By: Mat Weir Aaaahh, yes, the Van’s Warped Tour…the summer long festival celebrating music, youth culture and debauchery. First, I want to thank YMM for sending me. When I was an underage sprite I dreamed about being able to interview bands on the tour. The whole day I was like a kid with ADD. It was an uncannily clear and sunny San Francisco day when my girlfriend and I found ourselves wandering on Pier 30/32 through the crowds of punk, emo and hardcore kids with the horrible realization that we were getting old. With Warped in its 15th year, the tour has finally caught up in age with most of it’s attendees. And for me, that meant wondering where all the myspace bands came from and why it’s all of a sudden cool again to wear neon 80’s gear. My assignment was to cover the tour and get as many interviews as possible, but only two of the bands I was interested in were doing interviews, so most of the day was spent enjoying the privileges of being over 21 and mixing it up with the people to get their opinions of the day which ranged from “Oh my god it’s, like, sooo rad!” to “There are goddamn animals, everywhere!” And yes, while there were some bands there with crazy technical guitar skills, double bass drums and guys in make-up who can scream like Beelzebub, I’m a firm believer in rock ‘n roll and punk rock. So with the exception of two bands, if you wanted to find me, you would’ve looked at the Old School stage (convenientally located next to the beer area, talk about Vans knowing their audience) which hailed such bands as Duane Peter’s Gunfight, TSOL, and the Adolescents. I had seen TSOL and the Adolescents before, and impressively, both bands were on top of their game: moving the crowds into a furious circle pit with every song. But it was Gunfight that really caught my attention. Duane Peter’s is still alive and kicking, fueled by rock ‘n roll and ready to crash into anything that gets in his way. And they had more energy than most of the younger bands there; all of the guys were running around the stage, screaming for blood and posing for pics when my girl raised her camera. Rock is about being true, and you knew these guys weren’t lying when they sang, “Opium for days.”
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