Warped Tour (LA) 2007

Posted Aug 25, 2007, by Josh Snider.

Last night I had a friend Kurt call me, and he said "So Josh, are we going to go to Warped Tour?" So I had no time to plan for this. We had talked a couple weeks prior, but than I didn't think about it. A few hours before Kurt called, my friend from Fear To Faith Industries said he may have 2 tickets if I wanted to go. So I woke up at 8am this morning and I knew it would be too early to start calling friends and asking if we can get in. I called everyone I knew that could get me in, no one answered. My friend from F2F said to just come by, and he would know by the time we get there if he can get us in (we didn't know it was SOLD OUT until we got there).

So I headed out to Kurt's house, by the time I got there it was about 12:30 PM, We had lunch and headed on the road. We got the Home Depot Center and were trying to find the "PRESS/MEDIA" parking, but a majority of the workers in the parking lot did not speak english, so they had no idea. We finally came to someone who knew something and headed us in the right direction. Let me explain why we didn't have tickets already. The fine people at Warped Tour only let a publication in FREE, one date per tour, and we got in for the Pomona show, and had a booth... so they majorly hooked us up! But they can only do it for one show, so we couldn't ask to get into the second date. We normally get free tickets anytime we do a review, so we weren't really ripping them off at all, if we were to find a way to get in. Nevertheless the plan was, we show up in the media parking lot, and make a story about how we are suppose to be there, and once we're in, we're in... so we figured the worst that could happen is they would say "NO!" They did not have any media parking (unlike the Pomona show), so that shot that idea out of the water.

I had my friend from F2F trying to still get us tickets in, that fell through. I had a friend from www.hollywoodmusic.tv try to get us in, and that fell through. We talked to some scalpers, but they wanted $75 a ticket! All the small bands cars were parked in a normal parking lot, so I figured we would walk by them until I saw someone that I knew. So we combed the lot a good 5 times, and by than it was 3:45, the show was going to be over soon, and we were like "Maybe the scalpers will lower their price since the show is almost over." Than this guy comes out of no where and he's like "My band just did a hip-hop gig on one of the side stages, and I have these BAND wristbands than you guys can buy from me." So there we were, Kurt and I looked at each other in disbelief. $20 ea was the price, and we were stoked. I handed him the cash and he gave us the wristbands. We looked down at the wristbands. As kurt described, "It was like he put a cape over his shoulder and vanished." By the time we looked back up he was gone, and these wristbands were for 2006!!! Kurt was like "Why did you have to notice that, we could have just walked in confidently." So we're second guessing ourselves, and we're planning how this was going to work. We looked over our shoulder and noticed the security guard for the back gate was watching us do the whole shady transaction, and put the wristbands on. So we figured we would go to a different back entrance. Taking a bag of flyers for magazine promotion wouldn't look good if were getting in as a band. So we take my bag back to the car. On our way we make up this over-thought story, We are from a small band playing and we went to our van to get some waters.

We got to the back gate, and the only back gate was the one with the security guard that saw us buy the wristbands. We make sure the Warped Tour logo was not facing out, both of our hearts were rushing, and very confidently walked past him. Just like that, we were in the backstage area, we got passed the second group of guards and than we were into the show! I saw my friends from Eudora and Jamil from Torn Review as I was getting to the stages. I was trying to meet up with Matthew our web-developer, but we couldn't find each other. I found out I Shot Chad left just after I got in (4:00 PM), so I figure my review may start were his left off.

Kurt and I arrive at the Pennywise stage, we fallowed people into the heart of the crowd. We got about 20 ft from the stage just to the right. This was my first time seeing Pennywise but I knew most of the songs. They played a really awesome live show, and I would love to see them again. For the first song the mosh pit broke out and there were probably a good 30 people in there, Kurt and I were part of the wall of the pit. After that song Jim Lindberg (Lead Singer) said that 5 mosh pits broke out, and that was some kind of Warped Tour Record! So he told all the people on the right to go to the left, and all the people from the left to go to the right. They start their next song and the mosh pit must have had 500 people in it. It took up a majority of the crowd, about 150 feet wide. This is the biggest pit I have ever seen. Everyone was singing, chanting, and running around. That was a good time.

We headed over to As I Lay Dying on the next stage. By the time we got into the outer layer of the crowed their set was about half over. The pits were pretty good, it looked like a bunch of little ones. Kurt, some other kids, and I that were in the middle of two pits decided we wanted to open it and combine them two. But we couldn't do it. People were crowed surfing, and I got kicked in the face. No big deal, this one girl looked pretty trashed, but she kept going up and crowed surfing. She came by us the third time, and she looked passed out. She was headed for the most pit just before me and she fell head first into it, and got stepped on by a few people. Once they realized she fell they tried to pick her up but she was out, some guys picked her up and kept her going to the front. The security guards got her and I don't know what happened after that. I am not a major Hardcore kid, I enjoy metal riffs, but I don't like listening to screaming noises. This was the last day of warped tour, and the band said that today was their sound guys birthday, and the only present he wanted to give to him was a huge circle pit around the sound booth. So there must have been 500 kids that started doing it once the next song started! They ended the show, and I enjoyed it. Their crowed seemed really pleased. But as their fans were leaving we headed our way to the front center of the stage.

We got ourselves up about 10ft from the stage, and it was time for COHEED AND CAMBRIA, this is the band Kurt wanted to see most, and I have never seen live. In the car Kurt was explaining to me how all their albums are like a comic book, and they have these characters, and if you put it all together it actually makes sense. They put out a comic book to kind of explain better, their first 3 albums are the middle of the story, and the next 3 are suppose to lead up to the first 3. So he got me really interested in checking that out, and you can probably expect some sort of album review from me about it sometime soon. I was really stoked to see them too! It took a while for them to start, but when they came out, the wind was blowing really hard, and Claudio's hair completely covered his face for the first 2 songs. It was everything I expected, they sounded amazing! They played "Everything Evil" and everyone was singing along. There was a lot of crowed surfing, a little pit, and a great time. I hope to be at the next C&C show even if it is quite a drive.

After Coheed and Cambria, Sum 41 took the other stage. I listened to them a lot when I was younger, but after I heard their popularity got to their head, I never paid too much attention to them anymore. Word from a friend that was at the show 5 years ago is... The Used was on their last two songs, and Sum 41 was going to play on the stage next to them, but they were suppose to start when The Used ended their set. Word is that they started their sound check early and it ruined The Used last song, and Sum 41 kept playing. So Bert from The Used climbed up the stage lighting and shimmied across to the other stage. And he spit on them. So we were watching from the outer parts of the crowed. He sounded drunk, having the crowed chant "sacrifice." The vibe I got from them was kinda like they were posers, just playing a show because they had too, not because they loved the music. I have heard garage bands sound and play better than them. For their sake I hope it was a bad day, because I was not impressed.

The Starting Line played on the other stage, but Kurt and I waited for Bad Religion to start.

As we were waiting for Bad Religion, someone decided it would be a great idea to start throwing the empty water bottles around the crowed. So everyone participated and decided to give into the chaos. Some bottles of water, beer, and monster were open, and by the time the band went on everyone was sticky and wet. Kurt and I both got hit in the head with shoes that someone thought would be a great idea to throw. I was getting worn out, and dehydrated. Bad Religion came one and they were great. The crowed got really rough to the point that I was leaning on all the people around me, and going forward and back, with my legs barley on the ground. So I wanted to get out of there. I tried to leave but the crowed was really hard to get thru. I finally got out and watched from next to the sound booth. With everyone else, we were all singing along so all the songs. The band gave shout outs to The Circle Jerks and a few other bands from the Old School stage. I found Kurt after their set ended and he lost his wallet. So we went to the security guards and asked if any wallets have been found. (This is vital to the end of the story) the security guard came back with a black tri-fold wallet. Kurt's was only bi-fold so they said to go to the "Lost & Found" and we didn't know what we were getting into.

We watched a couple songs from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, and than headed over to find the Los & Found. We asked one person, they said to go to one side of the event, got there, and asked someone else, and they told us the Home Depot Center has all the Lost & Found stuff now. So we went to the Home Depot Center Lost & Found and they said to go to the Security of Warped Tour with a BLUE shirt. We finally found one and he said to go to the other corner. We get there and the lady in charge tells us "We had all of the Lost & Found here, than gave it to The Home Depot Center, and than they gave it to the people who were running Warped Tour. What we had to do now was e-mail Warped Tour and tell them what we lost." So we realized that no one has any idea how to organize, and everyone is on their own team. So we tried to find a real "Warped Staff" person, we found one, and since the tour just ended I guess they thought their job was over, and just walked away. We tried to hang out for a while longer as almost everyone was leaving and Flogging Molly was playing. We went out to the parking lot and sat on the curb hoping to meet up with Matthew. We overheard the guys next to each other talking about losing their wallet, and we were like "Where did you lose it?" and he said "Bad Religion" and we said "What kind of wallet was it?" He answered "Black Tri-Fold" and so we said "Man, we lost a wallet too, and the security guard showed it to us, and it wasn't ours." We went home and ate wienerschnitzel.