Anyway, enough whining about overpriced water, let us look at a few bands before we get back to the features and booths on this year’s tour.

Strike Anywhere: Due to the lack of tickets for press, we were forced to wait for more to arrive and this put us in the gate as Strike Anywhere hit the stage.

These boys from Richmond, VA looked about as out of place as their hometown friends Avail did on the tour a few years ago. A socially and politically conscious band with a desire to get into the audience and keep everyone involved has a hard time reaching the audience though the guards and barricades, but vocalist Thomas Barnett stood on the barricade allowing anyone to sing along and even took a moment for some local political groups to discuss their stances. Definitely something the tour needed.

Musically, the band touched on their new release To Live in Discontent and threw in some old favorites for good measure. This was the best way I could think of to start off the day and I was happy to experience this great band on such a large scale. Somehow they made it all work.

Dropkick Murphys: The boys from Boston have become a fixture on the tour over the years. You know every 2 years or so you’ll see them spend the summer on the road with the Warped Tour and bring their blend of Irish folk and Oi Punk to the kids.

These guys are solid and always bring the same thing to the table: sing alongs til the sun comes up. Barroom Heroes saw a kid from the audience come up to help out, all the favorites were thrown out. Nothing was left behind on this set. As the band grows, so does the sound and the experience.

This band has become something strong enough that their Warped sets can be greatest hits style sets and no “buy our new album” sets, which is something nice to see.

Strung Out: Strung Out was the first set that let me down on the day. They came out of the gate strong and fizzled out quickly. Like much of their newer material, they stuck with a sound that is more about being popular than keeping with their beginnings.

Having seen Strung Out multiple times in the past, I hold the band to a higher standard than some of the other bands on the tour. When they tear through their older, more aggressive songs, they come across as a much more entertaining and captivating band.

Most of the audience seemed somewhat bored with the whole thing after a while and ventured off into the distance. We gladly followed.

Skate: What the hell is the problem with Warped Tour now? Did they forget about the skating? At first the street course disappeared and now the big half pipe was MIA. What the hell?

Skaters were left to putt around on a 6’ half-pipe where they were barely able to pull of any grab tricks. I will admit that I’m aware the tour has become more about bands than skating, but come on, give us some quality skate action. That’s always a highlight of the day for me and I heard a lot of kids complaining about the lack of quality skating this year.

I suggest everyone write the tour to tell them we demand more skate! Maybe get Steve Caballero to come back out for one last hurrah. Get on it!

Booths: The booth village…wow, it’s something to see. Every year you look back from the stages at this small city that is erected amongst the stages and marvel at it. This year all the same label booths were there, but there were also some great new additions.

The best new addition was the Non-Profit Booth where groups could gather to hand out free information on various problems/causes in the world. No one could agree with all the causes, but it was nice to hear about something from someone who was passionate about it. This was a lot better than Army recruiters on site.

Also, the MLB Experience tent was a blast. MXPX took batting practice, the new MLB games were available for play, you could take batting practice or you could pitch to set the daily speed record. On this day someone broke 90 mph. Impressive and fun, but still not as interesting as the music.

Bleed The Dream: Ah, the cookie-cutter part of the day had begun. Bleed the Dream screamed, then sang all melodic, then screamed more. When they came out, I was shocked by the resemblance between Mike Ness and the vocalist for the group, but then they started. There was no Mike Ness in this young man.

The band had some quality moments where they thrashed though some of their music, but they kept coming back to the melodic punk rock that has become a staple on MTV2 and Fuse. Not cool.

The audience looked bored once you go past the first few rows. I didn’t blame them, I got bored after about two songs and decided it was time to go check out the smaller bands over on the Ernie Ball stage and if they sucked, I could always sit down at the Ernie Ball booth and play guitar to myself.

The Receiving End of Sirens: These guys were a surprise. Every time I’ve ventured over to the small stages in the past, it’s been bands that were trying their hardest to sound like the bands on the main stages. On this occasion, this was not the case.

The band incorporated samples, 3 vocalist, 3 guitars and various other elements to make something melodic, yet edgy with a bit of inventiveness thrown in.

Not being overly aware of the band before this day, I can’t give you song by song break downs, but they were definitely the best band I’ve seen on the Ernie Ball stage in a long time.

Good job guys.

No Use For A Name: These guys are always great. Admittedly, this is a band I’ve listened to for over a decade, but they never fail to bring it on tour, regardless of how many people are on-hand.

With a new guitarist I didn’t recognize, the band brought some of their new songs out for testing and of course, gave some old school rockers to the audience. Tony Sly looked more dapper than he had in years. Probably the first time I’ve ever witnessed him without a baseball cap on.

Bassist Matt Riddle patrolled the stage with his Steve Harris-like positioning and playing while Rory Koff kept the beat together. Definitely a lot more fun that some of the bands leading up to this set.

The audience was involved throughout the set singing along with Sly and company from song one, Invincible, to the end. No Use For A Name provided one of the must see set of the early part of the day.

I dug the set and most importantly, so did the kids.

My Chemical Romance: Trading in his Icarus Line influenced red eye make up w/ shirt and tie, My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way went with a more 50 Cent approach as he took the stage in a vest of possible bulletproof nature.

It was good for a laugh as they took the stage, but no one laughed long as the band immediately kicked into their most popular song to date, “I’m Not Okay.” Of course the kids instantly burst into a maniacal frenzy of singing and dancing as the band delivered the song with more ferocity than they could get away with in the studio.

After the song, Way had to spend a few moment getting the audience to back up and give the kids in the front row a chance to breathe. In the sweltering heat, those in the front tried to hold their ground without the luxury of $3.50 water all while keeping conscious. It was a task that some failed to overcome.

My Chemical Romance pulled the largest, most rabid audience of the bands I saw on this day. Sadly the band stuck mostly to new tracks with only Our Lady of Sorrows from their I Brought You Bullets… album making it into the 8 song set.

In the end, this band delivered a set I didn’t think they were capable of and the audience responded by giving them a response above all other bands of the day. Still, they weren’t able to touch Andrew WK for best Houston Warped Tour set ever.

The Offspring: The elder statesmen of the mid-90’s punk boom took their place on the stage to bring a blast to the past to the Warped Tour.

With their new “Greatest Hits” album out, the band tore through a set of old favorites with little time to waste. Thankfully they ommitted the retarded “hits” of current day like Pretty Fly For a White Guy and Original Prankster for classics like Self-Esteem and Bad Habit.

Besides the setlist, the band played tight and kept the energy high as they tore through the songs. The audience happily danced along and had a blast. Some made the mistake of walking away, but those who stayed were greeted with the Offspring in their finest form and as set that was enjoyable, which is something I didn’t think I’d be saying about the Offspring.

Closing Remarks:: Going into this year’s tour with low expectations due to the lack of bands I recognized, I walked away having a lot of fun and seeing around 10 bands (not all mentioned here) in about 5 hours.

Heat and lack of water caught up with me at the end, but part of the beauty of the tour is the ability to come in for a reasonable price (well, ticket price) and see a lot of bands in a short time so if you do get sick, you can leave having seen a good slate of bands.

I’ll be back next year to catch everything that goes down in the Reliant parking lot and let you know what I thought of it. But don’t let my opinion weigh too heavily, it’s all about the fun you have at a show like this. See you next year!