Tag Archives: Punk

Cleveland, Festival, Funny, Good Times, Live Shows, Music, Punk

I Am A Warped Tour Senior (Citizen) – True stores of the 1996 Vans Warped Tour

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Summer of 94
Yes, this is me 13 years ago...

The Van’s Warped Tour has turned 15 this year.

How awesome is that?

The longest running festival ever is on it’s 15th run this year and does not seem to be slowing down at all.  Punk rock summer camp is still in session for fans of all ages.  I know when I go this year I will be laughing at the fact that there will be tons of kids there who were not even born when the Warped Tour first took place.

In other words…I’m getting old.

Recently I read a pretty interesting article in this month AP Magazine.  It basically told the tale of the history of the Van’s Warped Tour from the beginning until present day.  I suggest you go out and grab a copy of the magazine (who I should add has been around for 24 years!) if you want to know the true history of the Warped Tour and read the wonderful article.

I will tell you one thing…it was almost called the Calvin Klein Warped Tour. (read the article!!!)

I am not really going to go into detail with the history of the Warped Tour here, but I will go into detail of the history of myself at the Warped Tour; July 24th, 1996 to be exact.

Now I don’t remember everything because let’s face it, growing old does a number on you sometimes but I remember enough to talk about it.  This was my first Warped Tour festival I had attended and is the one that I will remember for a lifetime.  It became the start of a summer ritual my friends and I have been engaging in almost every single summer since.

It all started one day when I read about a punk rock festival that was coming back to town.  I missed the first Warped Tour in 1995 for whatever reason and still kick myself for doing so but what happened, happened.   Regardless I was excited to see it’s return and this time planned accordingly.

The festival was held at the old Cloverleaf grounds, a one time drive-in turned flea market parking lot, let me rephrase that, a gravel filled parking death lot, located under the I-480 Valley View bridge.  Of all the places a festival could have been put at they chose the white stoned parking lot and it was the perfect venue in every way.

Tickets were only $20 for the festival and the parking was free.  We arrived before anyone else and parked directly in front of the entrance gate.  Too young to buy beers and pre-game we just hung out until the gates were open and the festivities began.  Featuring acts such as NOFX, CIV, Pennywise, Unwritten Law, The Dancehall Crashers, Rocket From The Crypt, and others it was to be one of those days that I would never forget.  (Speaking of forget, it is possible that Sublime, No Use For A Name, The Deftones, Face To Face, and Fishbone may have played too but I can not recall – anyone else remember?)

Spite the lack of remembering the entire lineup, I have a lot of memories that day that will last for a life time.  I don’t even know where to start… I can tell you this though, many of those memories did not even include the bands.

Band memories:

CIV.  I miss that band so much.  I was a huge CIV fan (still am) and absolutely thrilled to see them take the stage.

I was still new to Unwritten Law having seen them previously opening for Bad Religion so i was excited to see them again live.  I was a huge fan of Blue Room and really got into their set.  So did some other fans who, apparently, started fist fighting in the middle of the pit.  Lead signer Scott Russo and yours truly broke up that fight.  I’m more about peace and rock over knocked out teeth.

I should also mention the famous boot prints found on people back’s.  I will not confirm if they were from my boots, but my friends did mention that I became very excited about NOFX taking stage and might have run over 4 or 7 kids while charging into the mosh pit.

Speaking of NOFX, one of my friend’s girlfriends at the time somehow got backstage and did not bother to invite any of us.  We later in the day discovered she made out with one of the members of NOFX.  Awesome.  I think at that moment I was double pissed.  Once for the blatant cheating and the other for the non-invite back stage.

Right before Pennywise took the stage for the final set of the day the clear skies turned into hell.  Huge dark clouds took over the sky and as Pennywise tried to close out the set lightning was striking dangerously close and the rain was pouring causing for their amps to blow out.  It was at that time that the two friends that were by me hi tailed it to my car and got the hell out of there.  We may have left someone behind.

Other memories:

I was on the nightly news that evening because apparently all of the cussing could be heard echoing in the surrounding cities thanks to the venue being located at the bottom of a valley.  I remember I was walking with my pal Jonah and was eating a hamburger.  I noticed one of the local news channels filming us so being the goof that I am I proceeded to stop, look at the camera, and stuff the 3/4 worth of hamburger left in my hand into my mouth where I proceeded to eat it.

Mom was so proud that night.

Later one of the newscasters was talking about all of the controlled rowdiness in the grounds and I walked up behind him and threw the devil horns over his head.  Everyone surrounding the camera burst out laughing.  Even the cameraman was laughing at that newscaster who had no idea what was going on.  I am pretty sure that was edited out of the evening news.

Then there was the choke chain I wore around my neck.  You see, being punk means wearing dog chains and other miscellaneous metal accessories all over your body.  I chose to wear a choke chain around my neck along with other various items including the super long chain connected to my wallet I used to trip over all the time.

For some reason I opted out of using a safety pin or mini pad lock to secure my dog choke chain and chose a chain link connector, something that I was so proud of discovering at a local hardware store earlier that year.  Well thanks to the intense heat my neck started to swell and I realized it was time to take off the chain from my neck so I could breath.  There was one problem…genus me decided to secure the chain link connector with pliers at home and I could not unscrew the chain link connector for the life of me.

I panicked and tried to do everything I could to get that thing undone from my neck.  I ran around like an idiot searching for pliers to get the link unscrewed as I was slowly choking.  All of the folk at the band merch booths could not help, the pro-skaters laughed at me, and the security was not any help at all.  Finally I found a booth where some folk were making jewelry and luckily borrowed some pliers and took that damn chain off my neck.  Who am I kidding, I basically lept over their table and snatched the pliers from one of their working hands in order to save my life.

Luckily there were no news crews around to film me during that episode…although that would have been hilarious.

Let me not forget about the the mosh pit, it was more like a death pit thanks to all the gravel.  I do want to note that the pit was very friendly and who ever slipped and fell or was forcefully knocked over was helped up immediately.  There was not as much blood as I though might occur but there were plenty of scrapes and bruises.

The drive home too was a memory.  Thanks to all the heavy rains my car decided to stall in the middle of Route 43.  I literrally beat the crap out of my car when it did not start and am pretty sure scared my friends.  To make matters even worse I screamed at my friends to get out of the car and help me push the car into a nearby parking lot.  One of them told me “no way, it’s raining”.  Thanks Pete.

Memories…

The Warped Tour then was just in its baby steps when I attended.  I think there were three stages, maybe four, on that stony drive-in with just a handful of merch booths.  Within the next couple of years the success of the festival provided the means to expand and turn it into a larger festival with more stages and attractions.  Moving from place to place it just got bigger and bigger to what it is now.

I have to admit I was getting a little disappointed in the line-ups of recent years primarily because I have no idea who these bands are anymore.  I am all for the new generation of music and their fans but it has gotten to the point where I just do not care.

Luckily for me (and others I would assume) Kevin Lyman decided to go back to the Warped Tour roots this year and has asked some of the veteran punk rock bands to once again spend their summer playing on stages to thousands of fans all over the US, Canada, and even a couple of spots overseas.

This time around there will only be one main stage and longer sets.  That right there got me excited seeing how I never enjoyed seeing my favorite acts only get 30 minutes to crank out as many songs as they could.  I can honestly not wait until next week when the Warped Tour rolls through Cleveland once again.

Featuring bands (aka the bands I want to see most):

Bad Religion, NOFX, Bouncing Souls, Gallows, Flogging Molly, Anti-Flag, Fake Problems, Alexisonfire, 3OH!3, Authority Zero, Fishbone, The Flatliners, P.O.S, The Reverend Paytons Big Damn Band, Westbound Train, and Thrice (just to name a couple)

I will say this though.  This is my last year with the Warped Tour and I plan on retiring from the punk rock summer camp once and for all.  It was a touch decision but seriously even I am starting to think I am too old for it…

With my luck the 2010 line up with be even better than this years…  I’ll just insert foot into mouth now and not tell anyone later if I do return…

Vintage footage of the Warped Tour:

Speaking of memories…I came across this YouTube video of footage from the storm that nearly destroyed the 2007 Warped Tour. I was standing pretty close to the kid who filmed this. That was one hell of a storm…

90's, Music, Music Video, New Release, Punk, Random

Green Day, What In The Cornell Are You Doing?

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(I know I am going to get crap for this but oh well… I like to rant)

Dear Green Day,

What the hell happened to you guys?  I recently heard your latest effort 21st Century Breakdown and I must say I was highly disappointed.  I’m not sure I am going to even give the CD a second shot to be honest.  I did mildly enjoy the first single off the album, “21 Guns”, and even got a kick out of the video but once I finally had the chance to hear the whole album start to finish I found myself uninterested and skipped through every song and finally turned it off.  I have not done that with a CD in a long time.

What’s with the mellow sound?  Were you guys hanging around U2 too much???  I didn’t even hear Green Day when I popped in 21st Centruy Breakdown.  At first I thought it was just a cruel joke but then realized that the album was less of what I used to love and more of something I could care less about.

Should I blame Chris Cornell?  Did he command you three to record an album straight from the wallet or is this an honest recording?  Have you learned nothing from that evil man?  I realize you guys are getting up there in age and all but seriously…I think you could have done so much better. 

I hope this was not done for the money although I do know you will make a ton of money from it because a lot of folk are digging it already.  I’m sure sales will be high on this CD and tons of copies will sell to millions and millions of fans old and new, but I will not be one of them this time around.

We all know everyone is entitled to their opinion and [insert worship figure of choice] knows I have a plenty of them.  I am sure some of your fans do not like me saying how I do not like your latest album.  Don’t worry though, because there are other things I do not like too.  For instance, I still think Chris Cornell is a bitch for doing what he did (going solo with Timbaland beats) but I am excited to hear about possible rumors of Soundgarden reuniting.  I do not despise everything.

I’m just not understanding what is going on with you guys.  You were punk rockers to my ears years ago but seemed to change things up as you matured into musicians.  I respect change, but I just don’t know if I can take it anymore.

I’m a guy who was a fan of your band when you were just another punk rock act in California on Lookout! Records.  I have Kerplunk on vinyl, used to have a Dookie poster hanging in my bedroom as a teen, and even once was denied from seeing you live at a free show you played in Cleveland and highly considered joining the other denied folk to riot about it.  Luckily I did not and I stayed out of trouble that day.

Throughout the years you became my modern day Clash pumping out albums like Insomniac, Nimrod, and Warning.  I loved the similarities of your material with classic punk but even more so the idea that you did not completely rip them off.  While creating chart topping hits you did not seem to let it get to your head.  I realize the three albums I speak of did not sell as highly as Dookie, but as a Green Day fan I appreciated the hell out of them.

It must have been tough for you all when the popularity of the band sunk.  At one time I really did not think I would hear anything again from Green Day but you refused to give up and in 2004 dropped the chart topping American Idiot.  Props to you for continuing your dream as musicians.  I am sure it was a tough road traveled.

American Idiot was so much of a different concept and at first I really thought it was a great idea.  The whole rock opera idea was welcomed by almost everyone.  Thanks to a bold move in music styles American Idiot became a hit album and you guys were on top of the world again.  Thanks to non-stop radio play and MTV destroying airplay however it became an commercial disaster and everyone loved it.  I even liked it for about 12 minutes until it was overplayed and became almost annoying.  To this day I can not listen to that album anymore.

I almost wish that Cigarettes & Valentines was never stolen.  I feel that when some jackass stole your master recordings from that potential Green Day release it altered the music timeline in a Back To The Future sort of sense.  I’m not sure why you all never re-recorded that album and chose to create material that later turned into American Idiot but you did it for a reason.  Although the music was never recovered I hope one day that stolen album surfaces so I can hear how amazing it was.  I bet it is much better than what I have been hearing from you all.

I hear you guys are planning a summer tour for 21st Century Breakdown.  Even though I have never seen you live, I have decided that I am going to sit this one out.  Sometimes it’s best to just remember the good old times where pop punk was not so much mainstream / adult contemporary yet. 

I know you are one of the bands that is credited for making punk rock become more mainstream in the 90’s and pretty much putting an end to grunge music.  I do want to thank you for that because without bands like Green Day punk rock may not have gotten the credit that was deserved but come on guys, I know you can do much better than this…

Good luck with your success and I am sorry I can not get into your recent release.  It’s just not my thing.

Respectfully yours,

A Green Day Fan From The 90’s

Also guys, what’s up with the eyeliner in the “21 Guns” video?  Seriously , eyeliner?  I also love the over processed hair-do.  I’m not sure if I am watching a music video or something on Bravo.

Green Day – “21 Guns” – HD

Cleveland, Good Times, Live Shows, Music, Music Video, Punk, Review

Rancid, Rise Against, Riverboat Gamblers – Tower City Amphitheater – Cleveland, OH – 06/15/2009 – Concert Review

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This is not a review.  I repeat, this is not a review.  OK, I am lying, the more I write about it the more it sounds like a review.  Oh well…

Let’s face it, Bonnaroo drained me.  The trip to and from along with the actual four days at the festival took everything I had out of me.  When I returned home I napped for a mere hour and then hopped in the car to go see punk rock legends Rancid with Rise Against and Riverboat Gamblers down at the Tower City Amphitheater.

I was a zombie of sorts.  Only having ingested some terrible Hardee’s in Bowling Green, KY, the arrow in my stomach was pointing to empty.  Luckily my buddy Fatty who was driving owes me big for when we went to see the Bouncing Souls and make me turn my car around on Route 8 because he forgot his ticket.

I could not tell him that I forgot my ticket because I did not have one so I just asked him to stop at Taco Bell for a snack.

I did not have a ticket because someone wonderful got me on the list for Rancid complete with a VIP pass.

We arrived to the venue with the Riverboat Gamblers already playing.  The Austin, TX punk rockers really enthralled me so I made sure to pick up their latest release on LP entitled Underneath The Owl.  I have yet to listen to it but I do know they played a few songs off their new album and it sounded good.  They are one of those bands I never really gave a chance before but will now thanks to their great performance.

Once it looked like the stage was set up for Rancid I headed backstage to get a better view of the band.  I hung out behind the scenes and peered at the from the side.  As pissed as I was that they were not headlining the show I was still pleased with their almost one hour set including classic songs such as “Ruby Soho” and “Olympia”.  They also played some new tracks from their recent release Let The Dominoes Fall… such as “Last One To Die” and “New Orleans”.

They sounded really good live and jumped around youthfully as if they were playing 15 years ago.  Many times I hear that people think Tim Armstrong might not be playing all of the songs but I was right there and it sure as hell looked like he was beating the crap out of his guitar playing to the huge crowd.  Matt Freemon was hammering his bass and killed it during “Tenderloin” and of course Lars Frederickson was doing what he does best, entertain.

Great set by one of my favorite punk bands of all time.

Rancid Setlist:
Radio
Last One To Die
Journey to the End of the East Bay
Roots Radicals
Nihilism
Olympia WA.
Salvation
Bloodclot
New Orleans
Fall Back Down
The Way I Feel
Time Bomb
Tenderloin
East Bay Night
Maxwell Murder
Ruby Soho

Rise Against took stage as the sun said goodbye to the day.  I am a fan of the first three Rise Against albums but their last two releases have not done too much for me.  I stayed afar from the stage and checked them out while I chatted with a couple of my friends who were only there to see Rancid.

Rise Against, I can say, has major stage charisma.  Lead singer Tim McIlrath was running all over the stage singing his heart out to his diehard fans.  Where the band did play a lot of newer songs I was happy to hear some older ones from their first three albums.  I was shocked the band did not play “Swing Life Away” when Tim McIlrath came to stage with an acoustic guitar in hand but I guess they have played that song enough times and perhaps it was time for them to give it a rest.

It was great to see Rise Against headline a show and you knew the band was grateful for the oppertunity as they thanked Rancid as well as named off some of the venues in Cleveland they once played before such as the Agora as well as the Tower City parking lot by the stairs where years ago they were just an intro band to the Vans Warped Tour.  Times have change indeed for Rise Against, I was just glad to hear them admit it.

It was a good night for punk rock in Cleveland thanks to the three bands that took over Tower City that night.  As if the show itself was not good enough right as Rise Against was finishing up their set fireworks started going off over the Progressive Field as the Cleveland Indians game had just finished up.

I had yet to find a setlist for Rise Against or Riverboat Gamblers but when I do I will post it here.

Bad Times, Music News, WTF

Drummer Warren Oakes Parts With Against Me!

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Strange news in the punk rock music world as Against Me!recently announced they parted ways with their current drummer Warren Oakes.

This is the last thing I thought I would wake up to.  Perhaps it is good that the bearded always smiling drummer is doing his own thing, but I just don’t like how his band members announced the news.  Seemed a little harsh.

Tom Gabel had this to say early last month on his blog ifeelsicktomystomach:

May 1st – 4:13AM – Wilmington, NC […]  “We told Warren this afternoon that we are going to look for a new drummer. Andrew, James and I made the decision a couple days ago over lunch. I told them that I didn’t want to play music with Warren anymore. They both agreed that this was a necessary step, it’s been a long time coming. Warren’s heart hasn’t been in this for a while now.”

Sounds to me he was fired.  “We are looking for a new drummer” does not sound like anyone parted…

A second post not even 12 hours later adds a little more info:

May 1st – 2:42PM – Driving to Columbia, SC […] “After load in today Warren asked if he could talk with us all again. He said that after thinking about it over night he completely agreed that this was the best decision to make, that he realized his actions as of late have been, if not subconcious, indicitive of him not being fully invested. With his Mexican Restaurant opening soon, he seems ready to start a new chapter in his life. I wish him luck.”

The comments that follow this post are diehard fan comments with positive thoughts for Warren as well as outcries directed towards Tom Gabel for what happened.  There are truly mixed feelings with this and I wish I knew a little but more about why this had to be. 

Could Warren not take the major rockstar feel?  Did he in fact really want to focus on his own restaurant?  Were the other members of the band jealous of his charisma that lie behind his magnificent beard???

The official statement was released on the Against Me! MySpace blog:

“After coming to the conclusion that it was time to start a new chapter in his life, Warren Oakes has left Against Me!. While we don’t rule out the possibility of some day playing music together again, for now the four of us feel like this is the best decision to make. We’d like to wish Warren the best of luck with his new Mexican Restaurant, “Boca Fiesta”, which he just opened in Gainesville.”

Warren Oakes added to the blog stating:

“I’ve spent the past 8 years making beautiful music with my best friends and sharing it with amazing people all over the world. I’ve had the honor and privilege of traveling with the most dedicated road dogs on the planet and sharing the stage with the greatest bands. I have been embraced by so many with such graciousness and hospitality and love. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make the dream a reality, especially Tom, James and Andrew. I’ve had the time of my life, and I owe it all to you. 
-Warren Oakes”
The comments that follow the above statement by Warren are all heartfelt messages of luck and thanks.  He was one in a million and regardless if he was pushed out of the band or just was not into it anymore and did in fact want to be a burrito slinger he will always be remembered by me as that drummer who always had the biggest smile on his face when playing live shows.
Good luck Warren.

Related stories on the web:
PunkNews.org
AltPress.com