Warped Tour
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| Warped Tour | |
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| Location(s) | Australia, Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States. |
| Years active | 1994 - present |
| Founded by | |
| Date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Various genres of rock including punk rock, ska, hardcore punk, pop punk, metalcore, emo, post-hardcore, and others. Other genres such as reggae and alternative hip hop. |
| Website | http://www.warpedtour.com/ |
Warped Tour is a touring music and extreme sports festival. The tour is held in venues (generally parking lots or fields upon which the stages and other structures are erected). The BMX/skateboarding shoe manufacturer Vans has sponsored the tour among others every year since 1995 and it is often referred to as the Vans Warped Tour.
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[edit] Overview
As of the mid-2000s, the Warped Tour has featured as many as 100 bands per show. The bands play for up to 30 minutes over approximately 10 different stages, although the biggest bands generally play the two "Main" stages. A typical day would have bands starting at 11:00am and end at 9:00 p.m. with several bands playing at once. The individual band times and stages where each band play is marked on a large board usually centered in the middle of the venue. The full area is set up to prevent music from one stage disrupting other active stages. One band, by fan vote, is allowed to play ten extra minutes at each show.
Every year there is a "BBQ Band," which, in exchange for the privilege of playing on the tour, must prepare food for the bands and crew for the barbecue which is held most evenings. Past "BBQ Bands" have included Dropkick Murphys and "The Fabulous Rudies".[1] Similarly, one band, Animo (formerly DORK) has been permitted for the past four years to play on the tour in exchange for work on the setup crew.
The tour started as a skate punk, and third wave ska tour, but later began to feature mostly post-hardcore, pop punk, and metalcore acts, but there are also some hardcore punk and street punk bands, such as the Casualties, the Unseen and Anti-Flag, that still play Warped Tour, as well as older bands that have played the tour numerous times since its inception (Bad Religion, NOFX, etc.)
[edit] History
The Warped Tour was created in 1994 by Kevin Lyman, who got the idea while working on skateboarding shows such as the Vision Skate Escape and Holiday Havoc which included music with skateboarding contests. The Warped name comes from the short-lived Warp Magazine, published by Transworld, which covered surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and music.
In 1998, the tour went international, including venues in Australia, Japan, Europe, Canada, and the United States.
In 1999, the tour started off in New Zealand and Australia in the New Year. It then started up again in the United States for the northern hemisphere summer before ending up in Europe.
As well as music, this tour brings many attractions, including a half pipe for skaters and bikers. The tour also features many booths creating a flea market-like atmosphere, having tents for each of the bands to sell merchandise, independent record labels, magazine publishers, non-profit organizations, and sponsors looking to market their products to the tour's audience. Many of the bands will retreat to their tents after their performance in order to meet up with the fans and sign autographs.
[edit] Tours
- See also: List of Warped Tour lineups by year
[edit] Stages
[edit] Current stages
Warped features several stages, among them
- Main Stage (There are two main stages, formerly designated "Main Stage Left" and "Main Stage Right", but in 2007 called "Lucky" and "13". In the past, they have borne other names, such as "Brian" and "Teal").
- The Hurley Stage
- The Hurley.com Stage
- The Smartpunk Stage
- The Ernie Ball Stage
- Kia/Kevin Says Stage
- East Coast Indie/Playwork Productions Stage (select east coast shows only)
- Skullcandy Mix Tent Stage
- Famly Clothing Stage (outside of the tour each morning)
- Jersey Stage (7/28)
[edit] Past stages
- The Volcom Stage
- The Code of The Cutz Stage
- The Shiragirl Stage
- Vagrant/Major League Baseball Stage
- The DIY Stage
- The Drive-Thru Records Stage
- Stage Ocho (Lucky 13 Mini Ramp Stage)
- the old school stage (8/25/07)
- All Girl Skate Jam Stage (8/25/07)
- Union Stage (8/11/07-8/12/07)
The stages are usually temporary structures that fold into one or more trailer loads. If the venue is an amphitheatre, the amphitheatre stage is often used--in 2006, the two sides of the amphitheatre stage were often shared between the Volcom and MLB Vagrant stages. This year, amphitheatre stages are shared between the Smartpunk.com and Hurley.com Stages. However, at Cleveland's Tower City Amphitheatre venue, which has a relatively narrow stage, the stage was used for Main Stage Right.
[edit] Band conflicts
A few bands have left the tour due to conflicts they had with the tour or with other bands:
- The band Guttermouth was supposedly removed from the Warped Tour 2004 for insulting My Chemical Romance. The band later stated that they left themselves due to "that '10 or so' unnamed bands didn't jive with Guttermouth's way of doing business, and in some cases, threatened them with violence."[2]
- According to Fat Mike, on the 2006 tour, From First to Last was upset about not being able to play before 2:00pm on the main stage, and refused to play if they were not guaranteed that.[3] From First to Last stated they left the tour due to vocalist Sonny Moore having nodes on his vocal cords.
- In 2006 NOFX frontman Fat Mike was making fun of Underoath and their religious beliefs and criticizing their stance on gay marriage, but emphasised that he befriended Underoath's band members at the start of the tour, had very civilized conversations with various members right up to Underoath's departure.[4] A statement from the band claimed that the members "felt it necessary to take some immediate time to focus on our friendship, as that’s more important than risking it for the sake of touring at this time."
- Kevin Lyman acknowledged that on the 2007 tour some of the more seasoned bands were irked by newer bands with rock-star attitudes, and also that there was some tension between punk bands and Christian groups.[5]
[edit] Criticism
While many punks decry the tour’s rampant commercialism, high concession prices and watered-down music, some defend the changes in the production of the tour through the years. “Warped Tour is a place for teenage kids to go and hear all their favourite bands in one day,” says Rob Pasalic, guitarist for the Saint Alvia Cartel. “It wouldn’t make sense for it to be the same tour in 2007 as it was in 1997. These are the bands that kids like, and the tour is smart enough to grow and adapt to that. You still get bands like Bad Religion playing, so it’s not like it’s lost all its roots.” [6]
Joe Queer of The Queers stated that
"You play music because there’s something inside of you that says you have to play music. Now you get bands like Fall Out Boy that are basically created in the studio. The Warped Tour changed it. Fuck it. I just don’t like that shit. All the guys in the bands remind me of the jocks I hated in high school. To me a punk gig is a small sweaty club with the audience right in your face knocking over the mic stand and boogying off the energy."[7]
The band Propagandhi lashes out at the tour in their song "Rock for Sustainable Capitalism", which contains lyrics categorising the tour's bands as "shitty" and criticising the Vans sponsorship due to the Vans company's use of foreign labor.
Brendan Kelly of The Lawrence Arms said that it kills smaller concert venues, since all the big bands go on one tour together. The band alleges that this also caused The Lawrence Arms to get permanently banned from Warped Tour when Brendan Kelly said this on stage. On The Lawrence Arms 2006 album Oh! Calcutta! there is a song entitled "Warped Summer Extravaganza (Major Excellent)," a reference to the band's experiences on the Warped Tour.
Keith Morris has stated "These kids that are on the Warped Tour, they should have no choice but to go into the military, and go off to some desert somewhere and spend some time in the desert, rather than having some big, ultra mega record company giving them lots of money and paying for their hotels and buses, making sure their hair is trendy, and that they are wearing the proper clothes that all the kids like and wear, and all that fun shit."[8]
[edit] Official compilation albums
An official Warped Tour compilation CD is released annually by SideOneDummy Records to coincide with the start of the tour. The compilation includes songs by numerous artists performing on the tour that year. The first few compilations had varying titles, but since 2001 the series has used a standard title with the format "Warped Tour <year> Tour Compilation." In 2002 the compilation expanded onto 2 CDs totalling 50 artists, a format which the series has followed in all subsequent years.
In addition, the digital music service Rhapsody.com has released a regular "Warped Tour Bootleg Series," with each entry focusing on a single artists performing on the tour. Past Bootleg Series artists have included Matchbook Romance, My Chemical Romance, Bedouin Soundclash, MxPx, The Starting Line, Millencolin, Avenged Sevenfold, Gogol Bordello, Motion City Soundtrack, The Casualties, Anti-Flag, Less Than Jake, Rise Against, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Helmet, and The Academy Is...
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Charleston.net
- ^ Guttermouth Quits Warped Tour - Aversion.com
- ^ http://serviette.ca/radio_show/nw20060818b.mp3
- ^ Punknews.org | Fat Mike addresses Underoath rumours
- ^ http://www.shepherd-express.com/1editorialbody.lasso?-token.folder=2007-07-26&-token.story=177818.113121&-token.subpub=
- ^ Warped Tour Keeps Skating Straight Ahead. Retrieved on August 23, 2007.
- ^ The Wire - Joe Queer: the face of punk
- ^ http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=9241014431&topic=4111
