The Vans “Lucky 13th” annual warped tour hit the Fresno’s Selland Arena Wednesday with an eclectic mixture of genres including Metal, Emo, Hardcore, Punk, alternative and everything in between.
The headlining bands included The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Hawthorne Heights, Pennywise, Bad Religion, Coheed and Cambria Kill switch Engage, As I Lay Dying, and old school punk rockers, The Unseen. The crowd consisted of a variety of people with differing musical genre interests and the warped tour provided a happy medium for all to enjoy and broaden their musical horizons.
The Warped Tour is the “best known and largest international tour of punk, hardcore, indie and ska” said Kevin Lyman, founder of the warped tour.
Founded in 1995, the warped tour has served as a midpoint in many bands careers and in many circumstances has put the bands on “the map”. The Warped tour has played a vital role and has been the key to success for many of the current bands that we have come to know and love including: the Ska and Reggae legend Sublime, NOFX, Green Day, Rancid, Less Than Jake, Blink 182 and has even helped produce controversial rappers such as Emineim to name but a few of the hundreds of bands and artists who have played the international tour.
This year was a critical year for the Warped Tour. After it’s ascendance into the rock show hall of fame in it’s first 11 years, the tour has shown a significant decline of attendance in year 12, causing fans to speculate and wonder, “Is the aging tour finally coming to an end?
“If you look at the 1995 lineup, we had Sublime, No Use For A Name, No Doubt, Quicksand – a very diverse lineup for that time and place. Stated founder Kevin Lyman, “When I was booking the lineup this year, I said I’m going to book a lineup where kids can come explore music, and that’s what I think we have achieved again. Kids are excited about coming here.”
Temperatures in Fresno reached a scorching 104 degrees on Wednesday August, 22nd, but did this effect the outcome of the rock show? OF COURSE NOT! Despite the heat, determined music lovers stuck to their guns and refused to leave until the concert was over cooling off via fire-hose.
I had the pleasure of hanging out “backstage” with a few of the bands to get their perspective; truly showing each band’s diversity as well as hearing their various success stories.
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (RJA) was one of the most straightforward and humble bands that I had the opportunity to speak with. Red Jumpsuits humble beginnings originated from Jacksonville Florida and receive their lyrical inspiration from life experiences and collaborate together on all of their work so that “everyone has a say” according to lead singer, Ronnie Winter.
The bands musical influences include: Smashing Pumpkins, Coheed and Cambria, Def Tones as well as classic and southern rockers such as Lynyrd Skynyrd.
RJA is one of the many bands who strongly attribute the tour as a key factor to their success. The fans have played a major role in the bands success as well. Ronnie went on to say that “Without the fans none of this would have been possible.” leaving me with a message to the fans, “We love you; you guys are the reason we’re here”
The Matches of Epitaph records took a whole new approach to getting noticed; the band who previously had never met face to face with Lyman placed a restraining order on the Warped Tour founder. To the bands surprise their comical effort, that following tour, the band was on the billing and have been headed “up” ever since. Indie rockers, The Matches influences include bands such as Biffy Clyro, Nirvana, Radio Head, Weezer and the Pixies.
Overall, The Lucky 13 was a huge success, if the tour continues to bring the diversity and pack on the talent, the tour will continue to sell tickets and will the legacy of making the unknown known and providing quality music for all will live on.
