Warped Tour 2003 - Ventura, CA.
Bands Playing: Drop Kick Murphy's, Andrew WK, Pennywise and many more…
July 9, 2003 @Seaside Park, Ventura
Review and Photos by: Mark A. Whitaker
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Whether you like pUnK rock, pop rock, cock rock, emo, screamo…whatever, the Warped Tour probably has at least one band playing on some stage in some state, in what has been hailed as the longest running tour.
I personally was more impressed with this year's line up than last year. Last year there were some good bands, but this year it just seemed like a better line up. The doors were supposed to open at 11 a.m. but I wasn't about to face the madness of trying to get in with a the ten hundred thousand other people that wanted to get in early so they could get first pick of all the free product being handed out by all the companies. There were stickers, CDs, zines, tons of free stuff up for grabs. Well I could care less about all that; I just want to go hang out with my friends and hear some good music.
I left my house around 12:30 figuring with traffic and the usual problems of trying to get in. I was wrong, it was crazy, once I passed Main st. exit in Ventura traffic pretty much ground to a halt, apparently somebody had crashed and traffic was being diverted around the accident by the CHP. After a little bit the traffic cleared only to slow down again, due to another accident that had just happened, so that really screwed things up. I finally made it, and went to the media relations booth to pick up my ticket and press pass, and found that there was a slight screw up and they were going to have to make some calls a little while later, they fortunately figured everything out, and I was on my way.
Since I was there to shoot The Shocker, I figured I should find out where and when they were playing, I found out just in time to catch their set. I won't go into detail because you can read the article I wrote on them here. After the shocker played I still has some time before one of the bands played, so I stuck around and watched the Switch Blade Kittens play, they were interesting, high energy pop punk. They have some catchy songs with a playful feel to them. I split half way through their set because I wanted to catch Tsunami Bomb play, Tsunami Bomb is an awesome band, they play with a lot of intensity and have a good sound. I had seen them play once before and was amazed how good they were. Agent M and the Guitarist playing stage left were intense rocking out. Agent M would come up to the front and just sing with an intense feel. Their guitarist was running around the stage, and just having a good time like he always does. This guy rocks and makes Tsunami Bomb that much better.
I don't remember the order of the bands so I'll just give my thoughts, and not worry too much about the exact times, or order that the bands played. I think I saw the Unseen play next they were good, not too exciting but they rocked and had a good stage presence.
I saw Sum 41 play and they were cool, high energy pop punk with some metal riffs mixed in make for a good show, a lot of people were digging them, I know I was, Sum 41 rock.
Next was The Used, they were supposed to be this great band form Utah, well they weren't, they looked stupid wearing eye shadow and they sucked. Brett spent a lot of time doing nothing but trying to look tough and occasionally would take the time out to sing some songs. Yes I shot photos of them, I'll admit it, but it was one of those classic rock star moments Brett looking tough singing. Maybe they should take a cue from Sum 41 and play More Killer, Less Filler.
After the Used I went and saw some cool English punk band from the UK, (now that sounds stupid an English band from the UK, like an English band would be from somewhere else), playing the Ernie Ball stage. They were cool and I got to abuse my press pass privileges by flashing my pass and getting to shoot from behind the barrier. Talk about rock star; I could have easily shot from the side with my telephoto lens but hey, got to look cool right?
Anyway, the band was good the singer must have thought I was stalking her because I kept shooting photos of her, I was trying to get the perfect shot of her singing and it just was not working for me. The rest of the band was cool though, they joked around between songs. The bass player at one point was playing either a ska song or a slow song so he put his pick in between his teeth and played slap style. It was cool I liked it, and made for a cool shot.
After stalking the English band I went to go see Pennywise play, I don't like their new stuff too much, but I love their first four albums, starting with Word To the Wise and winding up with Killing time. Of course, the pit was going to be crazy, this is Pennywise we're talking about but hey, it's all good, jocks actually listen to good music. Anyway, Pennywise kicked ass, played fast and loud with plenty of attitude. I missed seeing them play the song Pennywise but the crowd went nuts from what I could see.
After Pennywise it was time for Andrew WK, a few people had given me shit for wanting to go see him, but you know what, I don't care I like Andrew WK, he rocks! He plays with such intensity it's crazy, he's running around stage, banging out the synth chords, back to running around singing. Awesome, I could the crowd really loved Andrew WK as security was pulling fans down left and right, for crowd surfing. About the fourth song, security was busy and forgot to kick the press out after the third song, ha-ha, I got to shoot for an extra song. Well, it's the fourth song Andrew WK's pumped, the crowd's pumped the photographers are pumped, this guy's going nuts and you're getting all these great shots of him goin psycho, it was great.
So feeling the energy Andrew jumps down off the stage and climbs on the security platform and throws his arms out wide just letting the energy build, feeling the crowd's energy build, just feeling the moment. Of course, I ran out of film, but it was a good thing because I just watched and enjoyed the show as all the photographers from the LA Times and Ventura County star and countless other media outlets fired salvo after salvo of flashes from their super high end, ultra mega pixel cameras. They were probably all rockin, Canon Eos 1D's, and Nikon D1's. It was a war zone I could just see the barrage of flashes going off, it was so cool and Andrew WK just stood there taking it all in. It was cool of the security too they understood this was a special moment and didn't interfere or kick anybody out. After that I when security politely informed us that we had pack up nobody complained because we had all been able to witness something so awesome and awe inspiring.
I think Rancid may have played next but I left, after seeing Andrew WK, I wanted to leave with the memory of such an awesome experience fresh in my mind and not brought crashing down by the off chance that Rancid might not be able to hold up to my expectations. I was never a big fan anyway so it didn't really affect me plus I was tired and hungry and needed some food and water that wasn't selling for $1,000,000 a bottle or whatever they were charging. My final thoughts as I made the long walk down to the Holiday inn to where my car was parked were, man what a long but amazing day. To all the bands, I saw thanks for an awesome day, The Used you guys were overrated, but you still managed to put on an acceptable performance. Pennywise, great show, Tsunami Bomb when's the next show, Andrew WK, fucking amazing, thanks, play Ventura again. Finally, thanks to everyone that managed to read my random thoughts and attempted coherent ideas all the way through, that must have been tough.
-Mark
