What It’s Like To Go To Warped Tour With A Newbie

I’ve been going to Warped Tour for years and each year I have gone with different people. This year was the first year that I had gone to Warped Tour with someone who had never been – my lovely boyfriend Jake. Ironically, his brother and other friends have attended but he never had in his whole entire 26 years of life, so I felt very honored to be the one to pop his Warped Tour cherry.

It’s one thing when you yourself are a Warped newbie: you pick up on what to do, what you should plan to do and what you definitely should not do under any circumstances pretty quickly. But it’s a whole different ball game when you become the one explaining how Warped Tour works. Luckily, we were on the same page regarding who we wanted to see so that took a lot of stress off that portion of the itinerary.

So Who Did We See?

The first band of the day, ironically, was Less Than Jake (just imagine how many jokes were being thrown out because his name is also Jake), who were a prime example of the craziness that could happen during Warped Tour. Tons of beach balls flying into the crowd and the largest circle pit we’ve seen so far with the combination of their funky brand of ska-punk was the perfect way to start off the many hours that we would be spending there. Right after LTJ, I made him sit (well, stand) through the sets of my Fearless Records girl crushes, frontwoman Jenna McDougall of Tonight Alive and drummer Jess Bowen of The Summer Set, and he admitted that he was thoroughly impressed with the energy and performance skills that both groups brought to their respective stages. And, of course, he needed to get a first-hand taste of Set It Off‘s insanely entertaining stage presence. Sadly, frontman Cody Carson‘s overtly theatrical vocals were slightly diminished by him having bronchitis and lead guitarist Dan Clermont was missing from the set as he was celebrating his brother’s wedding (he was temporarily replaced by Tonight Alive’s Jake Hardy). Luckily, the combination of Carson’s sickness and Clermont’s missing status still sparked my other half’s interest in seeing the band again at the top of their performance game with all of their members there, which I will take as a ‘win’ in my hyping game.

Apart from checking out other bands, we were primarily there for three bands whose names forever bring back feelings of nostalgia – Yellowcard, New Found Glory, and Sum 41. NFG was the first of the trio to hit the stage and we quickly got into Emo Night mode. I knew a few more songs than the mister, but other than that we belted out our favorites, like “Head On Collision,” “All Downhill From Here” and, of course, “My Friend’s Over You.” Yellowcard was just shy of putting me into ugly cry mode when they did their official announcement that this would be the last Warped Tour they ever play (with appropriate promo-ing of their final tour and album). They chose to play a majority of songs off of the beloved Ocean Avenue album and I can confidently say that the large crowd that came to see them greatly appreciated it, which I took as a huge showcase of utmost humbleness and respect for their longtime fans.

Lastly, we ended our Warped Tour adventure with seeing one of our favorite bands that we shared – Sum 41. We stood through about four sets (which included Sleeping With Sirens, Mayday Parade and Waka Flocka Flame) and slowly pushed our way to the front so we could witness their long-awaited return to the Warped Tour stage. For lack of a better term, everyone lost their shit when Sum 41 hit the stage and Jake got to experience firsthand just how crazy people can get when they want to be in the front to see their favorite band. We held on to the barricade for dear life as bodies tried to push or pull us from our much earned front row spot, but the sore arm muscles were definitely worth it as they took us back to the good ol’ days with throwback tracks like “The Hell Song,” “In Too Deep” and “Motivation.” As short and awesome as their set was, getting to hear their badass new single “Fake My Own Death” live for the first time and having them end with the ever popular earworm “Fat Lip” solidified our need to catch them on tour this winter now more than ever.

So What Did The Newbie Think?

Just trust me when I say that if I could share all of the hilariously entertaining quotes that came from him I totally would. However, a few gems from the day included him asking:

1. Why Jeffree Star was famous, which he said right in front of the huge line of fans waiting to meet him and caused death glares to be shot our way.
2. Why The Maine was called that when they’re actually from Arizona (he’s originally from Maine).
3. Why Sum 41 didn’t have a meet and greet time, which he proceeded to answer himself by saying all of their fans were day drunk twentysomethings.
4. Why Waka Flocka Flame was featured on the main stage when all he did was chant his name and play other people’s songs.

Other than those inquiries, he really enjoyed his first Warped Tour and thought it was a great opportunity for fans to see, and potentially meet, all of their favorite bands all in one place without having to spend an arm and a leg on tickets and meet and greet fees. We primarily stuck to the Left and Right Leg stages this year as that was where all of the bands we had on our list just happened to be performing, but not all Warped Tours have to be a day of sprinting back and forth from different stages. Overall, our Warped experience was a fun and memorable day and we hope next year will be the same.