Show Journal 2003-07-06
I never thought I could have such a fun and fulfilling day on so little sleep. I swore that we’d check in, find out our slot and then I was going to sleep or just relax in the van until we played. No such luck. Let me describe what’s it’s like behind the scenes at the Warped Tour for a smaller band. It’s utterly and totally confusing. “You need to go to the promotions building”, “you aren’t on the list”, “we don’t have the schedule yet”, “we don’t know what stage you are on”, “we don’t have a set time yet”, “who are you again”, “you can’t park here”, “no more vehicles on the field”. That pretty much sums up the first two hours. Finally at about 11, Dave became so fed up he took matters into his own hands. With an determined look in his eyes he walked to the main building and 5 minutes later came back with our passes as well as our set time and stage information. I’m still just assuming he pulled some Obi Won Kenobi jedi tricks on the staff. We still had to figure out how to get our gear from one far corner of the parking lot to the opposite corner of the field where our stage was located. Again, Dave took matters into his own hands. We were standing around scratching our asses contemplating how difficult it would be to move 1000 pounds of gear across a 1/2 mile grassy field and then out of nowhere Dave rolls up in an ATV with a trailer. Amazing. That’s why Dave rules … he’s the kind of person that can just pull shit off. Anyway, we found a tent spot, unloaded and got settled in. By then it was almost noon and time for the music. Good lord there were a lot of good bands this year. The only act I was just dying to see was Andrew WK. In a cruel twist of fate we played at the exact same time he did so I didn’t even get to see one single minute. Not even a suggestion of partying for me. Sigh. Musical highlights for me were Less Than Jake, Suicide Machines, Thrice, Tsunami Bomb and the Dropkick Murphys. I also really enjoyed the Used until the singer spewed the following load of crap from his mouth “if you are in rock band keep playing music and stick with it because eventually great things can happen for you. We’ve been a band for two and a half years and …”. I can’t remember what was said after that because the collective groan of disgust from every small, unsigned and independent band there overpowered whatever else he was saying. Two and a half years? On behalf of every band who have busted their ass for far more than two and a half years we have four words for you … fuck you little man. So how did we do? We did great and I can’t thank everyone who watched us enough. There were so many 800 Octane shirts around it was amazing. We actually had the best turnout of the day on our particular stage. (Yes, it’s a small accomplishment but we were proud.) If you were one of the people who took the time to watch our set with all those other great bands playing we’d really like to thank you … it meant a lot to us to get so much support on this show. Extra special thanks to the people from other bands who watched us including EPD, Spare Lead, Virus 9, Countdown to Life and of course SDS. One more thing about SDS … we just wanted to say thanks for playing all the shows with us and we hope the rest of your tour goes well! Again, thanks to everyone who watched us play … it really meant a lot. Extra thanks to PJ for being our roadie/merch/slave for the day. Oh yeah, if you read last year’s Warped Tour review I’d like to point out I remembered sun block and a hat this time.
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