Life In A Bungalo

Warped Tour 2007
Englishtown, NJ
August 5, 2007
Click for Full Photolog of the show on Flickr!

Boy, was the 13th edition of the traveling punk circus The Warped Tour lame this year or what? A good 90 percent of the bands on the bill skewed towards emo crap, and judging by the boy to 14-year-old girl ratio, most of the fans weren’t even alive when headliner Bad Religion’s “Recipe For Hate” came out in 1993.

To make matters worse, a good chunk of the bands backstage didn’t seem to care one bit about anything. One bassist ranted in the press tent about how most bands won’t even do press any more because most of the questions range from “What is your favorite poem?” to “Who is the smelliest guy on the tour?” He went on to joke about how all the emo bands that scored the coveted extra 15 minutes (voted on by the fan) probably won’t be around in 15 minutes. And yes, I’m still bitter that both Bad Religion and Tiger Army were too lame to do interviews with The Bungalo.

That’s not to say there wasn’t anything cool to write about. Revolution Mother opened up the Lucky 13 stage with a brutal, outlaw rock set that scorched anyone standing within 10 feet of the stage. Coming off like a cross between Nashville Pussy, Zeke, and Pantera, the band tore into their set as if surrounded by thousands of people at Madison Square Garden. This band is not for the faint at heart, and I actually witnessed half a dozen emo boys drop their ‘nads for the first time when Revolution Mother hit stage. Even better, these Jersey bastards scored slots on two different stages—mauling the audience throughout the day.

Speaking of MSG (the Asian kind), I stumbled across the craziest trio of Chinese madmen—Notorious MSG. According to their blog, the band is made up of a bunch of Chinese bike delivery boys from the mean streets of Chinatown, NY. Well they sure looked badass at the Warped Tour, rocking out to gnarly tunes that sounded like The Beastie Boys being sodomized by the Ramones. Hell, one of them was rocking GI Joe tattoos, and they all were sporting matching denim vests. The best part, was Billie D. Wang, the band’s off-the-wall guitar player, who pumped out riffs on an M-16 shaped axe. These are the guys that deserved an extra 15 minutes of playing time.

Most of my day was spent at the AAA Lucha Libre ring watching crazy masked Mexicans beating the snot out of each other in a six-sided ring. There was no Kaiju cheesy shit, AAA brought their A game and featured some of their top guys battling in 90 degree heat in full Lucha regalia. Do you have any idea what kind of mindfuck it is to see Psicosis jack knife powerbomb a tiny luchador at the Warped Tour. Screw the half pipe, I’ll take Lucha Libre any day.

A quick tour of the arena and I spotted New Found Glory doing their best NoFX imitation, Alkaline Trio doing their best AFI imitation, and The Starting Line just sucking. I’m sure Yellowcard was around, but I might have been taking a dump while they were playing. Some extreme hardcore bands took stage later in the day, including As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage. I guess the $200,000 bands have to pay to play Ozzfest is driving the metal dudes to punk land. At least it was fun watching emo kids cower in fear as long hairs proceeded to stomp anything wearing mascara. Too bad Jeffree Star had already left for the day.

Bad Religion closed the show (or at least as much as I was staying for) with a solid set of new songs and classics. The audience was a mixed bag of older fans and their kids, and their kid’s kids. Opening with “American Jesus,” Greg Graffin traipsed around the stage pumping his fist as Jay Bentley rocked out on bass. It’s always a treat to see their new drummer switch up the classic punk beats with his own spin on tunes like “Anesthesia” and “Generator.” The band closed with “Infected” but decided to fuck with the young band on the adjacent stage and busted out “Sorrow.” The band on the next stage over was pissed, but when the crowd told them to play along, the singer simply pouted, “Ah, they’re before our time.” That was the Warped Tour in a nutshell.

Click for Full Photolog of the show on Flickr!