The Best of Warped Tour.

Saturday I enjoyed what will probably be my last Warped Tour for awhile. Somehow frying in the hot sun for ten hours is losing its appeal. Either that or I'm just getting old.

Although I didn't make my way through the crowd to mosh with the best of them (as is my usual tradition), I still enjoyed the day, chillin' in the shade with my awesome bro, listening to some kick ass bands from a distance.

Since I am a sucker for nostalgia, I figured I would do a tribute post to highlight the best of Warped Tours past:

July 17, 2004 Year One.

Bands:

Alkaline Trio, Anti-Flag, Bad Religion, Bouncing Souls, Coheed and Cambria*, Flogging Molly, Letter Kills, Motion City Soundtrack, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory, NOFX, Senses Fail*, Story of the Year*, Taking Back Sunday, The Casualties, The Early November, The F-Ups*,Thursday, Yellowcard*.

After having some car troubles at Betos (and having to be jump started by some random guy), my best friend, Hillary and I finally got on the road. We got completely lost, but eventually made it to the fairgrounds. After waiting in the world's longest line to get in, we made it through the crowd to hear Story of the Year, who, may I say, SUCKED live. I was majorly disappointed, as they were one of my favorite bands at the time. Nevertheless, we still had an amazing day. We met up with my crazy friend Luis

who introduced us to Senses Fail,

who played an amazing set, for the record.

Highlights:

Meeting The F-Ups. After listening to them rock out on stage, we hung out with them back at their tent and giddily had them sign our Warped Tour programs. Ha.

July 16, 2005 Year Two.

Bands:

The All American Rejects*, Armor for Sleep, Big D and the Kid's Table*, Billy Idol*, A Change of Pace*, Drop Kick Murphys*, Fall Out Boy*, From First to Last, Gogol Bordello*, Greeley Estates, Halifax, Hawthorne Heights, Hidden in Plain View, Horrorpops*, Matchbook Romance*, The Matches*, Mest, Motion City Soundtrack, MXPX, My Chemical Romance, The Offspring, Relient K, Reggie and the Full Effect*, Rufio, Senses Fail*, Silverstein, Simple Plan*, The Starting Line*, The Transplants*, Underoath.

Highlights:

Meeting The Matches (pardon my poor editing out of the world's dumbest ex-boyfriend who hogged the photo ops all day)

Rocking out with A Change of Pace

July 22, 2006 Year Three.

Bands:

The Academy Is...*, Anti-Flag*, The Audition, Billy Talent, The Bouncing Souls*, From First to Last*, Greeley Estates*, Hellogoodbye*, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts*, Less Than Jake, The Living End*, Motion City Soundtrack*, NOFX*, The Pink Spiders, Rise Against*, Senses Fail*.

-side note- I swear we also saw Cartel.

Highlights:

It was my birthday!!!!! And my BFF Brent came with me this year.

Wearing this awesome shirt I made that was the hit of the day. SO many people talked to me, I felt so cool. Haha.

Immediately after arriving, rocking out to an amazing band (Greeley Estates) and passing out from exhaustion afterwards.

Meeting an amazing new band (The Sunstreak), who gave me a free shirt and signed CD because it was my birthday. We rocked out to them later at a small stage, which was sadly the only time I've ever been able to see them live!

Getting an Anti-Flag shirt for my BFF Hillary for her birthday, because she wasn't able to come to the show with me this year.

Rocking out to The Living End who were crazy mo-fos on stage.

Having the world's worst sunburn that hurt so bad I couldn't wear a real shirt for days afterwards!

July 7, 2007. Year Four.

Bands:

Anberlin*, Bad Religion*, Big D and the Kid's Table*, The Matches*, New Found Glory*, Pennywise*, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus*, The Spill Canvas*, The Starting Line*, Yellowcard*.

Sadly, I could not find any picture evidence that we actually went to this year's show, although I do have a ticket stub to prove it.

Highlights:

It was Missy and my new (at the time) boyfriend Brett's very first time at Warped! (Although according to Brett, this was the first year I started being lame at Warped Tour and not getting into the crowds for every band.

June 28, 2008 Year Five.

Bands: The Academy Is...*, Anberlin*, Angels and Airwaves*, The Audition*, Greeley Estates*, Reel Big Fish*, Relient K*, Story of the Year*, 3OH!3*.

Again, no picture evidence that I could find, but we were there!

Highlights:

We had seen 3OH!3 in Vegas when they were on tour with Sum 41. They were ridiculously hilarious and crazy on stage during that show, which got us into them. This year at Warped Tour, we enjoyed seeing their theatrics again on one of the smaller stages.

Hearing "Wrong the Right," an F-Ups song blaring from a smaller stage and sticking around to catch a drumstick from the band  who turned out to be Hang 'Em High. After the set, we went and talked to the lead singer, who turned out to be Travis, the lead singer of the F-Ups! He was telling us that after The F-Ups broke up, he and his brother and some of the former members of the band had reformed and became Hang 'Em High. It was crazy, awesome to run into him! Of course he signed the drumstick I had caught, and had all the band members sign it too.

While walking around, we found a booth with a bunch of "Streaker" stuff, and realized it was one of the guys from The Sunstreak. We talked to him for awhile and found out they were trying to record new stuff but were having issues with various labels, so they were trying to make their own.

August 8, 2009 Year Six.

Bands:

A Day to Remember*, Bad Religion*, Big D and the Kid's Table*, Escape the Fate*, Less Than Jake*, Medina Lake*, NOFX*, Scary Kids Scaring Kids*, Senses Fail*, There for Tomorrow*, 3OH!3*.

 --don't ask me what the eff I'm pointing at...

Highlights:

It was Jared's first year at Warped!

Rocking out to Medina Lake and then meeting them aftewards.

Being extremely disappointed in 3OH!3's performance. Now that they had gotten big, they no longer put on their fun, dorky show.

~We skipped 2010-2011's shows, because there weren't enough good bands going to make it worth our while.~

June 16, 2012 Year Seven.

Bands:

Anti-Flag*, I Fight Dragons*, New Found Glory*, Senses Fail*, Taking Back Sunday*, The Used*, We the Kings*, Yellowcard* You Me at Six.*

Highlights:

Leaving our own little rocker at home for the day was hard. One day we will bring him with us to shows.

Feeling like a celebrity when I got asked to write on the "Fears Vs. Dreams" board and get my picture taken at the TWLOHA tent (because I was wearing my old TWLOHA shirt).

Bringing my brother Ammon to his first Warped Tour and rocking out to one of his bands, I Fight Dragons.

Chilling in the shade as much as possible (while being dorks of course).

Seeing people walking around with these

on their bodies, and finally finding the tent they were getting them from which just so happened to be Streaker Records (I knew it!). We talked to Jason from the Sunstreak,and found out they successfully created their own label, and have put out another CD since their EP. Awesome! We also got to listen to one of their new songs which was sweet.

Spotting the drummer from Yellowcard walking around with his girlfriend towards the end of the day. I SWEAR I've seen him in the most random of places every time they come to town!

And of course I can't forget our famous Warped Tour traditions!!!:

-Picking up Texano burritos from Betos to eat on the drive up.

-Parking for free at the Chinese buffet across the street from the fairgrounds (although this was the first year they had people enforcing paid parking in that lot, so we parked down the street in front of someone's house instead...)

-Being so wiped out at the end of the day, that we almost die of exhaustion.

All in all, Warped Tour has been a huge part of my life. I have discovered new bands, and rocked out to some of my old favorites. Although we may not go back for a few more years, here's a toast to the memories!


*=bands I'm at least 99% positive we saw. Sadly in my old age, I'm losing my mind and can't guarantee that we actually made it to see the rest of the bands listed (although I'm pretty sure we saw most of them).