Like a fine wine, some things just get better with age. This was precisely the case for many of the legendary bands that assembled to perform at the 25th Anniversary Warped Tour Festival in Atlantic City, NJ. The event was the culmination of many iconic acts that have
played Warped over the years, with some hungry young up and comers.
Ska punk rockers, Save Ferris were the perfect act to kick off the show on day one. Front-woman, Monique Powell delivered a stellar performance along with the always fantastic horn section. Is there anything better than some ska on the beach? I don’t think so. That’s why I was pumped to see long time faves, Less Than Jake take the main stage not too long after Save Ferris’ epic set. LTJ had first appeared at Vans Warped Tour all the way back in 1997. They busted out all of the classics including, “She’s Gonna Break Soon” with an incredible a capella opening. I must admit the vocal harmonies for some of these long time acts were nearly perfect. LTJ even joked that people were accusing them of lip-synching on social media, but assured us they work very hard on sucking for real.
On the other end of the spectrum – and on the other side of the beach – Eyes Set to Kill brought the hardcore metal screams and shredding aplenty.
On the Full Sail Stage, Local Jersey Rockers and pals, The Ones You Forgot made their Warped Tour debut in phenomenal fashion. I absolutely loved seeing the support for the locals from the Atlantic City crowd.
After thoroughly rocking out through most of Saturday early afternoon, I was thrilled to break it down a little bit with a set from Travie McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Let me tell you last time I saw Travie at the Stone Pony it was just him, a microphone, and a speaker. I can’t tell you how thrilled I was to see him playing with his band because they absolutely killed it. This was a nice change of pace. His back up vocalist did a phenomenal job of singing a lot of those Gym Class Heroes, and Adam Levine back up parts. Travie had the crowd make hearts with their hands and antennas with their pinkies for the hit, “Stereo Hearts.” Good vibes all around during this performance.
Back over at the Full Sail Stage and Blackcraft Stage respectively, Shiragirl and Tatiana DeMaria delivered epic performances. Shiragirl and her awesome band paid tribute to the leading ladies of Warped Tour of years past by performing a medley that featured songs by No Doubt, Katy Perry, and Joan Jett. I absolutely loved the tribute and the performance. Classy move by Shiragirl who once had her own Warped Stage for Female Fronted acts. As for DeMaria, she was incredible as well. I hadn’t ever seen the singer/songwriter from “across the pond” as they say, but very much reminded me of a Lacy Sturm. Keep your eye on this one.
Simple Plan was another band that really nailed the vocal harmonies thanks to the return of bass player/backing vocalist David Desroisers. It was great to see the band as a whole again, and you can bet that the crowd went absolutely nuts for all the super cheese pop punk classics.
That’s the great thing about Warped Tour. Most bands outside of the headliners are playing strict thirty minute sets. 90% of the time you’re going to get a greatest hits set from most of the bands. And you’re going to be seeing A LOT of bands. Some old favorites and some new.
Music wasn’t the only thing happening at Warped Tour. Between sets fans got to enjoy stellar stunts that included Nitro Circus bike jumps and even a human Cannonball. (I’ve never seen anything like it). The icing on the cake was the constant matches by local wrestling promotion, GCW. If you know anything about GCW, ,you know that these guys are just as hardcore as some of these bands. Performers such as Joe Gacy (Evolve Tag Team Champion), Frankie Pickard, Matt Tremont, Ophidian The Ouroboros, and Nick Gage wowed the crowd with matches that went all the way into the ocean!
There was no shortage of human surfboards, ladders, doors, plywood, chairs, high risk maneuvers and blood. The best part about the matches were the newcomer fans to the world of wrestling. For many of the younger fans and scene kids, jaws were literally dropped during every chop, kick, and slam. It was actually really rad seeing how many people would gather for each match, and how much the crowd appreciated it.
Sure enough when one of the wrestlers is on top of a ladder, the Warped Tour staff had to order an immediate evacuation due to incoming storms. I have to say, they handled it well. Everyone exited calmly and safely until informed to return via social media feeds. Really great job here by everyone involved.
After the fans gathered back into Warped Tour for the evening, headliners Good Charlotte, 311, and Bad Religion closed out day one.
Day Two picked up right where we left off, with Atreyu pumping up the crowd followed by Anti-Flag.
Right before stellar line up of performances by the likes of The Menzingers, The Starting Line, The Used, and The Offspring, Warped Tour Founder Kevin Lyman (and others) presented The Boys & Girls Club with a donation check for $30,000 from the event. Classy move and what it’s all about. Lyman even did a signing that day at the Warped Museum tent that featured a lot of cool pics, set lists, and gear from years past.
Elsewhere newcomers, Neck Deep absolutely surprised me with a HUGE crowd at the Blackcraft Stage. They were even given the proverbial rub by 25 year veterans, Bowling for Soup.
Let me say that Bowling For Soup were show stealers on Sunday. They even joked that they should be on the main stage. These guys were hiiiiilarious, and didn’t miss a beat. They even played the Phineas and Ferb theme song, and a few other impromptu songs poking fun at crowd surfers with no music. Another highlight of their set was allowing youngster, “Not Ur Girlfrenz” to come up and finish their song “Ohio” for them. Fans even got a very Edge & Christian-esque photography moment with the band, as Sarah McLachlan played in the background. This was hands down one of my favorite sets of the festival.
The BFS set even ended with Reel Big Fish joining them for, “1985” which was great. Immediately afterwards, RBF literally just jumped over one stage to perform their set and bring some ska back in the homestretch of the festival.
Throughout the entire day, I can’t tell you how many bands mentioned Blink-182, our headliners for the festival. The Offspring even touted them as some budding up and comers, with, “a lot of potential.” Let me tell you, Blink absolutely crushed it. I saw A LOT of good drummers that day, but Travis Barker was a man – nay, a god among boys that day. I’ve seen Travis live at least ten times, and I don’t know how he keeps getting better. I absolutely loved the overhead drum-cam.
The icing on the cake was the vocal harmonies between Hoppus and Skiba as they played the ENTIRE Enema of the State Album from start to finish. Having seen Blink so many times over the years since 2001, this was epic because I got to hear at least five or six songs that I love performed live in person for the very first time. The band also played classics, “I Miss You,” “The Rock Show,” and even played the new single, “Generational Divide.” What a way to end the night. Phenomenal set by one of the all time greats.
Right after Blink performed, Vans Warped Tour 25 ended with a surprise marriage proposal by a fan to make the night even more magical. Don’t worry – She said Yes!
After a tremendous weekend, the question now is- is this really the end of an era? We’ve been fooled in the past. With the overall success of Vans Warped Tour 25, never say never. I’ll leave you in the words of Bowling for Soup’s front-man Jaret Reddick, and I’m paraphrasing
“It’s pretty cool when you think something like this isn’t as relevant anymore, but then 35,000 people show up. It’s incredible.”
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