By Phil Rainone
Warped Tour 2009 - Monmouth Park Race
Track, Ocean Port, NJ July 19, 2009
Summer Sizzler or Endless Bummer?
After over two hours sitting in traffic on
the Parkway ( the road lived up to it’s
name as we were “parked” a good
length of the ride), we (the Boss, Jim Testa,
and I) made it to the new venue for the Warped
Tour, at Monmouth Park in Oceanport.
For the past few years, the Tour was staged
at Raceway Park in Old Bridge, which had only
one single lane access road, and the two main
stages were about a football field’s
length apart. Our Jersey Beat crew - my son
Steve and fellow Jersey Beaters Frank and
Tim Norek, had been opting to cover the Tour
in Camden,. which was a longer ride but more
accessible in a lot of ways, rather than put
up with all the nuisances of Raceway Park.
We did find a few problems at the new venue
(which was also accessible by a NJ Transit
train,) but most of the time, the good outweighed
the bad.
With only one Main Stage this year, there
were still plenty of bands to see on the other
smaller stages that were close by. At 3pm.
Less Than Jake hit the Main Stage with horns
blaring like a call-to-arms to anyone within
earshot. “The Ghost in You and Me,”
and “Plastic Cup” were standouts,
as small circle pits broke out amongst the
loyal skankers! Each Main Stage band played
45 minute sets, compared to 30 minutes in
previous years. It seemed to work out for
the better, as the bands seems less rushed,
and were able to talk more to the crowd (NOFX
were waxing whimsically during their set:
Fat Mike: “How was copper wire invented?”
El Hefe: “How?” Fat Mike: “Two
Jews were fighting over a penny.”),
and they were able to expand their set lists.
Kind of surprisingly, Less Than Jake gave
a shout out to Mikey Erg, who was back stage,
saying that they were saddened by the breakup
of The Ergs.
Bad Religion, who were among one of the first
bands to play the Warped Tour back in ‘94
(this year marks its 15th anniversary) took
advantage of the extra time, playing almost
an hour long set, digging deep into their
catalog with “Sorrow,” “American
Jesus,” and “21st Century Digital
Boy,” among others.
I case you’ve just tuned in, NoFX
are a punk rock band from So-cal, and for
nearly a quarter of a century now, the band
has sold over six million records worth of
their unique Southern California style of
skate punk, all the while successfully avoiding
both major labels and the likes of MTV or
VH1. Now that’s a DIY success story
in itself! But I digress, as my son Steve
would say. Playing almost every Warped Tour
since its inception - either as NoFX or Fat
Mike’s alter ego band, Me First &
The Gimmie Gimmies - they have been the darlings
(and rightly so) of this caravan of punks
and misbegotten freaks. And I mean that in
a good way. Playing old-school hits and tunes
from their latest release Coaster, they filled
their set with big guitars, gang sing-along
choruses, and socially conscious songs (“
Franco Un-American” was outstanding)
tinged with social satire that truly sets
them apart.
Either
they put on a great show, or they were giving
their shirts away for free, but there was
a shitload of The Devil Wears Prada t-shirts
in the crowd. Also kids had “Free Hugs”
written on t-shirts, arms, legs, and body
parts. I didn’t see many free hugs being
given out, but it’s time to stop! It’s
so ridiculous! The best response I saw was
toward the end of the day. Two girls had “Fuck
hugs, free blow jobs,” written in marker
on their arms.
After watching Less Than Jake and glomming
down a huge burrito, Jim suggested checking
out Black Tide, whom I hadn’t heard
before. They started out in 2004 as Radio,
when brothers Gabriel and Raul were just in
their early teens. Now, not even in their
20’s yet, their Black Sabbath-like huge
guitar riffs, high shrieking vocals, and impenetrable
drumming were like a wake up call! Adding
a new song called “Redefined”
toward the end of their 30-minute set, Black
Tide created their own scene, which you felt
part of. These were fist-pumping songs that
made you remember why a band gets into music
in the first place.
There was a lot of room to move around at
Monmouth Park, and once you walked around
a few times, the placement of the various
stages (there were eight or nine altogether)
started to make sense. . One thing that was
missing from previous Warped Tours was when
lesser known bands weren’t given a stage
to play on. I remember Candy Ass, an all-female
punk band, playing in the middle of the merch
tent area, passing the hat for gas money to
get back to New York. Now they have about
a half-dozen proper stages that all the bands
get to use. The only major bitch was we (and
quite a few other people we met with press
wristbands) couldn’t find the press
tent for interviews, band schedules, etc.
Luckily, they had the old stand-by on hand,
the humongous, inflatable sign with the band’s
names, stages and times. Maybe the press tent
was outside the fenced-in area, but no one
we met seemed to have a clue.
WHERE’S ANGELO?
One of the coolest/ saddest things that happened
on the Warped Tour was we had found out that
unfortunately, Fishbone had broken up (hopefully
they’ll get back together in some new
configuration - the world would be a little
less brighter without their brand of voodoo
ska). BUT… Angelo Moore, lead singer
and sax player, was managing one of the stages
and kept popping up all over the place as
a special guest star with different bands,
most notably NOFX (where he added a billowing
sax riff to one if the band’s new songs,
“Coaster.”) Big D and the Kids
Table gave Angelo a big intro, and he proceeded
to bring the band’s smooth ska vibe
up a couple of notches. Best of all was when
he grooved with Westbound Train. Putting down
his sax, Angelo serenaded the crowd with a
couple of soul classics from the Fifties.
For about five minutes, the mosh pits ebbed
and the circle pits receded, as Angelo and
the band left the crowd almost gap-mouthed
(some of the crowd were singing along with
the security guards. Surprisingly they knew
most of the words to these ancient, but cool
classics - you could feel the love! Angel
crooned an amazing medley including Ben E.
King’s beautiful “Stand By Me,”
a doe-eyed version of Sam Cooke’s “Cupid,”
and a jaw-dropping, soulful strut of Otis
Redding’s “Mr. Pitiful,“
(you know, I think if you added a few more
cool songs from that era, Angelo and Westbound
Train a would have a great album)! You’d
think that after the breakup of Fishbone,
that these three songs would have been almost
an epitaph for the band, but Angelo and Westbound
Train turned them all into a celebration!
It would have been great if at some point
they broke into a rendition of Fishbone’s
riotous signature song, “Skankin’
to the Beat!”
Westbound Train also did a great set of originals,
including “Please Forget Me,”
which had a Bosstones soulful groove to it,
as the band jammed on the tune for over ten
minutes - you could almost hear a pin drop.
Amazing!
FREE! FREE! FREE!
There was plenty of free swag to go around,
including CD’s, copies of The Aquarian,
and of course every band’s mainstay,
STICKERS! The advertising for the band’s
shows ranged from street teamers and band
members carrying a sign on a stick around
the grounds, to writing the band’s name,
stage, and time on the back of t-shirts (like
the metal band Ionia), to posting the band’s
flyer on the outside (Big D and the Kids Table)
or inside (Westbound Train) of the port-a-johns.
Hey, sooner or later, everyone’s gotta
go! Bands also taped everything from handmade
flyers to big full-color posters all over
the festival, all very creative and very DIY.
Free water was bountiful if you didn’t
want to pay the four bucks for a bottle, and
a really cool surprise - FREE PARKING!! I
remember going to Camden, Englishtown, and
Boston for previous Warped Tours over the
last ten years, and the parking cost almost
as much as a ticket. Hopefully they’ll
continue the practice!
Unfortunately, NJ Transit kind of blew it.
Obviously, you’re not going to get a
free train ride, but at least they could have
had the forethought to have train service
later into the night. The regularly scheduled
trains stopped at 7:10pm, and the festival
didn’t finish until after 9pm.
Flogging Molly was full of piss and vinegar
as always, but they seemed to really get into
their 45 minute set. Powerful and explosive,
standards like “Selfish Man,”
and “Drunken’ Lullabies,”
were just unbelievable! The test of a great
band, I think, is when they have the ability
to go into their musical history, and pull
out some old favorites, breathing new life
or a new soulfulness into them. This night,
Flogging Molly accomplished both! They had
played the entire Warped Tour thus far, starting
in California in June, and this was their
last night on the tour, as they said they
were heading back to Ireland. Rather than
sounding and looking tired after the long
trek, they seemed fresh and full of life,
and their musical mojo overflowed into the
crowd. Before playing their last song, “What’s
Left of the Flag,” they performed a
barn-burning rendition of “The Devil’s
Dance Floor.”
We had first heard Flogging Molly about nine
years ago when they played their first Warped
Tour. Steve, Tim, Frank and I caught them
on the Boston leg of the tour, and they were
just… amazing! “The Devil’s
Dance Floor” was the first song we heard
as we descended into the meadow that day.
I’ll never forget the look on the guys
faces as we got closer to the stage. We were
in awe, and along with seeing Catch 22 (they’re
going to be at The Stone Pony in August with
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones), we had one of
the best times ever - unforgettable!
Oh yeah, I almost forgot… At the end
of “The Devil’s Dance Floor,”
at the Monmouth Park show, they ended with
a couple of lines of AC/DC’s “Highway
to Hell,” and a quick, but LOUD chorus
of The Bouncing Souls’ “Ole!”
One addition that I couldn’t get my
head around was the KIA Motors VIP stage.
It was about 20 feet off the ground with a
tent over top of it. It probably held about
40 people and was about 100 feet back from
the Main Stage. It looked like you had to
know somebody to get on it, and it didn’t
fit in with what part of what punk rock is
about. The people that were on it looked bored,
and were pretty much just standing there,
while mostly everyone down below were dancing,
and having a blast.
The Adult Daycare tent was nowhere to be
seen this year (unless it was in the twilight
zone with the press area), and was sorely
missed, especially by me. Not that I used
it, mind you, but in the past it was a cool
place to meet-and-greet single soccer moms
(“How you doin’?)
All Time Low closed out the night right at
sundown, but we figured we had seen most of
the bands we had set out to see and we thought
we’d try to beat the traffic. There
weren’t many cars left when we got to
the parking lot. I guess some people had the
same idea, only earlier - and we didn’t
have to wait for our parents to pick us up
like a lot of the kids.
It was a gorgeous day with temps in the low
80‘s and some clouds (sun block was
optional),, and all in all, with a few adjustments
like more train service, Monmouth Park will
be a good venue for future Warped Tours. And
as the Boss says, “Like Christmas, it’s
always more fun when the kids are around!”
Read Jim Testa's Warped Tour review
on www.NJ.com
