Warped Tour 2003

Adam: As both Aubin and I were at this show we're both offering our perspectives in this review. As a bit of background on the event, 2003's Warped Tour date in Toronto was not really in Toronto. It took place about 45 minutes north in the city of Barrie at Molson Park. Although I never attended the show they tried to host at the Skydome in Toronto, I'm assuming the lightly forested parkland was a much better choice of venue.

PRE-SHOW

Adam: During the drive north the sky was dark gray and it was sporadically raining. While it was still warm out, this weather did not bode well for the concert

I arrived at a bit after 11 and didn't get past the gates until about 12:30. As Molson Park has a fenced-in area for the line, the crowd found interesting ways to amuse themselves during the wait. Mostly this involved bottles of water (or worse) flying through the air from one side on the line to the other. Concert goers who were not paying attention were likely to get smacked in the head with something. The guy in front of me was hit in the ear with a juice box. While for a few brief minutes a large inflatable ball replaced the bottles, it was an interesting way to spend an hour.

As about noon the rain started. Some people in the line resorted to wearing garbage bags or hiding under shower curtains they had brought, but the futility of all that was soon pretty apparent. It rained until almost 3 hours.

The park staff was lenient enough as they didn't hassle people about their spikes or chains, however they disallowed water bottles. I don't care what economic motive they had: denying people water is moronic.

Aubin: The morning was pretty frustrating for me. We left Toronto at 11am and arrived just before three. To put it in perspective; it's supposed to be a forty minute drive, but we were stuck in a combination of rain and the onslaught of SUV's leaving the city and heading to cottages. I didn't arrive until the beginning of Thrice's set, so I missed a few of the early bands.

I completely agree about the water. I think it's unethical to sell water for an all day concert; simply because if people have to choose between water for $3 and beer for $5, they'll take the beer, get dehydrated and either get really, really drunk or just topple over. No one likes it when kids topple over.

I must confess I got in through the press line which was pretty short, though they sure asked for my ID a lot. They initially made a fuss about my digital camera, which seemed odd because I had a photo pass but it's all moot since the batteries fried or went dead or took off for France.

PEPPER

Adam: I saw the latter half of Pepper's set while waiting for the Suicide Machines to start. The band kept their set energetic despite the rain and their place at the bottom of the day's lineup. I'm not familiar with their material but there was a lot of Sublime worship going on. The highlight of their set for me was a fairly faithful cover of The English Beat's 'Mirror In The Bathroom'

THE SUICIDE MACHINES

Adam: It was still early in the day so while the Suicide Machines drew a big crowd, it wasn't overbearing by any means. Vocalist Jason Navarro did his best bring the rain-soaked crowd's sprits and energy back up. They lead off with 'Islands' and played a set that included 'New Girl.' 'So Long,' 'Permanent Holiday' and 'All My People.' From their new album they threw in 'Burning In The Aftermath,' 'Did You Ever Get A Feeling Of Dread' and (if I remember correctly) 'Split The Time.'

The band had some of the best audience participation of the day. Some insistent fans convinced Jason to try singing 'Hey Ska!' as it was originally recorded. He obliged even though he had to stop when he couldn't remember the lyrics. New bassist Rich Tschirhart was fantastic. He sounded great and didn't use a pick for the entire show. The best moment was when Jason had the crowd charge screaming ('Braveheart' style) into the kids waiting for the Ataris to start playing on another stage.

SUBB

Adam: I panned Subb's latest album pretty harshly. But for a band I wasn't even intending on watching (I was looking for a friend at Union Label Group) they were pretty good. They had lots of energy and played up their ska influences a lot. The crowd watching them was really enthusiastic and into their set, so it was good vibe all around.

WESTERN WASTE

Adam: I had never even heard of this South Bay band before the show. They played next to where Rise Against was setting up and their vocalist (quite logically) yelled from their stage "why don't you all just turn this way, Rise Against isn't even playing yet!" All I really remember is that they lots of energy, a few devoted fans shouting along and their singer looked like a young Henry Rollins. Despite the apathetic crowd they put on good show.

RISE AGAINST

Adam: Rise Against drew a gigantic crowd. So much so that they really deserved to be on one of the main stages (instead of, say, Pepper). While Tim Mcllrath's vocals sounded a little rough on the initial song, he sounded fantastic for most of the set. Like Jason from the Suicide Machines he used the fact that we were all standing in the pouring rain to get the crowd as rowdy as possible.

They started with 'Black Masks & Gasoline' and played 'Heaven Knows' and 'Dead Ringer' amongst other tracks from their new record. Before playing the political 'Blood Red, White, & Blue' Tim got a HUGE response from the crowd for saying that although the song is opinionated, punk was a about thinking for yourself and making your own decisions. I believe they closed with 'Alive and Well.'

Aubin: Chalk missing these guys up as a huge disappointment.

THRICE

Aubin: Thrice was the first band of the day I saw. Well, saw might be a tad generous since the volume of crowd pushed me back pretty far. But they sounded great; incredibly tight. I swear I was listening to the band on CD.

Adam: Huge crowd. As was watching Rise Against finish up I wasn't able to get anywhere near the stage. For that reason I didn't get into Thrice's set as much as I wanted too. I remember they played 'See You In The Shallows' and 'Under A Killing Moon.' The opening to 'Betrayal Is A Symptom' sounded amazing. They were really, really tight live.

BRAND NEW

Aubin: Ever since Scott's review of their debut record, I have considered myself a fan of this band. Apparently I was not alone, as the crowd for their side stage performance was just massive. I was frequently wondering why they weren't on the main stage. I'm guessing by next year they'll be there.

The band blazed through tracks from their newest record Deja Entendu including 'Sic Transit Gloria' and 'The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows' and threw in some crowd favorites from Your Favorite Weapon like (my favorite) 'Seventy Times 7" and "Jude Law and a Semester Abroad"

As an odd point of interest; my girlfriend developed quite a liking for both Jesse and Vin, which would have bothered me if I wasn't such a confident captain of industry. Well, I'm not really. Oh crap...

Adam: I'm not too embarrassed to say that prior to this show I had not heard more than one (1) Brand New song before. While I obviously didn't share the crowd's devotion, I was quite impressed with their stage presence. For a batch of lower key melodic songs the energy level was surprisingly high. I took off half way though this set to go see the Planet Smashers. I saw Nubs on the way.

THE PLANET SMASHERS

Adam: It's not Warped for me unless I get to dance with my friends to the Planet Smashers. While their set was fairly predictable they were a ton of fun as always. They lead with 'Missionary's Downfall' and closed with 'Explosive.' Among others they played 'J'Aime Ta Femme,' 'Never Going To Drink Again,' 'Surfin' In Tofino,' 'Suoer Orgy Porno Party,' 'Pee In The Elevator' and 'Blind.' The set was quite heavy with songs from Mighty. Also, the sun finally came out at this point.

Aubin: I've never owned any Planet Smashers stuff on disc, but I've been listening to the band off and on for years; an old roommate of mine was from Montreal and insisted on playing 'Pee in the Elevator' at the end of every evening out. Actually seeing the band play was better that their recorded music could promise. A thorough bunch of crowd pleasers, with not a negative vibe among them. Even if you're not a fan of ska, or the Smashers specifically, unless you hate fun, you should check them out next time they play through your town

AVOID ONE THING / TSUNAMI BOMB / LETTER KILLS

Adam: Three bands I wanted to watch but unfortunately played all at the same time (and also at the time when we were trying to get food tickets). From what I heard, Avoid One Thing's 'Yakisoba' sounded just like it does on Record. Tsunami Bomb seemed to be having a blast and the Letter Kills' 'Don't Believe In Me' (their one song I know) didn't sound too shabby at all.

LESS THAN JAKE

Aubin: Less Than Jake? I like Less Than Jake. They were better last time I saw them on the Warped Tour; at this date, they seemed rushed and exhausted, which, given the scope of the tour isn't entirely inappropriate, still...

Adam: The friend I was with insisted we push up closer to the stage for LTJ's set. I got about to far until I lost her in the crowd and got stuck in a crushing throng of people. The band lead off with a Borders & Boundaries tune but played a good deal of Hello Rockview songs. The tracks from Anthem sounded great live, especially 'The Science Of Selling Yourself Short.' They had lots of crowd interaction but suffered from low mixing on their vocals.

RANCID

Adam: Rancid's always hit or miss live for me. This time around I enjoyed their set a lot. They mostly drew from Wolves... with tracks like 'Roots Radicals,' 'Time Bomb,' 'Ruby Soho' and 'Journey To The End Of East Bay.' Lars did his solo version of 'The Wars End' and a raging version of 'Dead Bodies.' Matt Freeman soloed for a few minutes on 'Maxwell Murder' (to the crowd's delight). The played 'Red Hot Moon' and 'Fall Back Down' from their new record. They sounded decent but lost their power in the chorus' because only one vocalist was singing what's recorded with all three. SR joined them to rap at the end of the 'Red Hot Moon' and he sounded far more fluid then he has on past recordings.

Aubin: Rancid is a mixed thing for me. I enjoy some of their records; Wolves..., Rancid and Let's Go but lately I haven't been listening to those records as much. I think I might have outgrown Rancid, which is odd because I'm about half Tim's age. Live, they sounded like, well, Rancid on CD, but a little drunker. I can't actually confirm that they were drunk, but who can tell right?

SIMPLE PLAN

Adam: I didn't watch Simple Plan but I heard their stage banter as I wandered the booths. While I do think it's pretty asinine to attend their set just to throw stuff at them, they made the mistake of arguing with the crowd. At one point their vocalist somehow concluded that the bottle throwers were "racists." While I felt bad for them, yelling at a crowd of kids isn't a good way to maintain your dignity.

Aubin: My mom always told me that if I couldn't say something nice, I shouldn't say anything. I know everyone says that, but she really did.

GLASSJAW

Aubin I love Glassjaw. But Glassjaw sounded terrible at Warped this year. I don't have a comparison point, but the rhythm seemed off and Daryl's vocals were so low as to be (more) incomprehensible. They played tracks from their newest record Worship and Tribute including what appeared to be a crowd favorite 'Ape Dos Mil' and ventured back into their older record for 'Pretty Lush' and some others. As much as I love Glassjaw, I really didn't enjoy this and pretty much walked away from the stage in disappointment.

Adam: Glassjaw had the same mixing issues Less Than Jake seemed to have. I've always been just a casual fan of the band so I was surprised how many of their songs I recognized. I was too far from the stage for this set to really get into it, but I trust the kids up front were having a ball.

ME FIRST & THE GIMMIE GIMMIES

Adam: I only saw half of this set. My legs had just about decided that they were going to quit. They opened with 'I Believe I Can Fly' and it sounded great. As they were missing a guitarist they had a few guests don the Hawaiian shirt, among them Mark Orrell from the Dropkick Murphys and Roger from Less Than Jake. Apparently more joined them after I had left.

So all in all a decent outing this year with a pretty solid set list marred by circumstantial issues like rain, traffic and mixing.