Jordan and Matt from Set Your Goals lurking the Advent Stage crowd from a better vantage point.
Well...we had so much fun at the Mountain View stop of the Van's Warped Tour that the Sacramento date was too good to pass up, so the Freelance Fiends piled in the car, hit Del Taco in Davis, and headed up to Marysville for an all day mosh extravaganza. We made a point to try and see people we didn't catch in Mountain View, and that day's schedule made doing so incredibly easy! So we waded through an uglier crowd than Mountain View, and saw the following bands doing their best to get through the final weekend of this summer long circus. Without further ado...
Against Me!
We only caught the last three songs of Against Me's set, but they were easily ten of the musically together and dynamic minutes of music we saw that day. They closed their set with "We Laugh At Danger and Break All The Rules" and it was just as heart-felt and sing along inciting as it was the first time we heard it back in 2002. Sadly, there were only about 300 people spiritedly singing lyrics back at Tom Gabel and crew as the band plowed through their electric folk punk, which wouldn't have been so bad had they not been on the MAIN STAGE, where we had seen The Devil Wears Prada and Attack! Attack! draw a few thousand fans earlier that day. Good sets aren't really dictated by the amount of people in the crowd, but it was rough to watch Against Me, such a powerful, commanding live band make little to no impact on the Warped Tour crowd. I don't know if their popularity is waning, or if the teenagers aren't into it because they don't have weak metal mosh parts, but it must have been a long, sobering summer for one of Gainesville's finest. However, it was nice seeing Max Weinberg's kid working after being kicked out of Madball. He looked much more at home in Against Me.
Bad Rabbits
At the Mountain View Warped Tour date, everyone we talked to on the tour went on and on about Bad Rabbits. We caught a little bit of their set from outside the show while we waited in line for our passes, but that small taste wasn't nearly enough to base any sort of accurate review on. We picked up their Stick Up Kids EP after that show and were completely floored by their unique blend of late 80s/early 90s funk, soul, and r+b played the the ferocity of kids who obviously cut their teeth in the punk and hardcore scenes. After playing the absolute shit out of Stick Up Kids all summer, we were both excited to finally see the dudes live in action, but also wondered if they were going to live up to the expectation. Bad Rabbits completely shattered and stomped on any expectation had by anyone much like they stomped and danced all over the Skull Candy Stage that afternoon. They had a crowd of several hundred Warped ticketholders and a stage full of hot girls, band dudes, and industry types shaking their asses and clapping their hands as they effortlessly juked and jived through thirty minutes of high energy funk featuring most of the Stick Up Kids EP, a De La Soul interlude, some new songs, and a collaboration with Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes. Bad Rabbits were musically superior than nearly every other band slated to play that day, and rightfully earned all of the hype generated around them this summer. If these guys aren't huge by next year, it will be evidence that the music industry no longer gives any merit to musical ability or the power of performance. Bad Rabbits are out with Taking Back Sunday this fall, and you best believe we will be there, drunkenly trying to dance and singing along as best we can.
Travie getting loose with the BR dudes.
D.R.U.G.S.
This shit was AWFUL. We weren't even trying to watch these boners, but they were on before The Wonder Years and we didn't feel like immersing ourselves back into the crowd for twenty minutes. What we have here are four dudes that look like Pacific Sunwear employees and one guy who looks like a third rate James Hart (former Eighteen Visions/current Burn Halo frontman) playing AFI throwaway songs with a touch more "mosh" to them. For being such an obviously weak ass band, D.R.U.G.S. somehow managed to have a bunch of "tough" dudes moshing "really hard" for them (by "really hard" I mean "much harder than the swarms of teenage girls surrounding them). The apex of suck during this thirty minute assault on the senses (that wasn't the shotty sing alongs by the six sleazy groupies who probably all caught HPV from the band guys earlier that afternoon) was the "Wall of Death" the band got the crowd to do. We did our best to document it, but much like D.R.U.G.S. are as a band, we're shitty photographers, so it is what it is. Avoid this shit at all costs. Here's their "Wall of Death":
Gym Class Heroes
It may not be cool in certain circles to say this, but we give no fucks about circles: Gym Class Heroes are a GREAT fucking band. Travis McCoy is a decent rapper, and the rest of the band do a great job of playing a fierce blend of pop, soul, and reggae that at times is reminiscent of Sublime, and while they aren't quite as legendary or ground-breaking, they get the job done just as well. Gym Class Heroes arguably had one of the largest crowds in front of the Main Stage, and as we watched several thousand kids sing the words to "Cookie Jar" and "Cupid's Chokehold", we wondered how Gym Class got so big with little to no radio or MTV (like they even play videos anymore) airtime. Their Stereo Hearts record recently dropped, and while we haven't picked it up, we've heard good things, and are looking forward to seeing Travie and the boys on the road this fall. It may not be "hip" or "cool" to like a band as pop as Gym Class Heroes, but game recognize game, and these dudes fucking slay.
Lucero played another heart-wrenching set of whiskey-soaked, country-influenced punk and proved that even out of their element they are unfuckwithable live.
Moving Mountains delivered another explosive set of their unique shoegazey post-hardcore. We also interviewed them. Look out for that to be up on the site in the near future.
Yelawolf played. He's fucking terrible, but allegedly he slapped the shit out of Jonny Craig from Dance Gavin Dance, so we can give him a pass on being shitty for ultimately giving one of the world's biggest pieces of shit his come-uppance.
All in all, it was a pretty good day despite temperatures hanging in the upper 90s and the average beer being around $8. Thanks again to Matt and Set Your Goals for the hospitality and being great friends, and to Moving Mountains for the interview. Warped Tour is a pretty good time, regardless of who's playing. We had a good time this year, and it is very likely that we will be back again in 2012. Sometimes you need to mix it up with the kids and indulge that "guilty pleasure" part of the brain. See you in the pit.
