Warped Tour 2009

All photos Credited and Copy Written to Myspace.com/Kimphotog

The blistering summer sun was high in the sky for all the Warped Tour attendees this past Friday, June 26. Fans lined up like ants assembled for a food run. Some kids were adorned in hoodies ready to dance; some were adorned in bikinis ready for the band boys. Once the legion of people piled in to the Pomona Fairplex, those separate groups combined and formed one formation of guys, gals, and a few in betweens.

After making a stop to the gigantic board of band time slots, I realized I had about two minutes to get to the Skull Candy stage to photograph the exceedingly popular, Attack! Attack! I’d seen this band before late last year and was all but impressed to say the least. Luckily, they’d seem to have done some fine-tuning and collective practicing because this time around, I was blown away. They racked in basically the entire population of attendees and were the reason kids were already shedding blood in the pit at 11 am. Hopefully they can keep up that intensity up throughout the rest of the tour in addition to censoring their mouths a bit. I heard a few, “aren’t they a Christian band?…” remarks coming from the crowd. Makes you wonder!

From there, the next band on my agenda was Underoath. I didn’t exactly agree with them playing so early in the day at a whopping 1pm, but their set was fantastic. They played a medley of songs from their latest album, The Sound of Separation, and a few fan favorites like “Writings on the Wall,” from their 2006 release Define the Great Line and “It’s Dangerous Business Walking Out Your Front Door,” from their 2004 release They’re only Chasing Safety. I can truly say Underoath performs and plays off of the crowd’s excitement to the point that drummer, Aaron Gillespie, excitedly fell off of his seat at one point. I walked away from their performance drenched in Spencer’s snot and spit with a smile on my face.

Next up on the mainstage was The Devil Wears Prada. The band is most definitely a fan favorite of the Pomona Warped population. IMMEDIATELY as the band stepped on stage, the pit was fully cleared. I honestly can’t foresee them ever doing wrong by their fans merely based off of the crowd participation and sheer love they receive everytime I see them.

From there, I truly saw the most enjoyable set of the day. Jeffree Star, straight out of the OC with all the sequence and glam you could imagine on a male, put on quite the show with no remorse. Accompanied by his cousin, Daniel Lucas, and a backup dancer, Jeffree and crew showed off choreographed routines to his very popular hits. Showcasing songs pertaining to things with his own Jeffree stamp of originality, he even opened with his variation of “Boom Boom Pow,” by the Black Eyed Peas. I can’t lie, he’s quite the ballsy character and gets away with saying a lot, but his persona and showmanship is in your face and unapologetic. Sorry people, get used to it.

After all that J Star excitement, I found myself ready to enjoy the musical mastery of post hardcore/ rock quintet, Thrice. With over a decade of experience together as a band, I was expecting sheer greatness from these gentlemen. Gladly to say, their ease and tranquility aligned with their hard hitting riffs, lyrics, and vocal tendencies EXCEEDED my expectations. Here is one of those bands that you think you may love even more on the stage then in your itunes truly. From what the crowd displayed, they were right beside me in the Thrice loving mood.

Now next on the bill is a band that I won’t spend too much time talking about for the simple reason that I was fully discontent with seeing them live. Possibly, A Skylit Drive was having an off day, but if they have anymore of these days, I’m pretty sure they may just lose fans instead of gaining them as the tour progresses. The guitars were sloppy, vocalist Michael Jagmin’s voice was quite unbearable live, and it was an all around displeasure to sit through their set. I want to find some bright notes to this, so what I will say is that the boys looked just adorable prancing around onstage, Yep, that’s about it.

Leaving early from A Skylit Drives set, I was actually quite a few minutes early to catch the newly Fearless Records signed band, Breathe Carolina. I can’t even recall how many times I’ve seen this band live. Just keep in mind it was enough for me to forget the number. Either way, every time I’ve seen them I have been blown away by their pure carnal energy and respectful attentive attitudes. Kyle, the screamer in the duo, even took time to address some audience members and converse from the stage about how they were enjoying Warped so far and inquired if everyone was alright and feeling well. The band has continuously shown to be very genuine and sincere to their multitude of fans, especially when delivering a fantastic live performance for the crowd. Some of the crowd favorites were, “The Birds and the Bees,” and “Diamonds.”

Following BC’s set on the Hurley stage was A Day to Remember. How do you even put into the words what kind of dynamics this band has created for itself so far musically? I may possibly not have a friend who doesn’t enjoy this band and that’s the awkward truth. They’re just THAT good. Even months after releasing their album, Homesick, people are still raving about it. I basically won’t try explaining what kind of mayhem ADTR creates for the crowds at their shows because it’s simply something to experience on your own with the full effect. All I’ll say is this band has star quality. ‘Nuff said.

After being blown away once again by the downright AMAZING stage presence of A Day to Remember, I found myself almost nervous to see Alexisonfire. I wanted to set my standards very high for them due to the fact that their musical quality is quite high because ADTR just made me want to be in a band as amazing as theirs…I don’t even play an instrument. AOF’s set began with no introductions or lingering from the band. They cut directly into their set with hypnotically melodic guitars and the eager, man eating stare of frontman George Pettit. All jokes aside, the crowd began to sound like a vicious choir during the seemingly fan favorite, “This Could Be Anywhere in the World.” Of all the performances I witnessed that day, theirs was the most grasping.

The sun must have been aligned with weird planets or some crap must have been in orbit or something, because following Alexisonfire was one of my favorite experimental post hardcore bands, Dance Gavin Dance. This band is ridiculous honestly. There is no logical reason all of that talent should be confined to one amazing band like that, but I just have to accept it and enjoy it because it’s incredible. They’re stage stamina, individualistic dance moves, and non conformist appearances, help with loving them as artists and people.

Now here’s where the day started to wind down. The sun was setting, half the crowd left, all that was left behind we an abundance of 12 and 13 year old girls with the lens’ popped out of their sunglasses. The Maine, a very popular pop rock band took the Hurley stage. Why exactly were they headlining the day?…I am still clueless. When you have bands like THRICE, ALEXISONFIRE, even UNDEROATH on a festival like Warped tour, you just don’t expect to see kids who look like they’re in junior high closing out the show. I can’t say much about the band and their set other than I’ve honestly seen them live at least 6 times accidentally, and I have a feeling I’ll keep seeing them on numerous shows where they’re headlining above more creative and more personally respected bands.

To bring this to a closing, I ended up walking by the stage as The Millionaires played. They suck at lip-syncing. Milli-Vanilli kind of owns them. I decided I was upset with my generation and didn’t stick around for the end of there set.

That’s Warped tour 09 for ya!

-Kim

  • Post Info

  • Posted by: Kimberly.Johnson
  • Posted on: Friday, July 3rd, 2009
  • Category: Articles
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