I'm flying out to Scranton, Pennsylvania, later tonight -- not to stalk the cast of The Office (oh, Jenna Fischer, how I would love to simply hold your hand), but instead to meet up with the behemoth that is the Vans Warped Tour. I'll be on the tour for the following shows:
Sun Jul 27 Toyota Pavilion Scranton, PA Mon Jul 28 Raceway Park Englishtown, NJ Tue Jul 29 Post Gazette Pavilion At Star Lake Pittsburgh, PA Wed Jul 30 Riverbend Amphitheatre Cincinnati, OH Thu Jul 31 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Noblesville, IN Fri Aug 01 Marcus Amphitheater Milwaukee, WI Sat Aug 02 First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre Tinley Park, IL Sun Aug 03 Canterbury Park Shakopee, MN
Sure, it's only a week. And yeah, I've done Taste Of Chaos and the AP Tour before, so I'm not a total newbie to touring. But I am still so very nervous about joining Warped Tour. I've dreamed about going on this tour since I was 15 years old when I attended the '97 Warped in Chicago, but this is the very first summer since then where the stars have aligned (and AP is footing the bill), so I'm doing it. And I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I'm totally afraid I'll get pantsed by Tom DeLonge for the bad review I wrote of Angels & Airwaves' last album. Or maybe Against Me! will corner me backstage and tell me they hated their cover story I wrote. Or maybe From First To Last might want to exact some revenge for some harsh words we printed a few months back. Or maybe I'll run into Alesana and involuntarily punch their Pterodactyl singer in the throat. (It's a nervous tick, I swear--please don't sue me.)
The point is, as much as I want to go on this tour and just be a dude who watches bands and meets kids, I can't: I'm a member of "the press," no matter how alternative it may be. Becoming buddy-buddy with bands is a death knell for credibility, not to mention bands, once they find out you're a writer, treat you differently, thinking you won't notice. It's a weird, strange balance between shooting the shit with someone in a band whose music you don't like and then panning that band's next record because it's weak, all the while waiting for an expletive-filled text message or e-mail telling you what they really thought of you the whole time.
Look, I'm certainly not complaining about my lot in life. I love my job. I love the holy shit out of it, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. But these strange ethical and moral hurdles come up all the time, and it's a constant struggle to keep yourself on top of your game and not corrupt yourself for the chance to hang out on Gym Class Heroes' tour bus for 10 minutes.
So yeah, I'm nervous. How can you help? Find me at Warped Tour and chat with me. Tell me how your day's going, what bands you're here to see, who you've loved thus far and who let you down. These are things I really do want to know, because AP is entirely built on reader feedback. What, do you think we just put bands on our cover because of their MySpace friend totals? (In that case, I guess next month will be a Hollywood Undead/Jeffree Star split cover...)
Okay, I gotta start getting ready. I haven't packed a single thing yet, and Rachel's picking me up in under five hours to take me to the airport. Wish me luck, and follow our Warped Tour blog to read about my adventures, as I'll be posting there for the next week, not here.
Okay, guessing game time: Is this actually Johnny Rotten or just a wax statue?
Considering how stiff the Sex Pistols are in concert nowadays, I'm sort of leaning toward the latter. It's a bummer, totally driving into the ground what little legacy and cultural relevance you had left for a few more bucks. How goes writing new material, gents? (See also the reunited, Jello-less Dead Kennedys.)
Okay, we're about to go into an editorial meeting so I can't write much now, but I want to say the following:
1. Holy shit, The Dark Knight was totally fucking awesome. Read Rachel's blog for an in-depth analysis, but from me, all you'll get is, "I'm gonna make this pencil disappear." Holy fuckin' shit.
2. I saw 2*Sweet this past Saturday with about 40 other people (other bands included), and they killed it. Why are people still sleeping on this band? Watch the video below and tell me that this song (and the video!) isn't totally killer:
Okay, first off: You know what grinds my gears? I bought the new Hold Steady CD at their show in Cleveland the other night because it comes with three bonus tracks ("Ask Her for Adderall," "Cheyenne Sunrise" and "Two Handed Handshake") that weren't on the advance copy of the album I got a few months back. So I finally get around to ripping the CD into my iTunes today, and you know what I find? All three songs are one track, and they just run into each other. That is so bogus, Vagrant Records! How hard would it have been to make each song an individual track instead of making one mega-track that's 11:29 long (and not exactly conducive to iTunes playlists or mix CDs)? Argh. That really grinds my gears. I guess I'll have to grab one of those audio editing programs and figure out how they work (unless someone knows another blog online that's already split 'em up and wants to leave a link in the comments...).
Besides that annoyance, though, Thursday was a great (if incredibly long) day. I spent all morning/afternoon/evening at Warped Tour hunting down some of your favorite bands--we scored interviews with Jack's Mannequin, Norma Jean and the Academy Is... all on the fly, as well as live footage of Against Me!, We The Kings and Charlotte Sometimes, so be on the lookout for that this week. I'm really happy with how all three of the the interviews came out; our interview with TAI even featured a special guest (Alex Suarez of Cobra Starship). Good times.
So after sweating it out all day in downtown Cleveland and drinking my weight in canned water (or so it felt like, at least), I returned home for a split second, wolfed down some cold pizza then headed off to the Hold Steady/the Loved Ones show across town, which was (1)sold out, (2)totally and utterly awesome and (3)completely exhausting. It's 36 hours after the show ended and I'm still aching, although I'm sure much of that has to do with Warped, too. I'm actually going out on Warped from July 27-August 3, so hopefully I can work up my endurance over that time period, otherwise, it might be a pretty unfun experience.
I'm really stoked for next week because we're launching our exclusive acoustic session with Less Than Jake and seriously, it sounds sooooooo good. I can't wait for all you people to hear it. Make sure to check the altpress.com homepage starting Monday to hear it!
So tomorrow is Warped Tour in Cleveland. I'm old-school enough to say I've been going to Warped every year since 1997 and new-school enough to say I still get excited at the promise of a gajillion bands (some of which are totally killer) playing in my backyard every summer. This year, though, I won't be just a spectator: We're bringing our video camera down for some on-the-spot interviews with some of Warped's best and brightest. But in true AP fashion (or maybe just in true Scott Heisel fashion), I haven't scheduled anything with any band yet, rather leaving it more or less up to chance (or who I bump into in line for a churro). Who do you folks out there want me to track down and grill? Here's a list straight from WarpedTour.com of who's playing Cleveland tomorrow; leave me a comment and tell me which musicians I should track down and even better, what I should ask them. Nothing's off-limits (okay, except Victoria from Cobra Starship's phone number):
3oh!3, A Day To Remember, Against Me!, Aggrolites, Alesana, Anberlin, Angels and Airwaves, As I Lay Dying, Automatic Loveletter, Beat Union, Bedouin Soundclash, Blake, Bouncing Souls, Charlotte Sometimes, Cobra Starship, Evergreen Terrace, Every Avenue, Every Time I Die, Forever The Sickest Kids, From First to Last, Gym Class Heroes, Horrorpops, Jack's Mannequin, Just Surrender, Katy Perry, Know Lyfe, Lordz, MC Chris, Madina Lake, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, Norma Jean, Oreskaband, Pennywise, Protest The Hero, Reel Big Fish, Relient K, Say Anything, Set Your Goals, Settings, Shwayze, St. Alivia Cartel, Story of the Year, Street Dogs, The Academy Is..., The Audition, The Bronx, The Fabulous Rudies, The Higher, We the Kings
This past Saturday, July 12, was the fourth anniversary of my first day of work at AP. It's kind of nuts to me to think about these past four years, and just how quickly time has flown by. Take a walk with me down memory lane, won't you? Here are some things I'll never forget about my very first month of my employment (thank you, my old livejournal, for providing me with exact dates):
MONDAY, JULY 12, 2004 This was my first day, when I showed up bright and early at 10 a.m. on the dot, only to find the door locked and the lights off. After panicking a bit and trying (and failing) to somehow check my email on my ghetto-ass cell phone ("Maybe they called an emergency staff meeting somewhere and I didn't know about it!" was my line of thought), my then-supervisor Aaron Burgess came ambling down the hallway, cup of coffee in hand, at around 10:15 or so. He looked at me and said, "Oh, yeah, no one really comes in right at 10." Works for me.
On that train of thought, I will never, ever forget Aaron Burgess, our former editorial director. The two years I spent working under him was essentially a crash course in everything journalism-related, and I can safely say he taught me more in that time period than I learned in all four years of college (and probably would've learned in grad school, too). Thanks for taking a chance on me, AB. I miss you and your thought riots.
FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2004 Getting to eat Mexican food with the Dillinger Escape Plan (who scared the piss out of me and didn't say a single word to me the entire time), former AP scribe Trevor Kelley and Texas Is The Reason guitarist Norman Brannon (nee Arenas), and engaging with Trevor in the most spirited discussion of post-hardcore/y'allternative also-rans Chamberlain in the history of the world. It was a surreal lunch, to say the least. I also got to meet Jason Hammacher (then of Decahedron) who spun some incredible yarns about Refused and specifically how unintentionally funny Dennis Lyxzen was. (Hammacher's old band, Frodus, toured with Refused a few times, including their final tour.) It was my first "business lunch," as absurd as that sounds, and it has a permanent place in my memory banks.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 4, 2004 The Curiosa festival (featuring the Cure, Interpol, Muse, Thursday and many more) rolled into town, and at the time, Muse were just starting to break through in America. Their then-publicist, Jim Baltutis, flew out to Cleveland to take the entire office to the mammoth show so we could see what Muse were all about (it was their first U.S. tour in something like five years), but that wasn't all: He rented a limousine to drive us there in style. (I found out later this was one of the, if not the first staff limo rental in the history of AP). Once we arrived at the gigantic outdoor venue known as Blossom, we were adorned with official Curiosa VIP laminates attached to lanyards -- no, not just sticky passes, actual, honest-to-goodness laminates the size of a notecard or something, that allowed us to go anywhere we wanted, including backstage for the afterparty (where a high-ranking AP staffer, who had indulged in the spirits [paid for by a Warner Bros. corporate credit card] a bit too much, accosted a very shy Robert Smith of the Cure and may or may not have kissed him [the staffer in question denies the liplock but my sober eyes rarely fail me]).
(Side note: These laminates weren't date-specific, so I got the bright idea of mailing mine out to a friend in San Diego who used it to get into her date of the tour; she then mailed it to another friend in Los Angeles so he could get in for free. Being sneaky rules!)
Anyway, we partied into the wee hours of the night, then finally packed back into the limo and headed back to AP HQ, where everyone had left their cars. We finally arrived around 3:30 a.m., and as we all piled into our respective automobiles and left the parking lot, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw that same high-ranking AP staffer (who shall remain nameless, for fear of a swift and merciless beating once they read this) on their hands and knees, puking their guts out in the parking lot.
It was at that moment that I knew I was really, really, going to love this job.
Of course, that would be the perfect way to end this blog, right? Well fuck that nonsense. Here's one more memory:
TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 2004 This is the night I discovered the majesty of Quaker Steak & Lube and more importantly, their all-you-can-eat wing night. If you're ever in Cleveland on a Tuesday, holler and we'll go dominate their wing buffet. Truth.
(PS - as with all my blog titles, this one is a song reference, but it's a bit more obscure than most. The first person to post the real song title, band and album will win a prize. Seriously!)
I'm hoarse, sweat-soaked and aching all over -- and I fucking love the Alkaline Trio more than ever right now.
I spent all day today listening to the Trio's entire recorded catalog (ask Rachel if you don't believe me; her office is next to mine, and the walls are thin) and getting pumped up for the show. I had seen some of the setlists from their current tour and had been getting majorly stoked to hear some spicy jams, and they definitely did not disappoint.
Matt, Dan and Derek played one hell of a set tonight, powering through 18 songs in a shade over 75 minutes, even unearthing "For Your Lungs Only," which Matt Skiba said was the first time they'd played it in 11 years. (I've seen the Trio more times than I can count since April 1999 and I don't recall having ever heard it before, so he was probably right.) The guys were super tight musically, and Skiba's voice sounded remarkably strong, particularly on the high notes in "Warbrain." The new material got a generally strong response from the sold-out House Of Blues crowd, but the mosh pit definitely calmed down for "Do You Wanna Know?" (my personal favorite off Agony & Irony) -- if there was a "flop" of the night with the crowd, it was that one (but even still, it was a B+ in a sea full of As).
I really, truly love Alkaline Trio, even though I've found myself being hypercritical of them in recent years. Regardless of my feelings toward their last few records, each one always has at at least a few gems that make their live show compelling, and I will never, ever, ever miss a Trio show within driving distance. You have my word on that.
As for the opening acts: The Fashion sounded like a bunch of discarded demos from the last Hot Hot Heat record (which was the worst HHH record, too), and while I still feel like I'm supposed to like American Steel, their slightly snotty working-class punk doesn't do a damn thing for me. Oh well.
SET LIST (in order) Calling All Skeletons Nose Over Tail I Lied My Face Off I Found Away In Vein Warbrain Blue Carolina Mercy Me Armageddon Old School Reasons Private Eye Do You Wanna Know? Goodbye Forever I'm Dying Tomorrow Help Me This Could Be Love
ENCORE For Your Lungs Only Radio
Have you seen Alkaline Trio on their current tour yet? What did you think? Are you going to an upcoming show? Share your dream setlist!
This must be a record for me: Two ska shows, two nights in a row? Unheard of! Tonight, I took in the Less Than Jake/Goldfinger tour tonight back in Cleveland, and I gotta tell you, it was a blast. Unfortunately, Big D And The Kids Table had to miss tonight's show due to van troubles, and even more unfortunately, this meant we were assaulted with an extended opening set from Suburban Legends, a band who used to play ska but have now turned themselves into some weird frat-house funk/party-rock band. Their choreographed dance moves and cheesy Disney song covers are entertaining for about three minutes, and then you'll find yourself checking (and re-checking) the merch booth for cool swag from the other bands.
With Big D sidelined, co-headliners Goldfinger were up next. After racking my brain, I realized I hadn't seen John Feldmann & Co. live since September 1997 -- nearly 11 year ago! Kind of ridiculous, considering how much they tour (but also considering their recorded output progressively got worse during that decade, maybe it's not so ridiculous after all). One might think the 'finger would've beefed up their set since the tour was down a band, but nope -- as is usual with Goldfinger headlining sets, they barely played 40 minutes (seriously, their set was shorter than Suburban Legends' 45-minute set). The setlist was pretty solid (see below), but c'mon, dudes: Would it kill you to play for an hour? I mean, seriously. You have six albums to your name (and at least two of those albums are good); it's not like you're hurting for material.
GOLDFINGER SETLIST (by album) Goldfinger - Here In Your Bedroom, Mable, My Girlfriend's Shower Sucks, Miles Away Hang-Ups - Superman, Question Stomping Ground - Counting The Days, San Simeon, 99 Red Balloons Open Your Eyes - Open Your Eyes Hello Destiny - Get Up
After another half-hour set change, Gainesville, Florida's finest took the stage in front of what felt like a sold-out crowd (I don't think the House Of Blues was technically sold out, but man, there were a hell of a lot of people in there) and just dominated from start to finish. LTJ are one of those bands where their back catalog is so vast, you never really know what they're going to play. Tonight's set relied a little more on their live staples than I would've preferred, but then again there's at least a dozen more live staples they didn't play in favor of playing these. Guess you can't fault a band for having, like, 50-plus songs that work well in a live setting. The new material from GNV FLA sounded particularly strong (I've found myself really coming around to that album, too, after I kind of wrote it off originally). As is usual with LTJ sets, there were impromptu onstage dance parties with handpicked audience members, confetti blasts into the crowd and tons of crowd participation -- tonight, they brought up a guy easily in his fifties named Conrad and had him enter a beer-drinking contest against one of Suburban Legends guys (Conrad won -- way to go, old dude!). Oh, yeah, for anyone who's attended an LTJ show in Cleveland in the past four years: The Superman-costume guy was there again, and soaring like no one's business during "Gainesville Rock City." Cleveland seems to always respond well to this band, as we even summoned them back for a second encore tonight, something they hadn't done all tour.
LESS THAN JAKE SETLIST (by album) Pezcore - Johnny Quest Thinks We're Sellouts Losing Streak - How's My Driving Doug Hastings?, Dopeman Hello Rockview - Last One Out Of Liberty City, All My Best Friends Are Metalheads, History Of A Boring Town, Great American Sharpshooter, Richard Allen George...No, It's Just Cheez, Al's War Borders & Boundaries - Look What Happened, Gainesville Rock City Anthem - The Ghosts Of You And Me, The Science Of Selling Yourself Short, Plastic Cup Politics In With The Out Crowd - The Rest Of My Life GNV FLA - Does The Lion City Still Roar?, Summon Monsters, Conviction Notice
Okay, it's time for me to hit the bricks. I forgot that I'm not really built for moshing anymore (something I learned the hard way when I braved the crowd and got almost to the front of the barricade for the start of Goldfinger's set). I could sure use a pedicure right now...
It's been too long, interwebs. I've meant to blog a number of times over the past few days, but my time spent in the Land of Lincoln has been nonstop busy. Here are my thoughts, numbered for your enjoyment:
1. My in-flight playlist didn't work as well as I intended, with the music running out after we landed but well before I was able to disembark from the plane. Also, note to self: Remove Thrice's "Red Sky" from the playlist, as when it came on, the plane suffered from a massive amount of turbulence for the song's length. Creepy.
2. I got to play Rock Band for the first time ever this weekend and holy shit is it the greatest game ever. I'm proud to say I completely destroyed "Say It Ain't So," "Learn To Fly" and "The Hand That Feeds" on vocals (although my bass skills on "Sabotage" left something to be desired). I also learned I can play a mean Richie Sambora guitar solo on "Wanted Dead Or Alive." I've seen a million virtual faces and rocked them all, dudes.
3. The bride at the wedding I attended walked down the aisle to a string arrangement of Journey's "Open Arms." No shit.
4. My new favorite way to pass the time with friends is play 20 Questions with a song from the popular music catalog. We used everything from Paramore's "Misery Business" to Deep Blue Something's "Breakfast At Tiffany's" to the Spice Girls' "Wannabe" to, uh, the theme song from Rocky -- which, even with some dubious answers to my questions, I still guessed correctly after my 20 inquiries were up. I definitely recommend it for your next road trip or get together; our only real rules were that the song was at some point on the radio so we'd have at least a bare-bones chance of guessing it.
5a. I just got home from seeing Dropkick Murphys and the Mighty Mighty Bosstones with about 7,000 other people (6,972 of whom were adorned in Murphys apparel before the show even started). We missed opening act Civet unfortunately, but the Bosstones were in rare form, playing a 65-minute set that touched on all the cornerstones of their catalog, from "Someday I Suppose" and "Where Did You Go?" to "The Impression That I Get" and "The Rascal King," and even the killer new jam "Don't Worry, Desmond Dekker." They even dug deep with "Holy Smoke" and "All Things Considered," and busted out a great cover of the Clash's "Rudie Can't Fail" and The Man Of La Mancha's "Impossible Dream" (the latter of which they dedicated to Illinois' own Barack Obama). Did I mention they were all decked out in plaid suits (and Dicky Barrett was even rocking plaid Chuck Taylors)? Seriously top notch.
5b. As for DKM, we stayed for about 45 minutes of their set before we tired of hearing the same song over and over (granted, it's a pretty fun sing-along song that usually features the words "Boston," "I'm," "To," "Up" and "Shipping" in random order) and we skated to beat the traffic. I can tell you that they played "For Boston," "The State Of Massachusetts," "Fields Of Athrenry," "Bastards On Parade," "Curse Of A Fallen Soul," "Tomorrow's Industry," "(F)lannigan's Ball" and "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye," among others I didn't know the names of (I had no idea I even knew that many DKM songs until right now when I was pulling from my memory banks). The Murphys are nothing if not incredibly consistent, and they certainly had the massive crowd eating out of their hands.
6. My girlfriend talked me into getting a pedicure with her this weekend. And? IT WAS AWESOME. Don't be afraid, guys. Even big, burly dudes (with hearts of gold) such as myself deserve a little pampering now and again. I may be one tiny step closer to metrosexual, but it's a small price to pay for having 26 years' worth of dead skin scrubbed off my feet.
And with that totally gross image, I will end this blog entry. See y'all next time.
The lovely and talented Rachel Lux put up a great blog earlier this week of what her 4th of July playlist will be this year. My 4th will be spent a bit differently; I have to jump on a plane in about nine hours to fly to Chicago for a wedding, so I don't know exactly how many fireworks I'll get to set off (probably none because Illinois, like Ohio, outlaws the good stuff). Instead, I thought I'd make my own in-flight playlist that I've timed out (ideally) to the length of the Cleveland-Chicago flight, which is typically a shade over an hour. The mix below, which I've oh-so-cleverly titled "Seatbacks And Tray Tables," clocks in at 1:03:45, so if all goes according to schedule, I'll hear the final yell of "SNAKES ON A PLANE!" from Terry Morrow of Ryan's Hope right as the wheels touch down. We'll see...
Click below to see the full thing:
Whaddya think? More importantly, what do you think I'm missing?
