Checkered Vans slip-on shoes, band tees, and large hordes of excited people along with a potpourri of bands provides one of the summer's most anticipated music tours.
The Vans Warped Tour, an annual summer music festival, features many punk rock, pop punk, metalcore, and post-hardcore bands, and hones the metamorphosis in the life cycle of a band from support artist to headliner.
Warped Tour features many bands that have played support for headliners on recent tours, and helps them gain exposure to break out and be their own entity, and this year is no different.
Warped Tour is part of the life cycle of a band. With bands still being added to the lineup, the mix of bands is a summation of some of the biggest tours of 2011.
Some of the longstanding bands, which always assure memorable shows on the lineup, are punk-rock group Bayside, and metalcore outfit Every Time I Die. At an Every Time I Die show it is guaranteed to see broken noses, security guards everywhere, blood and sweat dripping, and a general mosh pit of energy and camaraderie. Hopefully, the band's performance at Warped Tour will not be any different.
Besides those more established acts, the majority of the bands on the lineup have the chance to connect to their own crowds by their own means, not just crowds who came to see headlining acts that they have been support for.
Post-hardcore group Polar Bear Club is one of those bands.
This past year was a big year for Polar Bear Club with their spot on the Take Action Tour as support band for Bayside and Silverstein. The band's energetic presence along with frontman Jimmy Stadt's ability to connect with the audience gained a larger fan base for the band.
A few short months after the tour, the band went from being a support band to headlining their own tour, as well as coming out with their new album Clash Battle Guilt Pride, and the unity the band instills within the crowd is an experience worth being a part of.
Although they were Bayside's opener during the Take Action Tour, now they are playing alongside Bayside on the Warped circuit.
Man Overboard is another standout band, and was one of the support bands in this past fall's Pop Punks Not Dead tour with headliner New Found Glory and some of the biggest bands in the pop-punk music industry. Man Overboard's catchy instrumentals and upbeat songs will have the audience dancing and singing along.
Some other bands that will leave lasting musical impressions are Make Do and Mend, A Loss For Words, and Title Fight.
As always, Warped Tour will provide a good sunburn, all the free band stickers one could want, and of course, a diverse taste on one's own musical palette of bands that will soon be their new favorites.
Email: vilona.trachtenberg@ubspectrum.com
