Dispatches: Warped Tour Journal: Day 2

Love it or hate it, for the past 15 years, summer has meant a return of the Vans Warped Tour. As the tour continues to grow in size and scope it has brought in new fans and alienated others. Punknews decided to get the scoop on what to expect on this year's Warped Tour by heading to Pomona, California to check out the first date of Warped Tour 2009.
You can click Read More for the dispatch.

Warped Tour Day 2

6:00 AM: I wake up at about 6:00 AM and have to force myself to go back to bed. Warped Tour is supposed to start in five hours. I don't have nearly enough to keep myself busy until then.

9:30 AM: Breakfast. There are a ton of California teenagers hanging out around the hotel, which is about a city block away from the venue.

11:00 AM - Head to the press area to get schedules of bands that are going to be offering up interviews today. Millionaires are on there. Me and Dante 3000 think it would be fun to interview Millionaires and ask them questions strictly about financial advice.

11:30 AM - I get my interview schedule figured out and head out to catch some bands. I take too much time getting to the grounds and miss Bayside, which were one of the bands I was really hoping to check out. Bummerville.

11:45 AM - I catch the last few songs from Outernational. They're playing to a small crowd that grows larger as more people file into the grounds. I think Outernational are one of the more exciting bands to emerge from the fringes of punk in some time. Their Joe Strummer meets Rage Against the Machine sound works as well live as it does on record.

12:00 PM - Anti-Flag is playing the main stage. They've got a huge crowd checking them out. At one point the band requests a circle pit from the crowd, which has to be one of the biggest faux pas in punk rock. They end with "One Trillion Dollars," with most of the songs I caught being from their more recent releases.

1:00 PM - Walking to get some lunch I run into Rob Dyer, founder of Skate 4 Cancer. Rob will be traveling on Warped Tour with the Skate 4 Cancer booth where people can go to get information on cancer prevention as well as free sunscreen. Come the Fall, Dyer plans to hit the road taking the Skate 4 Cancer tour through college and university towns. There will also be skates across other countries in the future.

1:30 PM - I catch Fat Mike doing an interview for The Strombo Show. He's going off about Michael Jackson, their recent world tour, which bands don't want to party, which isn't very punk, and how every Green Day song is a rip off from an older song by someone else.

2:00 PM - George Pettit and Wade MacNeil of Alexisonfire take some time to talk about their new album Old Crows / Young Cardinals. The St.Catherines, Ontario band has done the tour in the past. Pettit sees it as the "perfect event of the summer." For a band that's used to playing huge shows in Canada, the Warped Tour puts them in front of people who might not come out to see them in the States. However, Pettit says he doesn't mind playing huge shows in Canada and club shows in the United States. Alexisonfire will be playing the entire tour, so check them out if you're there.

2:15 PM - Jeffree Star is playing at the same time as Brokencyde. I hear enough from both of them to reaffirm my distaste for everything they're doing.

3:00 PM - I pussy out of the Millionaires interview. I watch D.I. instead. Whoa, a real, live punk band.

4:00 - P.O.S. is playing the Hurley stage. He has one of the better sets of the day and has a good crowd in front of him. Tons of energy and tons of sunburns in the crowd.

3:30 - I wonder over to a side stage and check out 15 minutes of a band before realizing that it's Aiden. I'm surprised to enjoy it as much as I do. I'm still not into their albums, but the band can rip onstage. Their singer Will looks like Wolverine in a homemade Let The Right One In shirt.

4:25 - I catch the end of Thrice's set. I'm not used to this 100 degree heat, and with this much sunlight, everything kind of sounds like shit. I also remember that I haven't liked much of what Thrice has done in the last few years.

4:30 - The dudes from Ill Scarlet give Kevin Lyman a cheque for $10,000, which will benefit Lyman's charity, Unite the United.

5:15 - Canadian hip hop artist Shad plays a set on the Skull Candy stage. He's the act I was most looking forward to. He's probably one of the best rappers in Canada and although not many people knew who he was, I had a half-dozen people approach me afterward asking me who he was. If you're not familiar with him, please check him out.

6:00-9:00 - NOFX, Less Than Jake and Bad Religion all play. I miss Alexisonfire and Gallows, the later of whom were said to have played an incredible set.

9:00 - One last interview to do before the night is out. I catch up with Underoath keyboardist Christopher Dudley. The band dropped out of the 2006 Warped Tour for reasons rumored to have included infighting, drug use, and arguments over religion. But they're back again and Dudley says that despite some first day hiccups (last minute set changes, new crew members, and broken instruments), things went well.

Check back in the coming weeks for full interviews with a number of bands from the Warped Tour.