Warped Tour 2003

live in Atlanta (2003)

RyanNewton

My friend and I pulled into the soaking wet "parking lot" (underwater cow pasture) at HiFi Buys Amphitheater at 11:00. By 11:45 we had made out way through security and jotted down all of the set times.

Our first band of the day were The Suicide Machines. This was an awesome start to the day. They decided to split the crowd, and then let them re-enact Braveheart to start one massive pit. It kicked ass! For DDT, they devised a "reverse Braveheart" to take out all the people standing on the sides. They then played New Girl and went right into Break the Glass for a huge sing along ending.

Next, I wanted to check out S.T.U.N. They're music isn't the greatest, but they have a high energy show. The singer was climbing on the rafters of the stage, knocking over the drummer's kit, etc. They played most of their debut album, plus an awesome cover of Another Brick in the Wall.

After checking out the tents, I caught The Used. Once again, I'm not their biggest fan but they definitely delivered. They played all of the "hits" and the crowd seemed to know every word to every song.

I then made my way to Tsunami Bomb, and was blown away! Not only is Agent M the hottest girl on the face of the earth, but she has such a great voice. They played alot of Ultimate Escape, and fairly small crowd really got into it.

AFI was next at the main stage and there were so many people there watching, I was almost on the other side of the other main stage. Played stuff off Sing the Sorrow and Art of Drowning mostly. Davey was doing kicks and jumping the whole time, but the sound kept fucking up for some reason for a few seconds every song. Davey hung by the fence backstage and took pictures with kids, signed autographs and talked to the fans for like an hour. I thought that was really cool of him, and it was easy to see that he loves the fans as much as they love him.

Caught some of Destruction Made Simple on the Kevin Says Stage. They were pretty good, but only about 15 people were watching them, so the set lacked energy. These guys could easily be playing the main stage on a future tour, though.

I then decided to go stake out a spot for Rancid/DKM on the Brian Stage, but had to wait for Simple Plan to finish, I already hated them, and after seeing their last 3 songs, I can give my unbiased opinion that they have no business where they were. It was like the Backsteet Boys playing instruments. The singer sounded awful and they talked so damn much they ran over by 10 minutes. They really, really do suck.

I was waiting for Rancid, so I only heard Less Than Jake, but they sounded as good as ever. They opened with Gainesville Rock City and All My Best Friends are Metalheads. They set was half new stuff, half old. The crowd seemed to really enjoy it, especially the ribbons and confetti at the end.

Then, it was time…the crowd errupted as Rancid took the stage. Opened by playing Radio, Ruby Soho, and Roots Radicals right in a row. They also played 2 new songs, one was called Red Hot Moon. Some other songs included Journey to the End, Last Step Down, St. Mary, Dead Bodies, and Maxwell Murder with a long ass, kick ass solo by the man Matt Freeman. They closed with Timebomb. Their set was great, but for some reason it seemed like they had less energy then usual, and Lars barely moved the entire time. Oh well, it still kicked ass.

Thrice began playing on the other stage, so we all started the Let's Go Murphys! chant 2 or 3 times. Finally, the boys from Boston came out to close the show. They opened with For Boston and went right into Gonna Be a Blackout. They played an awesome mix of stuff like Boys on the Docks, Amazing Grace, Spicy McHaggis Jig, Worker's Song, Barroom Hero, John Law, Road of the Rightous, and one or two others I may have forgotten. They of course closed with Skinhead and as I jumped the barricade to get on stage, my leg got pinned between the people and the barracade. Scruffy tried to help me over, and I finally got un-stuck, but as I climbed for the stage, some security guard told me I couldn't cause there were too many people, I subsequently walked 3 feet to the left and hopped up, only to have the same bastard yank me down by my leg. Oh well, I'll get another chance in Washington Dc. It was still one big sing along, and I think they played the best set of the day…and get this: Ken said because of a shitload of problems, they almost didn't make it, and they had to borrow Matt Freeman's stack, Lars' stack and Rancid's drumkit to play. But they still sounded great.

Well, as fast as the day came it went by even faster. I can say this was my best Warped so far (out of 3 years) and can't wait to see it in a week in Dc. If you can, you need to go and check it out, there really is something for everyone.