Yesterday was the first day of the 2009 Van's Warped Tour at the Fairplex in Pomona, CA. Unlike the previous years, I actually went with a group of friends this time, as well as met up with more people at the show. Not much of a lone wolf this year. I just woke up to do this recap of yesterday, and I'm feeling kind of lazy, so I'm going to just repost my twitter/facebook updates of that day, and just add more information to those.
1:56 PM - @ Warped Tour Pomona
Actually we got there at about 1:30PM, which was 45 minutes too late for me, since LIGHTS' set was on 12:45PM (maybe next time). My friend was on the guest list for Victory Records, so we had to get her free pass to get in (line was longer than we expected to get that). Correction, passES. They gave her two. Too bad her friends just bought tickets at the door. Could have saved some money. Ticket price at the door BTW is $40, versus my pre-order ticket which was only $20 (plus service fees). Speaking of which, my ticket is surprisingly pretty unique. It's a holographic badge of some sort (attached to my lanyard), and out of all the people who was at Warped Tour, there was only ONE other person I saw who had it. People assumed it was some VIP badge or something.
2:18 PM - Met Meg&Dia's sister Jade. Looks so much like Dia
After looking at the set times for the bands, I went over to the Meg & Dia booth to meet up with my friends. Walking towards it, I was thinking "oh hey, Dia's at the booth," but when I got closer it turned out to be her younger sister Jade. Looks pretty close to Dia, that a lot of people were making that mistake. My friend encouraged her to just go with it, and apparently she actually did some autographs under Dia's name. lol
3:58 PM - LoL been @ Warped Tour Pomona for over 2 hours and still haven't watched a single band yet. Black Tide in 45 mins though
I was suppose to go with some of my friends to see "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Saosin," but ended up just roaming the place. Played a little bit of Rock Band, as I had the chance to try out the special bass guitar that I've never used before for the game. I was told that I should visit the Trojan condoms booth, but ended up not doing that.
4:30 PM - ... Hot weather + Warped Tour = a lot of girls in bikinis... :-/
I swear, some of the girls were even wearing string bikinis. Ouch. Hurts to look for a married man in his early 30s.
4:44 PM - Just said Hi to Meg, Dia, Nick, Carlo and Jon. Love this band so much
The band was doing autograph signings, and it always surprises me every time, but they still recognized me. I asked them that I heard that they were not doing a cover song after all this time around, and Dia told me "See, I told you they would ask about that." I had them sign the new "Hurley live sessions" EP that they were selling there. What's funny was that after we had our turn in line, we decided to go back at the end of the line again. Because you know, that's how we roll. While in line (again), I was listening to "Black Tide's" set, as the stage was close to where we were. My friend got Meg and Dia to sign one of his glasses, which was pretty unique. As for me, this time around I got the band to sign those cool Hurley cards (attached to a lanyard) that they were passing out, and that I made sure to take several. hehe. Afterwards, we did a "boardie" photo with the band, and they took off to do rehearsals for their set.
5:18 PM - Just saw "Black Tide." Good show, but they seem to be goofing off too much, as their sound doesn't really hold up to how they were on the CD.
Yeah, I was a little bit disappointed. It looked like they were drunk and were just having a good time, but although the instruments sounded good for the most part, the vocals were pretty bad. Most of the time the singer would want the crowd to sing the lines, because I dunno, maybe he was feeling lazy about singing. Still, a more or less good show. They did play their cover of Metallica's "Hit the lights" though, and that was pretty cool.
5:37 PM - watching "the White Tie Affair's" set. Pretty awesome. This band knows how to have fun.
I did want to see this band, and it was worth it. Very pop rock sound, and they were great to see live. From water guns to life vests, this band was putting on a great show. They even did a cover of a Lady GaGa song, at least that's what I thought they did. I'll double check on that later.
6:01 PM - Another fun band to watch, "Streetlight Manifesto." Pretty chill rocking the sax and trumpets.
This band had a lot of fans in the crowd, and that energy definitely carried over to how great they sounded like on stage. I found that while you can definitely dance along with their tunes, they also lend themselves to just relax and listen. It was pretty chill.
6:27 PM - In crowd like sardines in a can, watching a band (Senses Fail) that I'm not exactly a fan of. Waiting for Meg & Dia to play their set.
Wow did "Senses Fail" have a lot of fans. We weren't just shoulder to shoulder in the crowd, we were body to body. I was standing next to the rail of the Audio/Visual tent, and there were so many people that everybody was pressed against each other. As awkward as it was, there were three girls that were pressed up against me, and all one of them could say was "sorry." "It's okay" was the only answer I could give. Indeed. Poor Meg & Dia doing their sound check at the stage right next to Senses Fail, as it seemed difficult for them to get things done right while that band was playing it's metalcore music. Speaking of which, metalcore band seguewaying to a pop-rock band like Meg & Dia? Nope. Bad bad Warped Tour for setting it up that way.
6:52 PM - Woot! Meg & Dia already on their 2nd song. Black Wedding
Although they didn't do a cover this time around, I finally got to hear "Going Away" and "The Last Great Star in Hollywood" played on stage. They also improvised some of the intros to several of their songs, which always makes their live performance unique to the album. They did have several technical problems though, but like the champs they are, they pull through. For some reason, I thought that they were playing their songs slower than they normally do though. Very relaxed sound, which leads to this other problem...
7:18 PM - Warped Tour crowd was mostly lame when MaD played. Bleah. I feel like I want to just leave now
The band played a good set, but everybody was much more subdued than I would hoped for. Sure, the crowd and their set at the Strand last month was a tough act to follow, but still... There were maybe a few people in the crowd that was bringing the hype, so I appreciated that. I did get several of their songs recorded on video, but it was really hard to keep my camera steady, more so than it's ever been for me in the years gone by. I was trying to sit on a rail, but the balancing act was horrible on my part. Aw well.
7:26 PM - HaHa ran into Meg & Dia's old tour manager Shannon from two years ago and she still remembered me. Cool
She was working for myspace before, but this time around it looks like she's working for AT&T. I went over there, as my friend told me that she was here, and I wanted to see if she still remembered me. I stood nearby and just waited until she turned around. She looked my way, and gave this smile. She remembered me! I thought that was pretty cool, and we had a discussion about who was a better crowd for Meg & Dia, NorCal or SoCal. I was ssooo defending SoCal ofcourse, but she was all about how "NorCal" brings it. haha good times
7:35 PM - LoL just snucked back stage. Just look like you belong...
Since my friend had a guest pass from Victory Records, she gets to go back stage where the band's busses and rest area were. She, me and my other friend, just casually walked pass security, and just looked natural. haha it worked. Once back stage, we met up with another friend of ours, and even got to see Dia, Nick, Carlo, Jon, and Meg again. I made a fool of myself in front of Nick though, when I commented "I love the tie you used on stage," and he was all "what tie?" I blamed it on the heat, because I realize that what it was, was just his grey shirt underneath his white shirt which "looked" like a tie from a distance. I swear, I always happen to embarrass myself. Afterwards, my one goal was to drink something and find a seat. We took some of the complimentary root beer that were in coolers back stage, and wow did that taste good. Especially since I felt so dehydrated.
8:04 PM - Ugh. So damn more exhausted right now than I prefer. Should be rocking to Bad Religion right now, but I'm outside sitting on some steps.
Since my friend had to actually do work for Victory Records, and since I was her ride, I found the opportunity to just sit down and relax, while I waited. I was definitely very tired at that point, because I honestly wasn't that "prepared" to put up with Warped Tour yesterday (graveyard shift, lack of sleep). Once I got home, I pretty much just crashed. Next time, I will have more energy, and try not to rely on just frozen lemonade as my one source of nutrition.
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