Burns Red / Erra / Silent Planet / Make Them Suffer
Sleeping With Sirens/ State champs / Tonight Alive / Waterparks
The Wonder Years / Real Friends / Knuckle Puck / Moose Blood / Seaway
Yellowcard / Like Torches / Dryjacket
Beartooth / Every Time I Die / Fit For A King / Old Wounds
Insane Clown Posse / Cane Hill
Suicide Silence / Whitechapel / Despised Icon / Carnifex / Oceano
Dance Gavin Dance (I assume the openers are on Warped)
Ice Nine Kills / Secrets /Sylar / Out Came The Wolves / Cover Your Tracks

 

I saw him hanging with the youtubers when they were on. Wonder how much of it is him being sour over that

 

I always thought they would have been a good fit for the acoustic basement, when they had it

 

I'm sure it has played a role in that video then.

 

Probably, and who is this guy? It makes me feel embarrassed for him lol. Warped is about the music not the YouTubers. I think this guy is an idiot. He's just mad that BVB isn't playing (this comment has nothing against BVB fans because I actually do enjoy them, I just find his get-up freaking hilarious. Also, if he says "Alternative YouTuber" one more time, I'm gonna slam my head with my keyboard.

 

I didnt know this existed but I just signed up for my date and it sounds amazing. I knew about TEI but didn't know there was a free one.

Four Year Strong

Not only do I get to hang backstage with FYS for what will probably be a hilarious half hour I get early access to the venue.

 

Yeah I watched one of the vlogs he did to see how the bands were drawing last year, and he walked by Vic from PTV who was signing and yelled "I love you Vic" like a fangirl. He is good friends with Bryan stars I think

 

I find it comical that Bryan Stars is even still a thing.

 

Clutch post! I'm definitely doing this for my date, I didn't know it was free!

 

Last I heard he was putting out his own music

 

I think the thing I agree with the most here is that people just were not talking about the tour this year. I feel like they really dropped the ball on promo this year.

I think there are a lot of great bands on the tour this year, BUT I do remember feeling really underwhelmed when the lineup was revealed, and I think these 3 things play different roles:

1) There are way too many repeat bands this year. The main stage bands (for this, I'm using both Journeys + any Monster bands big enough for main stage, but not bands on 3 or fewer dates) are mostly ripped straight from the 2014 lineup. I get that a lot of bands do repeat, but it seems like this year it was just way more than usual. There wasn't one main stage band on my date that I wanted to see that I hadn't already seen.

Played 2014:
Chelsea Grin
Crown The Empire
Falling In Reverse
Four Year Strong
Issues
Less Than Jake
The Maine
Mayday Parade
Motionless In White
Real Friends
State Champs
The Story So Far
The Summer Set
We The Kings

Did not play 2014:
Atreyu
Good Charlotte
New Found Glory
Pepper
Reel Big Fish
Set It Off
Sleeping With Sirens
Sum 41
Tonight Alive
Waka Flocka Flame
Yellowcard
3OH!3

2) That "did not play in 2014" list has a lot of bands that are on small runs this year. The lineup looks great when you say, "Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and Yellowcard are all playing!" but when you consider some dates only get 2 or 1 of those, it looks a lot less special. Again, there are partial run bands every year, but a lot of the bands used to sell hype for the tour (Good Charlotte especially) are barely on the tour at all. If they had gotten one of the "nostalgia" bands that hadn't played recently like Atreyu on the entire tour, it would be a different story. Sum 41 is on most of the dates, but still.

3) The reason people bring up bands like PVRIS is because in the past, Kevin has had a pretty good gauge for what bands will be successful. Issues and Crown The Empire gaining traction by playing several of the past tours is a good example of that. This lineup is really lacking in the undercard in terms of bands receiving that "push." There are bands in the undercard that are very good and bands that will probably get bigger (Against The Current, Waterparks), but the tour itself isn't really pushing any of those bands and is focusing way too much on the sheer amount of main stage bands (including big Monster bands) this year. I get that that's the main draw, but when my first two bullets explain why the draw for those bands is lacking, you'd think Kevin would hype up more bands to keep on the radar.

Warped is definitely about the music and not Youtubers, but I think they could be a valuable resource if they actually acted as promotion and social media for the tour, kind of like this guy said in the video. I mean, obviously having Bryan Stars and whoever on the tour drew kids who wanted to "meet the Youtubers," but I checked out a few of the videos from these guys and it was literally just them running around like jackasses, occasionally maybe meeting bands. I even remember a couple of them saying they barely knew any of the bands on the tour.
If they had some of these "Alternative YouTubers" come on the tour actually making videos about the tour and the bands, it would be a totally different story. I get that they have the pit blogs, but having different Youtubers touching on different subjects would be really cool. Interview bands, record reviews or suggestions for bands to check out, even just talking to fans on the tour about their experiences and who they're there to see would be really interesting, I think. They could even make their dumb random videos to supplement actual Warped-related content to get people who watch them who don't know about Warped to take notice. Actually putting in an effort to utilize these people's potential and allowing them to interact with the entire Warped Tour instead of just being their own thing would be a great step.

--

Sorry for writing fucking novels here, but I've been thinking a lot about this stuff, both as a fan and as a recent grad who wants to work in this scene if I can. There are probably more factors that I haven't really considered (money, attendance), but I've seen more people expressing disappointment this year than any of the other years I've followed the tour, and I think they're gonna have to do something next year to fix things a little.

 

I went the past two dates in Wantagh, NY and Hartford, CT. I'll do a CT write-up later.

Wantagh (July 9th)
So I had never been to the Long Island Warped before. Even though it's not too far (just under 2 hours), driving in Long Island and driving around NYC is a nightmare. However, it happened to fall on my birthday, so I figured I'd say "fuck it" and go for the first time.

I was holding out for the days before-hand because it was supposed to be thunderstorming ALL day, but I bit the bullet and went anyway. It was overcast all day with NO sun, the temperature didn't rise above 70º all day, and there was a constant breeze from being right on the water. It was PERFECT weather, which made it the most memorable Warped I've probably ever been to. I didn't break a sweat all day, and at some points I even wished I brought a hoodie.

I ended up with the "Skip the Line" because the line for normal admission (9:30) was already pretty large. They let people into a "holding" area (and there were still about 500 or so people in front of me, all with skip the line) and they let us all in around 10:30. I knew a couple people on the tour this year so I had the schedule sent to my phone early, so while everyone in front of me was running and fighting for a $2 schedule, I took my time, wandering around, looking at merch and deciding if I wanted to do any meet and greets, which was great because I got to scope out everything early, see what everyone had to offer, and not worry about anything.

I went over to the Journey's Right Foot stage because Four Year Strong was on at 11:30, and since everyone was still fighting for schedules (the guys stood right at the entrance and clogged the whole line up), I walked right onto the barricade. Mayday Parade (my favorite active band) was playing at 1:30, and I wanted to see all of the bands on both the Right and Left foot stages in that block until then, so I just planned to stay until Mayday. This Is All Now opened up the left foot stage. I've seen them plenty of times before because I have friends who tour with them, so seeing them play on a Warped Main Stage was pretty cool. Four Year Strong came on next. They had god energy, and their stage set up was hilarious. The one issue I've always had with FYS is that they don't sound the best live, but I think that this was the best sounding time that I've seen them. Vocals were still a bit spotty but they were much better than usual, and the guitar wasn't so sloppy. It was pretty cool. Only issue with them: they brought out JJR, and brought him out to play sax on a song. I have issues supporting him and bands who support him for personal reasons. The crowd itself was pretty fun. It wasn't as crazy as I expected, but considering they opened the stage, I'm not surprised. It was still pretty active, but it was totally bearable.

I stayed in my spot and We the Kings came out next on the Left Foot stage. They were pretty great. I've seen them plenty of times before, and they really tightened up their sound. Lots of energy too. They drew a pretty large crowd, probably the biggest I saw on the Left Foot stage that day. They did, however, cut the lengths of some of their songs by cutting out the bridges and stuff, which was a little odd. They also changed the structures for Sad Song and Just Keep Breathing and made them very dance-y pop songs instead of slower ballads, which was a bit weird.

Tonight Alive came out next on Right Foot. I used to really like them, but their latest album turned me off. I was surprised at how different the new songs sounded live, not in a bad way, but just in terms of the quality. They translate so well live, to the point where I didn't really mind seeing a set that was mainly from that album. I was glad that they changed the set and added in Listening, as WAYSSO is my favorite album by them. I had always felt like TA had a bit of trouble connecting and engaging a crowd, but at this set I think they really figured it out.

While waiting for Mayday Parade on Right Foot, Reel Big Fish played on Left Foot. I love how much fun their sets are, and I was actually very surprised at how large their crowd was! Not as big as WTK, but it was pretty big. A little weird that a few of their songs were covers, having only 30 minutes and a diverse back-catalogue, but whatever. It was still a ton of fun.

Mayday Parade came out next, and it was probably my favorite set of the day. Out of all of the bands that I saw, they sounded the best. Everything about the set was spot on sonically. The band had a ton of energy and the crowd was giving it right back to them - tons of crowdsurfing and singing along, it was even more active than the FYS crowd. Mayday also did a great job engaging with the crowd. I didn't see the size of their crowd because I was up front, but according to my friend who stayed at the back of the Right Foot Stage all day, they had the biggest crowd of the day on that stage.

I left the crowd and watched a couple of songs by New Found Glory. They sounded spot on, had a ton of energy and had a pretty decent crowd reaction. I've always loved their live show, so no surprise there.

I wandered around and ended up seeing Silent Planet and Avion Roe while just relaxing. SP had a decently big crowd, especially on the Full Sail Stage (the second biggest on that stage of the day that I saw), with a pretty active pit. Avion Roe wasn't my cup of tea, but they seemed to have an energetic live show.

I ended up seeing most of Dash Ten's set while waiting around for Broadside and I really liked them. Still need to listen to their actual recorded music, but they all had great personalities and were very passionate about their music and message. It was really cool to see a band connect the way they did with the people watching them, and they genuinely seemed so happy to be performing, which was awesome.

Broadside had the biggest crowd of the day on the Full Sail Stage, and had a bigger crowd than a pretty good chunk of the bands on the Cyclops and Poseidon stages, which was impressive. Their crowd was active for the whole set and most everyone screamed along to every song, but the crowd went crazy for Coffee Talk. They always sound tight and have a great stage presence. The vocals were a bit spotty though - I hope their new material is more in Ollie's register because I know he can sing, but there were times where he would just hand the mic off to the crowd on the super high notes because he struggles to hit them live.

Broadside conflicted with Yellowcard, but I ran over to catch the last 3 songs of their set. They had the biggest crowd on Left Foot that I saw all day, and it was pretty active. They always crush it, they sounded spot on and the energy was great. I swore the whole venue stopped when they played Ocean Avenue, everyone on the Right Foot Stage crowd waiting for Real Friends, plus security was singing along. It was a really, really cool moment.

Real Friends was next, and I was a little surprised at the size of their crowd, I thought it would have been bigger, but it started to really fill in during the last half of their set. They were just alright, for some reason, even though I like their music, their live show just doesn't do it for me. Their crowd wasn't too bad, lots of bros holding down circle pits and some crowdsurfing, but was much tamer than expected.

I didn't really have anything else to do or see for the rest of the day, and since RF finished at 5, I wanted to see a little more. I saw a few songs each from Teenage Bottlerocket and With Confidence (check these guys out, they're going to be HUGE some day). I wanted to see The Maine at 6:30, but with nothing else to do until then, and the threat of venue traffic added on top of Long Island / NYC traffic, I left early.

It was a great day and will probably go down as one of the best Warped dates (if not THE best) that I've been to.