So I started a blog and then my firefox froze up on me. Bad FIREFOX that's a bad bad firefox! I imagine the scolding will make it work better?
So as I said previously in my blog I never feature Drummer shots so I thought hey why not, plus its Zac Farro of Paramore!
Readers digest! I shot Warped tour a couple weeks ago for a local publication, i also wrote a review which i'll post here at the end of this. It was hot as heck, early in the day lighting was tough cause of stage placement and if an artist stepped out from the hang you had to change your settings super quickly and the amount of stop difference was insane! But later in the day it was better because the sun was going down and facing on the stage so it became more consistent which was fine with me.
I was most excited about Paramore who was great to shoot. Also excited about Gym Class Heroes and Cobra Starship who were both good shoots, I had shoot Gym Class before though so I knew they'd be good. Cobra it was first but Gabe is very active on stage. The singer for Say Anything was really expressive which was great while shooting them. Got some shots of the singer for Story of the Year while he was showing the crowd love. Wished I could have shot later in their set when the guitar players do flips off the amps. Angels and Airwaves weren't incredibly active but a better shoot than I was expecting. I missed the first 2 of Forever the Sickest Kids which was like bummer cause I hear they are a great shoot. It's hard to judge that off one song. And then Jack's Mannequin was a tough shoot because the two microphone stands instead of one.
Bands I didnt get to shoot because of schedule conflicts, Shwayze, Katy Perry, and Family Force 5.
Ok here are some of the shots and then the review because I know yall just want to see pictures!
Paramore:
Gym Class Heroes:
Cobra Starship:
Jack's Mannequin:
Say Anything:
Story of the Year:
Angels and Airwaves:
Forever the Sickest Kids:
Nothing More:
Review:
Vans Warped Tour - Superpages.com Center July 3rd 2008
Vans Warped Tour 14 rolled into Dallas last week and we were there to cover as much of it as one human possibly could. For those unfamiliar with the Vans Warped tour, its a festival type tour full of assorted rock genre acts spread out over 2 main stages and 4 sub stages provided by sponsors such as Hurley and Smart Punk, and then 2 even smaller stages. One housing the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands area and the other next to the skate ramp providing music for the various extreme sport athletes on the tour. And that's just the stages, we cant forget to add in the tents full of band merch and sponsors. For example they had tents for Myspace (where they had acoustic performances), Rockband the video game (where you could show off your fast fingers and mad band skills), and Monster Energy Drink (where you could try the energy drink...) all to keep you entertained and provide some shade between bands. Not to mention if you were dying to meet some of your favorite musicians, some of the band and sponsor tents had artist signings during the day.
I had actually previously attended the Warped tour.. but that was six years ago. I was 18 and fresh out of high school, yet ironically it really hadn't changed that much. The stage layout was fairly similar, bottles of water were still outrageously expensive, and it was still hot as heck, possibly hotter. There was one big difference for me though, I wasn't in the pit with tons of bodies pressing against, and falling on me. There's nothing quite like getting kicked in the head by crowd surfers and having body parts bent ways they shouldn't bend. One doesn't forget that and how your body feels for the next 3 days. Funny enough some people do enjoy it, heck, several of my friends enjoy it. Though, I am not one of those people. I would like to try crowd surfing once in my life though, just to say I did it. But you can imagine with all the kicking in the head and rocking this year, like years past, once the bands started to get going the flow of bodies being led to the first aid area didn't stop either. I believe I saw a guy bleeding from the head, several girls passing out, and even a guy with a broken wrist.. all of whom got re-hydrated, bandaged up, and got back out there to rock out and have a good time.
And I have to admit being the wimp that I am, I'm not going to lie, it's nice being on the other side of the barricade.. you still have to be on your toes though and watch out for flying bodies or water bottles or anything else the crowd decides it wants to throw in your direction. So you're not completely in the clear, just not in the direct line of fire. Security tries to watch out for you too, so they deserve some major recognition at events like these.
So lets delve into the first band I watched, Cobra Starship from New York and on the fueled by ramen label. Cobra's front man Gabe Saporta came out in white pants and a black shirt with colorful writing, topped off with a puff painted white hat with Cobra's written across the underside of the brim, sunglasses, and my personal favorite portion of his attire a necklace with a photo of Justin Timberlake on it. He's pretty consistent about his colorful amusing clothing choices.
During their first song the stage actually lost power to some of the instruments Keytarist Victoria Asher and Drummer Nate Navarro weren't in the mix. After the song ended Gabe gave us some insight on what was going on in his head during that saying "About halfway through the song you realize you cant hear your band mates instruments because they aren't working.. and you have to make a decision to keep going or to stop.. but this is warped tour and we only have 30 minutes so I kept going." All was fixed after about a 30 seconds of Saporta talking to the audience and heckling another band member to sing by himself and the show went on. He is definitely the energy in the band running around on stage, hip thrusting, swinging his microphone around over his head, doing gigantic leaps off the drum platform granted the bassist is given honorable mentions for his bouncing around with his Chanel Bass during their song "The City is at War." Their most well known song "Bring It (Snakes on a Plane)" was saved for later in their set where they were joined by William Beckett of the band The Academy Is, ending the number with a little bit of Gwen Stefani's "Holla Back Girl" more appropriately changed to Holla Back Boy.
The next band I watched and shot was Say Anything back on the main stage where Cobra had just performed. I had never seen them so it was a first for me and let me just take the time to say their singer Max Bemis is nuts, but in a good way. He's incredibly expressive, tossing his microphone around, and likes to lean out and get close to the crowd, while their guitar player was thrashing his long hair around rocking out. This was the first I really saw crowd surfers coming over the barricades and we got the pleasure of seeing a banana crowd surfing.. or at least a kid in a giant banana suit crowd surfing. Pretty amusing if you ask me. Their most memorable songs for were probably "Shiksa" and "Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too" where they got the crowd all clapping along.
So after Say Anything I was hot as heck so it was time for a shade and water break, because at Warped Tour those things are essential. But after the short 30 minute break it was time for Gym Class Heroes back at the main stages, main stage left this go round.
When Gym Class stepped out on stage I was quite surprised to see their frontman Travis McCoy walking without the cane he was using off stage. He blew out his knee a few stops before Dallas, apparently for the 6th time or so. He wasn't as mobile and he took it a little bit easy on the running around aspect. I had seen them before and he is normally all over the place. But I was pleasantly surprised to see him sans cane and all silly faces like usual. They started with "Clothes Off" and I shouldn't have been that surprised or shocked that Travis started to undo his belt which wasn't really holding his pants up but we can pretend that's what it was there for. I should have expected something like that from him, and it got the reaction he wanted from the female crowd. They also did some new stuff from their upcoming release "The Quilt" including a song titled "Peace Sign" where they got the crowd throwing up their peace signs and the bird all in one song. Travis then took the time to touch on the incident that had happened a couple days previous in St. Louis. He apologized to anyone who saw the video on youtube or read the story on the net. But then also stated that he hates when people say stupid stuff like that. And on one end he's right, what the fan said was wrong, but two wrongs dont make either of them right, or at least I think that's the moral of the story here? After apologizing he kicked it back into their set. Ending on a high note with "Cupids Chokehold" joined by the singer of the band We the Kings both he and Travis getting off the stage and onto the barricades to show the fans down front a little love.
Right after Gym Class was over Jacks Mannequin was playing on the other Main Stage, and he jumped right into the well known stuff with the song "Dark Blue." Jacks Mannequin for the most part is just Andrew McMahon. It's pretty piano driven and that's Andrews forte, so his set was a bit of a breather to all the heavier rock. But Andrew's really no rookie to Warped Tour, he played the year I had previously gone with his band Something Corporate at the time. But Jacks Mannequin's songs don't sound like Something Corporate. Andrew was sporting the shaggy blonde hair look, I actually think it looked better buzz cut and dark, but in 02 he had the shaggy blonde look, so the buzzed hair might have been a side effect of his bout with cancer, but good for him for jumping back into the music scene and not letting such a life effecting ordeal effect him more than it had to. Mannequins set while more mellow than some of the other acts still had the crowd singing along to every word, especially during the song "Mix Tape." He ended his set by playing piano with his feet, which is something that cant be described, you should probably make an effort to go see it.
After Mannequin I made my way to go catch some of the local boys Forever the Sickest Kids set, they were already two songs in and bringing the energy. Crowd surfing fans flying over the barricade and front man jumping down onto the barricade to get up close and personal with the fans. The bassist making faces and just having fun. I unfortunately only got to see a couple songs before booking it back to the main stages to catch Angels and Airwaves. I would have liked to have seen more of them though, they seemed pretty high energy and fun. I'm sure they'll be back though, seeing as they are from DFW and all.
So I got back to the main stage just in time as the Angels and Airwaves intro of sirens was playing, and it wasn't exactly easy maneuvering through the packed in fans. Their set was probably the second largest draw of all the acts, no doubt thanks to the fact their front man is Tom DeLonge formerly of Blink 182. This band was definitely one of the crowds favorites, and the band came out jumping right into the first song. Right away they were getting the crowd to clap along, they didn't have to make them sing, they were doing that all by themselves word for word during every song. It probably helped that the second song they went into was "Everything's Magic" which was played out the wazoo in a commercial a few months ago. Tom was all about the rocking stances.. I think my favorite though is what I like to call the "rock fist." But out of their whole set, what stands out for me the most personally didn't even involve the band. It was when I had my camera up to my face shooting the third song and took it down for a second to wipe the sweat from my hand, yes my hands were sweating (it was that hot!), and noticed a flip flop flying straight for my face. I lifted my hand up next to my face as if to "give someone the hand" and that's exactly where the flip flop made contact before falling to the ground. Cat like reflexes! They're important at warped tour due to flying shoes, water bottles, and whatever else someone decides to throw. Just a little tip to watch out for.
Next band up that I watched was "Story of the Year" who were sadly on when the band Family Force 5 was on, who I would have liked to have gotten to see, but I opted for Story of the Year. And they came out running around and jumping all over the stage. Singer Dan Marsala wasting no time getting his head banging, and during the first or second song he was already off the stage, onto the barricade and into the crowd diving right in. Later in their set the guitarist did backflips off their amps. Tossing their guitars to the techs across the stage before jumping onto and off the amps. That would have made a pretty awesome picture had it been in the first 3. They finished up their set with their probably most well known song "Until the Day I Die." The crowd definitely loved them and they were incredibly energetic during their set even in the sweltering sun.
So finally the Holy Grail of warped tour for me. The band I wanted to see more than any of the other bands (and I wasn't the only one, seeing as how they had the biggest crowd).... Paramore. The lucky thing is that they were even on the tour at all, let alone the Dallas stop. I think they did a whole six tour dates of warped tour and we lucked out, mostly because Paramore had their own tour planned already, can't hate on them for that. They opened with "Let the Flames Begin" kind of an awesome name for the song they opened with, also an awesome song to start with. The band came out rocking right up on the edge of the stage and Hayley running around head banging, hair flying everywhere. While the entire band deserves credit for their musical skills and incredible energy. You have to hand it to Hayley, who is a great frontwoman, sounding better than ever and singing with such attitude, which is great especially during numbers like "That's What You Get" and "Misery Business." I'm sure the audience singing along word for word and pumping their fists in the air only added to the energy she was giving out. But too much energy is bad, mid set she had to ask the folks in the crowd to stop pushing cause she thought they were going to kill each other if they kept it up. My favorite moments had to be Hayley throwing in the rap song "Low" into their song "CrushCrushCrush" just for humor factor alone, and towards the end of the set when she let the audience know she could die right there under the sun and be happy.. then she tried to take it back, only to decide not to take it back but to leave it there for everyone to think about before jumping right into their hit "Misery Business" to finish their set with a bang. I would go see them again in a heart beat without having to think twice.
To finish my day off I headed over to the Ernie Ball stage to watch Nothing More who are friends of mine, and won the Battle of the Bands last year in San Antonio. Allowing them to play on the Ernie Ball Stage at 5 shows this year. These boys are from San Antonio and have a descent following packing the house at home town shows and playing with bands like Miser when in Dallas. This was actually the first time I had seen the band since they went through a loss of a guitar player and a change in singers. I have to admit Johnny singing will take some getting used to because I'm used to the more gritty vocals of their ex front man Trey Graham. Johnny's vocals are similar but smoother/softer. The boys sounded good, just a tad bit different from normal. I was also very glad to see them pull out some of the crazy drum antics as usual, including the 3 man bass solo. Also glad to see them still full of energy as usual. They're in an adjustment period, but I really think I was the only one who could tell, because the folks that were watching their set, most hadn't seen them before so they're indifferent.
After watching the Nothing More boys I packed it up and headed home, crashing and sleeping like a baby that night. Exhaustion, body pain, and a little bit of sunburn on my ears was the aftermath, but it was completely worth it. With such a wide assortment of artist its hard not to like even just the idea of Warped Tour, there's something for just about everyone, which is probably why it's been going for 14 years. I have no doubt it will be here next year and many years to come.
