Milwaukee, which is Algonquin for "the good land."

For starters: Milwaukee, you totally ruled. Tons of awesome kids, everyone was super polite and friendly (except for a few negative nancies trying to sneak into the signing lines for the Academy Is... and We The Kings), the venue's location was great (right on Lake Michigan!) and the weather was to die for. Until the moment we almost thought the weather was going to cause us to die, During the Devil Wears Prada's signing session, right around 5:15 p.m., you could look out over the lake and the clouds turned a verrrrrry nasty shade of black and began quickly rolling toward us (remember that scene in Independence Day where the alien spacecrafts first appear on Earth, and all you can really see is big masses of clouds rolling out of the sky? That is seriously exactly how it looked). The wind picked up bigtime, the temperature dropped a good 10 degrees and we seriously thought we were in for the storm of a lifetime.

And then it just sort of passed right over us, without a single drop of rain. Way to come through in the clutch, Milwaukee!

The only band I saw yesterday was Angels & Airwaves, who won the extra 10 minutes and used it to work in a Blink-182 number (Tom did "Reckless Abandon" solo -- it was kinda neat). Outside of that, I was locked into the booth pretty much from start to finish because so many of you wanted to subscribe (and thank you for that!).

The real fun started last night when we got our third PunxDirtySecret party this summer started up at a club across the street from the venue called Riptide. Check out the "before" view:


Preparing for Milwaukee's PunxDirtySecret party from AP/Warped Tour video exclusives on Vimeo.

Last night's party was beach-themed, including sand, beach balls and a $500 limbo contest (won by one of the very tiny girls in Oreskaband -- it was almost too easy for them); we also had guest DJ sets from Parker and Jeff of Say Anything, Cory of Norma Jean (who showed some serious mixing skills) and Fred Mascherino of the Color Fred. Here's a video of Fred getting the party started with some Michael Jackson:


Fred Mascherino DJing the PDS party from AP/Warped Tour video exclusives on Vimeo.

Here's Nate Novarro of Cobra Starship telling us how much he loves PDS parties (sorry for the bad video quality, it was dark!):


Nate from Cobra Starship at the PDS party from AP/Warped Tour video exclusives on Vimeo.

Just when we thought the party was starting to wind down around midnight, Fred dropped in Jimmy Eat World's "Sweetness" into his set and the shit pretty much hit the awesome-fan, as showcased in the following two videos. Can you spot what bands are involved in this insanity? I definitely see guys from Set Your Goals and Evergreen Terrace:


Jimmy Eat World sing-along at the PDS party (part 1) from AP/Warped Tour video exclusives on Vimeo.


Jimmy Eat World sing-along at the PDS party (part 2) from AP/Warped Tour video exclusives on Vimeo.

It was definitely one heck of a party -- if you somehow managed to sneak in past our super-tough bouncer (aka me), I hope you had a blast hanging with some of Warped's finest. Today, we're in Chicago, and it's beautiful outside. Cobra Starship just took the stage a few minutes ago so I'm gonna sign off and try to catch the end of their set. See you guys in Minneapolis (for my last of the tour -- already?!?!?).