Warped Tour. SF. Piers 30/32 July 8.

Oh Warped. Day filled with sun, tons of bands and overpriced food. Aside from the piers being so crowded that one could barely move around, I had a fun time! Normally I find a few new bands, but this time we really kept true to the basics and pretty much stayed on the main stages. Which is just a sign of me getting older since so many bands pointed out they have played all the smaller stages years before. I really wish it was a 2 day ordeal like back in the day so I could see more bands!
Got there right around time Thursday was about to start. I like them, but they don't pick the best songs to play. They got the extra 10 minutes extended play. After that saw The Living End which was a fun set, they realize people want to hear 'Prisoner of Society'. Can't wait to see them at Slim's next month. The new thing this year was schedule. You could sign up to get text updates of the schedule. Which ended up in me getting tons of promo/spam messages as well, but the good thing came out of it, I got a text telling me Biology was playing Vagrant stage, and I didn't even know they were at Warped! I literally ran to the stage to watch them play with like.. maybe 10 people? I even got to be front row center without any effort on my part.
After that we figured we better eat since there was no bands playing that we were dying to see. After consuming some of the worst fried rice I ever had, we checked out Dollyrots (after stopping at their merch booth, where Colin bought so much crap they gave him a free tote!). They plays at Sugar Hooker tent which was trying too hard. I'm a big fan of pink and black (they're my favorite colors), but do both of the 'girl' stages have to be so pink and black and cheesy?? I couldn't hear the vocals at all but they were fun. A little pretentious maybe. And boy did I learn a lesson from watching them play- having sound people who know what they were doing is essential. The singer was experiencing problems with her bass, and threw it on the floor. The only employee that was maybe the sound guy, started to look for an extra guitar. Well, he was opening an empty case, and didn't know how to put on a guitar strap, and didn't appear to know if she played guitar or bass, and didn't see to know if there was a difference between the two. Yickes.I felt bad for the band and felt an urge to run there and help, but figured they'd think I'm trying to steal or something, so it's not worth it.
After that we saw Anti-Flag for the gosh.. I dunno 10th time? They played their 30 min set with a sub drummer, preached about Bush sucking and promoted a website that's opposing a policy that lets military send info to every high school student. Which I don't get, since I get tons of stuff in the mail from different companies and organizations and it's my choice whether or not I pay attention to them. But yeah whatever. It's just getting weird to see them play since I know their routine down to a T. I can usually say what they'll say before they say it. NOFX was next on the other main stage and I couldn't see them but I heard them and they were entertaining, plus they had the coolest photo in the guide. They dressed up like a buncha emo/screamo kids and pretended they met on MySpace it was wickedly witty especially since they're making fun of like 40% of Warped bands.
After that we saw Joan Jett, who actually blew me away. Here's a 50 year old standing there rocking out in a leather bra, and she's not making me think "Go put something on". Plus she played all the songs I know and love. She was totally the surprise band of this year for me. We left her set a little early to see some chick that was shredding and she was pretty cool too.
Rise Against played a solid set but didn't get to all the songs I wanted to hear, but totally made me excited for their return in the fall!! Yay! Plus I just got the new album but haven't listened to it yet. Can't wait!!
Bouncing Souls were one of the last bands to play and they were amazing! They were just fun fun fun to watch. The crowd was into them, and more importantly they were into what they were playing and it showed! I can't wait to see them again!
Afterwards Motion City Soundtrack played last on the main stage and sadly there was nothing else going on at any of the smaller stages, just some random bands playing un-official stages. We walked around and looking for something to do and just got approached by tons of bands to listen to their stuff, buy their stuff, etc. At this we had NO money so it was easy to say no. I did however manage to buy some tshirts from the Shirts for a Cure program and I love them and I love that the money is going towards charity. Made me feel better about buying more band shirts! I picked up Refused and Converge shirts. While at the booth, I accidentally scared Mark, the founder by knowing who he is and then explaining that I attended a SSE event in 2004 with Thrice. He said they might do one this September so I'm totally excited!
After years of going to shows, there wasn't that many bands I wanted to see that I missed. Like yes I missed The Bled, but I saw them like 4 times already. Or Casualties. Or Less Than Jake or Saves the day coz I don't care about them. Or a million other bands. I think I saw Plain White T's while walking somewhere. But I'm most heartbroken about missing Against Me! who played at like 10:45 while I thought doors were at 11. Since I already saw them on this album I doubt they're coming back soon. They're totally fun. I also had to give up seeing Love = Death to see Bouncing Souls but I feel totally fine with that decision since BS were in the top 3 bands I saw and Love = Death play Bay Area all the time.
Overall a fun time.
Oh and on the fashion side of things. It appears that lime green is the new pink. Which is cool by me if people lay off my favorite color. Also the outfit this year was mini jean skirts with tights. I wish I brought a camera to capture some of this but I'll just have to rely on my memories.