Warped Tour 2003, August 10, 2003

Their is one thing guaranteed to happen each year at Asbury Park-no boardwalk renovations and the Warped Tour. Every year, thousands of punks and skaters gather at Jersey’s favorite ghost town beach front to take in an entire day of loud music and extreme sports. This year the Warped bill was a little light. Most of the main stage bands had played Warped already and the bands that people were looking forward to seeing (Andrew WK and AFI) didn’t take part in the East Coast leg of the tour.

Another missing factor was the skateboarding, which was hidden on the far side of the show, drowned out by at least eight stages of music. What was once a collection of bands spotlighted on three stages is now a mess of music blurring in from all sides, and no chance to check out everything.

That said, the day was not a let down by any means. Newly popular bands like the Ataris, Thrice and Simple Plan drove the crowd wild, while alums Face To Face, Pennywise, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Rancid kept the torch burning for the slightly older crowd.

Vendetta Red and One Man Army stole the show on the second stage,. Having lost his voice, the former’s lead singer turned the mic on the crowd and had them sing most of the set including their hit Shatterday.

It was a fun day, but a tired one as fans began to leave early to avoid traffic and try to beat the heat. Concert closers Yellowcard and The All American Rejects were left to clean house, and those who stuck around could not say they went home unhappy, just exhausted.