Review: Warped Tour

Brandon Phillips performs at Monday's Warped Tour. Photos by Bill Brownlee

Warped Tour often presents unforgiving environments to veteran acts, but Brandon Phillips successfully relied on wit and grace to charm a small audience during his solo set Monday at Cricket Wireless Amphitheater.  While the Kansas City-based musician has participated in several of the 18 editions of the traveling music festival as a member of the Architects, the event relentlessly replenishes its fan base and featured entertainers each year. 

A significant portion of the approximately 10,000 people who attended Monday's festival in Bonner Springs enjoyed their first Warped Tour experience.  And many of the nearly 100 acts that performed Monday were also new to Warped Tour's raucous carnival-like atmosphere.  Phillips was occasionally drowned out by less nuanced music from several nearby stages as he played sturdy original material and inspired covers.  He didn't acknowledge the sonic indignity, but it was an unwelcome reminder that subtlety and hard-won experience aren't the most highly prized qualities at Warped Tour.

While a few dozen people heard Phillips perform, audiences as large as 5,000 gathered at the event's main stages to hear the latest sounds and reprises of the recent past.  Many of the most popular acts were geared to teenagers who favor punk-tinged pop.  Piercing screams accompanied the garish dance music of Colorado's Breathe Carolina, the day's biggest draw among young women.  Anti-Flag and Rise Against represented Warped Tour's roots in traditional punk rock, while post-punk acts Taking Back Sunday and the Used appealed to the majority of attendees born in the '80s. Bert McCracken of the Used capitalized on the opportunity to enhance his reputation as one of the most obnoxious front men in rock. 

Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara.

While the divisions between the genres have blurred, metal bands are increasingly displacing punk acts on Warped Tour.  The best of them Monday was Every Time I Die, an arty quintet that embraces anarchy.  The most riveting act of the day, however, was Dead Sara.  The Los Angeles-based quartet fronted by Emily Armstrong offered an incendiary update of grunge.  Not since Katy Perry's unlikely appearance in 2008 has an artist so obviously destined for mainstream acclaim played at Warped Tour. 

Many of Monday's bands were forgettable while a handful were memorably atrocious.  Yet a few unheralded acts stood out.  The traditional folk of London's Skinny Lister inspired several couples to waltz.  Nashville's Wick-it the Instigator spun music in a "silent disco" in which dancers were provided wireless headphones.  Led by the indomitable Alicia Solombrino, Kansas City's the Beautiful Bodies remain a potent live act.

With a dozen stages, a skateboard ramp, meet-and-greet autograph sessions and a plethora of vendors competing for the attention of passerby, many of these acts didn't garner audiences substantially larger than the 50 attracted by Phillips.  Warped Tour veterans like Phillips realize, however, that even the members of Breathe Carolina should brace themselves for the cruel day on which they're discarded by their fickle fans.

| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

Bill's 10 favorite Warped Tour performances
1. Dead Sara
2. Every Time I Die
3. Skinny Lister
4. iwrestledabearonce
5. Rise to Remain
6. Funeral Party
7. Hyro da Hero
8. The Beautiful Bodies
9. Rise Against
10. The Bangups

Comments

[NCTRNL]

Thought Dead Sara was amazing. So glad I shot their set.

[Jose Cuervo]

Dead Sara is an example of a really good female-led band. Everything the horrendous Beautiful Bodies are not.

[student]

i appreciate that someone in this town agrees that the beautiful bodies are ridiculous, thank you jose cuervo.

[Aaron]

I'll third that. They BLOW.

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[mankvill]

Here's my scores for all the bands I saw this year:

Four Year Strong - 8.5/10
The Atlantic - 8/10
blessthefall - 4/10
Streetlight Manifesto - 9/10
The Used - 6/10
Troy Harley - 6/10
Transit - 8.5/10
We Are The Ocean - 7.5/10
After The Burial - 7.5/10
Every Time I Die - 8/10
We Are The In Crowd - 7/10
New Found Glory - 9.5/10
Fireworks - 9.5/10
Sleeping With Sirens - 3/10
Polar Bear Club - 9/10
I Fight Dragons - 8/10

I have a review up on my site (click my name!) that includes a detailed review of the day and individual setlists for some of the bands! :D

[Unimpressed]

"Led by the indomitable Alicia Solombrino, Kansas City's the Beautiful Bodies remain a potent live act."

Swap the word "indomitable" with "annoying" and the word "potent" with "lousy" and you hit the nail on the head. Watch their video for the song "Strut" on YouTube to get a taste of how truly bad Alicia is vocally. So, yeah, it's not cool to criticize the local talent pool, but I don't care for Making Movies, Beautiful Bodies, or Hearts Of Darkness, no matter how many local critics sing their praises. I also thought The Republic Tigers were bland as hell. Whatever happened to them? Oh, that's right, I don't care. Look, I've seen them all live at least once and walked away yawning. Hey, someone needs to say it. Glad I'm not alone on this.

[Bob Asher]

So "unimpressed", could you possibly grace us with your opinion of which (if any) local acts you do find acceptable? It would certainly help the rest of put your comments in context.

[Bewlay]

Bob Asher, I like your band even if I only heard a smidgen of it at Davey's Sweat-town Theater. Haters talk about Warped artists and bag on local bands elsewhere.

[Unimpressed]

What "context" are you speaking of, Bobby? There's some local bands that get praised that just aren't very good. Nothing vague about that.

[onthemark]

Having never seen any of the bands mentioned above, I cannot say how good they may be. I do give them credit for getting out and playing live though. Not as easy as you might think. And bands are like us, some days are better than others!

I can say that local bands I have seen and really dig are Trampled Under Foot, The Good Foot, The Gaslights, Bob Walkenhorst, Shinetop, Samantha Fish and many more.

It goes without saying that it's doubtful any of these bands will be playing on the Warped tour!

[Hankster]

The Bleach Bloodz would have been a great local addition to the Warped Tour, along with Sometimes Three and The Conquerors. Trampled Under Foot and Walkenhort's posse really good live acts, but they don't fit into the Warped genre.

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