Vans Warped Tour 2011

On Friday, July 8th, I attended Vans Warped Tour for my 4th time. This is an all day concert set up in a parking lot of the Tiger’s baseball field. There are 6 main stages set up throughout the parking lot and a TON of merchandise tents inside the baseball complex. Every stage hosts about 15-20 bands throughout the day so that means there is LOTS of music to be heard. You can just travel around to whatever stage you feel like to listen to different bands. You can also go wandering around through the merchandise tents to buy t-shirts, cd’s, and even meet a lot of the bands. Basically this is a day full of awesome that I love participating in every year. This year was perhaps my favorite year yet. The weather was perfect, the music was great, I got up close for almost all of the performances, plus I got to meet a lot of great bands! Here are a few pictures of my day at Warped Tour!

Here is the group that I went with to Warped Tour: Kati (my best friend), me, Kari (my sister), and Nick (a friend from high school)

The first band that we saw was The Ready Set. I really love their music so I wish we could have gotten a bit closer!

After The Ready Set we were off to see Relient K. I only know 2 of their songs but they had an awesome performance. I can’t wait to listen to more of their music.

Next we saw The Dangerous Summer. I knew absolutely none of their songs but I am telling you what, THEY ARE GOOD! I would know this since I was in the first row for their concert! On a sidenote-the funky looking security guard with a mohawk totally loved us. He gave us a free Monster!

Then we went to see It Boys. This is another band I have never heard of but they were good (I even bought their CD). The lead singer took off his shirt at the end of the performance; it was quite possibly the most glorious thing I’ve ever seen.

Then we got to see Shut Up and Deal. I pretty much have found a new favorite band and they are it for a number of reasons. First, I really like their sound. They put on an awesome show. Second, they are perhaps the nicest guys I have ever met. Yes, I say met because we talked with the band for about 20 minutes after their performance. Third, the lead singer sang to me during one of their songs. How do I know it was me he was really looking at? Well he told me of course! When we went to their merchandise tent after the performance he was like “Oh I made eye contact with you during a song,” I then said “Yes you did. It was really awkward and I didn’t know what to do with myself.” That brought on a super long, funny conversation that I am sure other fans hated because we had the band preoccupied for quite a long time. They took pictures with us and signed the CDs that we bought. so yes, they are definitely a new favorite!

Next was Windsor Drive, you guys may remember them from my Tune-In Tuesday post from a few weeks ago. Anyways, we got to get first row for their concert. This may sound pretty wonderful but there were only 2 rows of people to fight our way through which is really sad considering they had one of the best shows of the day. They sounded so great live and even though they didn’t play my favorite song, their music still made me all sorts of happy. We got to meet the band at the very start of our day and we even took a picture with them but it was with the bands camera! They will be posting the picture on Twitter….eventually, so I am sure you guys will see a slew of tweets by me when that happens! At the end of the day we went back to their tent to buy some of their merchandise. I got a signed shirt and three CDs all of which have been on constant replay!

After Windsor Drive we went to see another band called There For Tomorrow. I first met There For Tomorrow at Warped Tour my first year going so I was super excited I was able to see them again. Also, this is another band that I have featured on a Tune-In Tuesday post! Anyways, we got super close for their performance and it was pretty good. It wasn’t my favorite because they played all new songs that no one knew but on the bright side, their new CD is awesome!

Once There For Tomorrow was done playing we went to see what Vonnegutt could do. They were pretty freaking awesome. They are a lot like 3oh!3 and Gym Class Heroes mixed together. We also got to meet them after the performance and my friend got a signed CD!

Next was The Wonder Years. This band is a newer one to me but I really loved their music. They had some really strange fans that were doing some sort of tribal-looking dance that was probably ment to resemble a mosh pit. Regardless, they had some good songs!

Next, we fought ourselves through this super big crowd to see the closing act….

Hellogoodbye! They were so freaking awesome! The music was great, the lead singer was a total nerd but we all love him anyways, plus the security guards got us all pumped up by spraying over 100 bottles of water over us!

Now there were some random moments throughout the day where I decided to take pictures of us having fun. Here they are:

 

All in all, it was a pretty spectacular day! I got to meet so many great bands, even ones that I didn’t get to see perform! Dear Diary gave me a free CD as well as Rival Summers. I got to meet up with Phone Calls From Home, a band we met at Warped Tour four years ago. I got the CD and one of the band members (whoever he was, he was really cute), gave me a big hug. I got another CD from the singer of Pop! Fiction, the lead singer of Assemble The Skyline, and I also got to buy a CD from an awesome new band called Lacerda. So yes, you guys should all see if Warped Tour comes to a city near you because I can guarantee you will have an awesome time there!