Warped Tour 2003

Once Warped 2003 dates were released so long ago, I had Aug 4th circled on calender. After my first Warped run last year, I definitely knew I would be coming back for more. And even after just having been on stage with my idols at another concert two nights prior and already being tired as hell, my enthusiasm was through the roof. So the day began....

My friend and I arrived about 12:45, just enough time to check out the grounds and realize that the setup was way different from last year, and that getting from one stage to another was going to be a bitch. Consulted the schedule quickly, and then staked out a spot for Motion City Soundtrack. These guys played to a fairly receptive crowd, and won over a bunch of new fans (I could tell by the amount of MCS Cd's I saw being carried throughout the day.) Unfortunately, I also just picked up the CD at the show, so what songs they tore through kind of escapes me. I did recognize "Boombox Generation", "My Favorite Accident", "Capital H", "Don't Call It A Comeback", "Shiver", and "Perfect Teeth". I think there was more, but they definitely ruled.

Then a quick span around the grounds again, until I heard familiar chords coming from the Ernie Ball stage. I dragged my friend over there, and walked right up front row to see Jackson. I don't know how much of their set I missed, but the songs I did catch were pretty good. They joked around a lot with the rather sparse crowd, and overall were just fun to watch.

After that, I headed back over to catch the Suicide Machines. Now for fear of losing scene points, I really don't want to say this, but I am not all that familiar with the Suicide Machines work. Mainly, the stories of the 'Braveheart Moshpit' were intriguing, and I knew I couldn't miss it. They played a fairly energetic set, and yes all my favorite moshing activities were included, right along with the masses attacking the awaiting Starting Line fans. Highly entertaining.

Now the tidbit of info that will make me lose even further scene points...I like the Starting Line. There I said it, I enjoy the Starting Line. At least it's better than liking these cockasses. Anyways, Kenny and the boys really seem to have matured over the year or so since I first saw them tear up the [unmentionable label] stage at last year's Warped. They seemed to have more of a stage presence, and sounded a lot tighter as a band. Vinnie from Brand New had to fill in on guitar, and sounded pretty alright. Overall, The Starting Line did what they do best, and all the middle schoolers sang right along and went psychotic. And yes, I did enjoy their set. Sue me.

As Poison The Well started playing, we quickly decided it was break time. Sorry folks I just don't like this band. After wandering around some more, we found some friends and lost track of time, which caused us to miss Rancid. I'm still kicking myself about this one a day later. I made sure however not to miss Atmosphere. I thought I would be the only one hyped to see a rapper on the Warped Tour, but surprisingly a fairly large crowd was gathered. They tore the stage up, and were one of the best performances of the day.

After getting my thug on at Atmosphere, I walked over about 20 feet to catch Rise Against at the Volcom stage. I thought the band's records were alright, but I figured they would be awesome live. I was not let down. The band tore through a lot of the songs on Revolutions Per Minute, to a fairly small but very intense crowd. These guys played their hearts out, and it amazed me that more people were not there to witness their set. Definitely nice.

Next up was Story Of The Year at the Ernie Ball stage. The few studio tracks I heard from these guys were alright, but sounded like a poor man's Used. Unfortunately, that's how their live show came off too. Something about the band just seems very stale and generic, but they at least put energy into their set. The crowd was fairly large, and a lot of people were really into it. Look for these John Feldman proteges to get a lot of unwarranted exposure from certain websites rather soon.

Then came merch run. After buying myself a new wardrobe, off we were to check out Less Than Jake. These guys were damn entertaining, despite the fact I wasn't really all that familiar with their back catalogue (Slowly but surely I'm working on it.) They created a circle pit that went around some of the merch booths that were at least 300 ft back from the stage, and it was fun as hell to witness. Great set.

Then came one of the main reasons I had gone to Warped in the first place...Brand New. The entire band came out sitting on stools with acoustic instruments, and after going through "I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light", Jessie announced to the crowd he had injured his knee and that the set would be kind of mellow and contain the slower tracks. They played most of the slower songs off Deja Entendu ("Okay I Believe You...", "The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot", "Me Vs Maradona...", the aforementioned "Spin Light"), "Soco Amaretto Lime", and closed with "Seventy Times 7". The crowd went as nuts as a crowd could for a purely acoustic set, and Jessie even tossed in a verse of "There's No I In Team" by TBS during the breakdown. The $30 ticket would have been worth this Brand New performance alone, and I had a stupid grin on my face the entire set from how cool it was. Fucking amazing.

Then came the second merch run of the night. Anything to avoid watching the main portion of Simple Plan's set. Once they were done and over with (and the entire awaiting crowd had flipped them off several times over), Thrice took the stage. I watched three songs of Thrice's set, and was slightly disappointed. For some reason, the guitars definitely sounded not as powerful as one would expect from a Thrice show. After "Silhouette", I ran to the Ernie Ball stage yet again.

Letter Kills was busting through "Don't Believe" right as we arrived, and we got about 3rd row. Just in time for to be able to sing along and have the lead singer jump out into the crowd for a quick sing-a-long. This was just the beginning. The lead singer had mic swinging skills that would make Adam from TBS jealous, and the entire band went nuts on the stage. The weirdest part came when the lead singer decided to flip over the barrier (taking a header while doing it no less) and just crawling on his hands and knees past the back of the crowd, screaming along the entire time. After collecting himself, he took another header going back over, and then proceeded to rock out once more. If you have the chance to see this band, do it. Nice guys, great rock music, and an amazing live show. They definitely deserved a bigger crowd then they had.

To end the night, went to check out the end of the Ataris set. They were alright, most of the crowd really seemed into it, and overall they were pretty fun to watch. In short, Warped 2003 was a damn fun day of good music, great people, and some of the greatest mosh/circle pit action I have ever witnessed. The crowd definitely seemed larger than 2002, but most of it seemed to be from very young teenage girls who were just annoying. Sigh, despite only being 16, I think I'm already turning into a bitter aging scenester. Ah well. All I can hope is that Warped 2004 lives up to the greatness of the past two years.