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VAN’S WARPED TOUR 2009 CONCERT REVIEW
Category:
Concert/Event Review
Posted:
Monday, July 27, 2009
 Bands: Big D and the Kids Table, The Ataris, Less Than Jake, Saosin, Millionaires, Outernational, POS, Thrice, (for a full list of bands on the tour visit Van's Warped Tour)
Genre: Punk, Alternative Rock
Venue: Cricket Pavilion, Glendale, Arizona
Date of concert: June 30, 2009
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Hot summer day in Phoenix, late June – not the ideal time or place to spend outside for five plus hours. But, if you love the punk rock sounds, it is the perfect place to be when Van’s Warped Tour rolls into town.
 Yes, it’s that time again – when the long-standing summertime traveling punk rock (for simplicity – I don’t want to sub-define genres) show comes to town you know that it’s summer. The Van’s Warped Tour had become such and institution that they are celebrating their 15th anniversary this year. Yes, I know, it is crazy that it’s been going on that long. If you’re not familiar, the way the show(s) are run is this: six (or is it seven? eight? Do I hear a nine?) stages, four of them in sets of two. Each band gets a half-hour set on one stage; as soon as they’re done; the next band starts up on the stage right next to them. So, you can efficiently cram tons of bands into one day of punk rock glory.
Pros and cons to doing so many shows this way? Of course there is: you get to see a lot of bands you usually wouldn’t, and if you don’t like the band playing, just wait half an hour or go to another stage. I had a list of bands that I wanted to see, so the trick for me was to figure a stage-hopping schedule so I could get around to all those bands efficiently.
This year I was stoked to see quite a few bands, one of which was Big D and the Kids Table. So, we showed up nice and early, right around noon, to make sure we got in, got our passes and we’re good to go and did miss anything (because I did miss stuff the year previous). The front gate, the security doofus told us to make our way to another gate, so, we walked to the next gate, which was halfway around the arena, where we were then informed to go to the next gate. We did this several times, until we lapped the entire arena parking lot – on foot – in the heat. Lame. We explained our dilemma to the original guy we talked to who then sent us packing – again – to the second gate we had been at an hour before. It was during this second lap that I overheard Big D playing on the main arena stage (and finish) their set as we walked by. Double lame. We then arrived at the table/gate we were at before as if by an amnesiac regaining their memory, the girl at the table then informed me that I was indeed at the right table, and it was my fault for not communicating clearly earlier. Pfffft. Whatevs, lady. Needless to say, we were “warmed up” by the time we even got through the gate.
 Movin’ on, we got a band/stage schedule and planned out the rest of the day while cooling down beneath a tent backstage. First up on the docket, another band I was super-stoked to see was The Ataris. You’ve probably heard of them – been around for years, still going strong though a few pounds heavier and a change in genre (and back) a few years ago. Full, detailed CB review forthcoming.
At some point after that we wandered around, checked out people’s booths, talked to a few people here and there, etc. I stopped to see a few songs by Saosin. They have a very technical, metal base to their music and songs range from hard-rockers to mellow acoustical numbers. The songs I heard didn’t turn my crank and the vocalist tone was in a higher range than I would’ve expected for their type of music. A lot of people were way into ‘em. I wasn’t one of those people.
Part of the whole Van’s experience is – of course – skateboarding. It is my understanding that this year for the tour, local shops held amateur contests and then the winners were invited to skate during their local stop of the tour on the ramp that was set up there. Pretty cool idea, and I’m sure there was some pretty excited skaters who got to join in. We got to check our some of the ramp session, which looked like more of a warm-up session when we were there.
We made our way over to the main Pavilion area in search of shade and found some there and relaxed a bit. Whilst we were there, we caught part of a set by the Millionaires … that to me was more like the Dollar Menuaires. They were three chicks and a dude with a turntable, playing a cross between something like dance music and hip-hop. They were way into … something like she-playa's and … yeah. I didn’t really like them at all, at I didn’t think they were that good, or good-looking enough to endure their music either.
 Not too long after that we caught some real hip-hop from the likes of POS. This guy was the real deal, one turntable and dj and POS on the mic. He was goooood. Full, detailed CB review forthcoming.
As we continued to cool off, we decided to watch the next band (which we had never heard of) called Outernational. This turned out to be one of the real highlights of the day – with a mix between classic British punk rock and classic rock and a multi-talented keyboard player to boot, these guys were pretty awesome. Again, a full, detailed review of their show will be forthcoming.
After we cooled off a little more backstage, we ended up talking to a living piece of rock history, Arturo Vega. This guy was with the Ramones from the beginning - they lived with him, and he was also the designer of all of their shirts, etc. and is still going strong selling their merch for them. He was pretty awesome. Later, we went by his booth and he showed us the virtual tour of CBGB’s that he had in his booth as well. You can check that out at the CBGB site.
After Arturo showing us around his booth, we ended up going back out in the heat again and checking out Thrice. Joey was stoked to see these guys and they played a pretty solid set. Very technical – and tight. Full review forthcoming as well.
 Another band we were able to catch was the ska and punk styling of Less Than Jake. These guys played to a large crowd, looked like they had a lot of fun and even cooled everyone off with a super-soaker at one point during their set. You can read all about their detailed set in a forthcoming review – right here on CB!
After spending half the day in the heat, we decided to call it a day. Thanks to a whole lotta sunscreen and lots of liquids, we fared pretty well. Better than some, for sure – we saw at least three people being escorted away by paramedics. If you go, it’s also a must to get the Warped Tour cd – they’re only $5 for a two-disc cd with 50 bands. You can get it online at Best Buy.
We had a great time, it was good to get out and enjoy the atmosphere that is Warped Tour, and we got to see some awesome bands.
-Ben T.
Photos by Ben T.
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