Progressive Boink

[BeeJ]

How was Clandestine at 6:30 AM?

[Rusty Cooledge]

I was the hell asleep.

Went to Warped Tour! Because I am a 16 year old girl.

Random observations: It was Warped Tour! A lot of jailbait advertising free hugs alongside the backlash of people advertising NO HUGS or whatever. There was a Waldo who I almost asked, "How many people have yelled "I found you" at you" before I considered someone else had already asked him that as well. There was a green man. There was... people with mohawks and douchebags with awful tattoos. Nothing you couldn't guess. I went alone, which was fine since in years past my friends rarely accompanied me to the bands I wanted to see anyway. I did run into an old aquaintance and his crew. I'm not going to say much about him and his pals except that I noticed he had a Skullcandy Headphones tattoo on his back which he proudly told me saved him 60 bucks on a pair.

I overheard someone say they were surprised by how few people were in line for Yellowcard autographs. Falling in Reverse walked through the middle of Warped Tour, wearing jackets with their own band name on them, while girls screamed and chased them. My head nearly exploded from the douchebaggery of it all. Some guy tried to get me to buy his band's crappy album because he was straight edge too and also liked the Misfits (I had my Drug Free Misfits shirt on). They had a truck spraying water all day long, which I found to be a massive waste of water. There was a "Marley" stage that played Reggae all day. There was a horrible 3oh3 knockoff that made me laugh. And now, onto specific bands I saw!

Of Mice and Men is a guilty pleasure of mine. I don't want to get into the stupid debate about "there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure be proud of what you like but lol seriously are you gay or something" but I just want to leave it at, their first album is fun to rock out to and that's all I really need to enjoy a piece of music, even if I hate everything else about them from their band persona to their fan base. See also: Attack Attack. All that aside, their second album is weak as hell and they played almost nothing but that, so bummer. I made the mistake of being in the pit for this style of music and almost got my glasses broken by hyper violent scene kids, so I escaped and was happier for it.

Streetlight Manifesto was the show of the day. I saw them at Warped in 09 and I never know when they are coming to Minnesota on a headlining tour, if ever, so I'm just kinda waiting patiently for that to happen. Until then, these half hour sets have had to suffice. Nonetheless, they played mostly Somewhere in the Between, and it was completely awesome and great. I lost my digital camera at some point during this, but it was worth it. Sorta. I dunno, doesn't really bother me which I then re-evaluate as an odd reaction.

Saw the second half of New Found Glory's set. It was fine. I was never a huge NFG fan but I did like a few of their songs back in the day. I didn't hear any of my favorites and I apparently missed Hit or Miss which was a bummer and a half. They wore matching outfits. Lead singer did a stage dive. I dunno.

Sleeping with Sirens, another guilty pleasure emo-core band, was real good to see live and they played my favorites. But ugh. Some of the between song banter included "WHO HERE HAS HAD A SHITTY MOTHER OR FATHER" (met with delighted squeals) and "WHO HERE HAS BEEN IN A SHITTY RELATIONSHIP AND SAID YOU CANT TREAT ME LIKE THIS ANYMORE" (more of the same). They were on a smaller stage and the crowd was way too crowded, which was annoying. Other than that, good stuff. Lead singer came off as overtly bitter and angsty, though, so that was a turn-off to a seasoned, understated cynic such as myself. Had you been aware that he came from nothing and now here he was singing "some bullshit" and getting cheered for it? I hadn't!

Came back to the main stages to see the majority of Taking Back Sunday and saw all three of their songs I care about, which was a great reversal of fortune from NFG. Not much else to say, they were good.

Anthony Raneri, the lead singer of Bayside, had an acoustic set in the acoustic tent so of course I went to that. Everyone was sitting down so I did the same, until he came out and asked us why the hell we were sitting down. I got back up too quick and managed to get an extremely painful, entire upper body cramp that didn't go away and scared the hell out of me for about 4 minutes. After that though, I was able to enjoy the set and had a great time, even getting to say something to him ("Hot for Minnesota!") that he responded to ("Oh yeah?").

After this I was kinda open for like, 3 hours of bands I didn't begin to care about, so I hooked back up with my aquaintence and his pals as we just saw around and talked about nothing. They were almost completely uninterested in seeing any bands period, apparently content to come to Warped Tour with the goal of looking like they belonged at Warped Tour (success) and collecting free swag, bragging about all the awesome stickers and stuff they got and were now lugging around all day. They finally got interested enough to bother coming with me to go see Blessthefall. I only like one of their songs. They didn't play it. They did however do a thing where they encouraged girls in the audience to try to seduce a dude onstage so that they could hook up later that night, or at least that was what was implied. I don't even want to think about the implications, honestly. At this point my friend got tired of being Warped Tour at Warped Tour and left early.

Having nothing better to do, I went to go wait for another band and ended up seeing For Today. A pretty standard hardcore band headed up by a passionate black man, which is really the best lead for a hardcore band. Or so I thought they were just a standard hardcore band, until suddenly the singer began to cut a hardcore passionate Christian sermon on our candy asses. Which was fine with me, I'm not put off by "JESUS IS KING I SHOULD BE IN HELL RIGHT NOW, PEOPLE TELL ME TO NOT TALK ABOUT MY LORD BUT I MUST" talk especially when it is honest and not just pandering to a built-in fanbase like so many others do. It's honestly far more irritating to me when bands drop the act for further success. Pretty manipulative! Anyway. The crowd cheered for this and also... put up devil horns? So that was funny. Later eavesdropped on the phrase, "I thought that band was really good until that Jesus crap" so, eh, not everyone there was feeling him I guess.

Every Time I Die was next, I was excited to see them because they are probably my favorite hardcore band and I'd only seen them once, before I even listened to their music back in like 05. Unfortunately, they were playing just before Bayside took a different stage so I couldn't stay. Epitaph records had a guy taking photos of the front row, and I couldn't tell I was in frame for it because I didn't know how wide the dude's lens went, so I look really stupid for the picture. I was posing, but not really posing that hard because I didn't want to look dumb for posing in a picture I wasn't in. Turns out I took the less safe bet. I got to see 15 minutes of ETID's set though, and it was really good of course. But also a bummer, the guitarist gave everyone in the front row high fives except our side. Hoping they come back soon on their own tour.

I missed Rise Against, which wasn't that big of a deal, and in turn I instead went and saw Bayside. Standard show. Crowd kinda sucked. I was glad to be there though, and I had a really good time. About this time I started feeling a throbbing in my head whenever I did anything that involved head movement, so I figured this was as good a time as any to leave. The only band I was missing was The Used, which I barely even cared about to begin with.

Overall though, a good day!

[Rusty Cooledge]

first person to spot me in this photo at streetlight manifesto gets one million internet dollars from rusty cooledge

[BeeJ]

is that you in the second row going YEAH and holding up a finger like you're claudio castagnoli

[Rusty Cooledge]

nah I'm posing more like kelly kelly

[Rusty Cooledge]

Been having some crap luck lately with regards to shows. I was all pumped for Bouncing Souls/Menzingers until my friends all got mad at me for considering skipping our annual camping trip. And in hindsight, I still don't know if I made the right decision. I always seem to have bad luck with the Souls, they went on a tour with Bayside in what was apparently a concert dedicated to me, except they decided to not even let me know they were on tour till a month after. Same with Bayside touring with Saves the Day, but not coming within 12 hours driving time of my home. Also, due to a family emergency and overall crap weekend, I missed what was probably my one chance to see Bomb the Music Industry with the friggin Bosstones. Bummer central.

That said, I did get to see Powerglove on Thursday. They ruled. Got FF VII boss battle music, Legend of Zelda, Mario Bros, Pokemon, etc. Tetris theme song was met with us doing a Russian line dance together. A red Power Ranger showed up and so we got that theme while he danced on stage. He also would have absolutely infuriated B as he annoyed me, because as soon as he was called on stage he took a glove off and stood there bobbing around holding his camera filming the crowd and himself. I usually don't mind filming shows you're at, my memory is awful no matter how hard I concentrate and I usually find myself trying to find shows I was at on Youtube, but this was just unforgiveable. Just enjoy being on stage as a red Power Ranger! Ugh. Other than that, a lot of nerds with teenager specific B.O. Smelled exactly like my high school locker room. At one point a nerd showed his triforce tattoo to the band (pot calling kettle black here, I have an 8 bit heart tattoo courtesy of Mike Fireball) and when only a couple other people could also claim the same he yelled "SUCK IT NOOBS" and everyone laughed and cheered. in 2012. OMG I KNO U USE HAX

Richie Branson and Mega Ran opened. They were fine. I'm not a nerdcore fan, I just can't care. DO YOU GUYS REMEMBER STAR WARS!? YAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

MC Chris headlined. I left before he showed up. Some guy talking to me outside couldn't believe it. And for the first time ever my Raptor Industries shirt was identified in public. Overall a good time had by all.

[Rusty Cooledge]

Saw Cursive/Minus The Bear Thursday. I have surprisingly little to say. Caspian opened but I missed them.

Cursive played a half hour set straight with minimal banter, and it was really fantastic. But I was spoiled by their headline tour last March so I was left wanting more. Still good to see them again though.

Minus The Bear was great. I recall them being less fun at Popsicklefest a couple years back because the crowd apparently just didn't care about them then, but most of them did here and it made for a fun time. They played for like an hour and a half. Their new album is acceptable but nothing I really am into, but they did play a lot of their best songs from previous albums. They threw some giant balloons into the crowd, that was kinda cool.

They played at Varsity Theater in Dinkytown, which is basically college kid city. And I have grown to despise college towns (you damn kids!!!). The crowd here was fine but also annoying, I much prefer the scene in downtown Minneapolis. MCS is gonna be at Varsity Theater too because suddenly everyone wants to play there despite no one I listen to ever being there before this Fall, so I dunno, we'll see how that goes. I have some bad experiences with MCS in college town venues.