While there are still a few “surprises” yet to be revealed, the bulk of the 2014 Warped Tour has been announced and, like every Warped Tour of the past decade or so, the lineup has been met with a mixed reaction. For everyone’s friend’s younger sibling that is so beyond stoked to spend one day of summer break rocking out to a bevy of today’s hottest bands (on what is usually one of our summer’s hottest days), there’s the guy who hasn’t been to a show in 15 years flooding the comments section of their music news site of choice complaining in homophobic epithets about how lame the lineup is. For reference, this is the same kind of person who would find a way to complain if the full, original lineup of the Clash and the Ramones were resurrected and embarked on a free, co-headlining tour.
I try to keep things in perspective and remember how fun Warped Tour was for me as a kid, but now, in my early 30s, with the “oh my god did you see that lineup?” days of the tour long behind me, I find myself relieved that there are only a handful of bands I want to see each year. I exhausted myself during the festival’s last stop during my youth, July 4th 2004 at Desert Breeze, trying to catch somewhere between 50 and a thousand bands that I just had to be up in front screaming along with, so a nice handful of bands like the following from this year’s tour, which takes place June 19 at the UNLV Intramural Fields, along with some time relaxing in the Acoustic Basement tent, is more than worth the price of admission for me:
Saves the Day
Light Years
Teenage Bottlerocket
Mixtapes
Less Than Jake
Yellowcard
The Story So Far
State Champs
Real Friends
Heart to Heart
Finch
Every Time I Die
Four Year Strong
Bayside
I will say, that while Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman definitely doesn’t really need any advice since he’s managed to outlast all other traveling music festivals by a wide margin, I do think it would be a good idea to create an “Old School – For Warped” stage to highlight the style of skate and pop punk that the festival cut its teeth on, back when skate and pop punk was the mall rock of choice for the nation’s youth. I would pay the $30 and some change to spend a day at one stage that featured, let’s say, Lagwagon, Bouncing Souls, Millencolin, H2O, Strung Out and the likes. Not too far off from what we get during the mid-day segment of Punk Rock Bowling, with an emphasis placed on the oft-forgotten group of punks who were born in the 80s and came of age in unison with Punk O Rama and Fat Wreck comps.
I imagine there is a reason this hasn’t been done – probably due to a mix of older bands not wanting to deal with the rigors of Warped Tour, and festival organizers wanting to keep things youth-oriented to avoid the inevitable problems that occur when generations mix. But who else likes this idea? Who would you pick to play?
No Comments