St. Helens and stuff

Hey, all. I'm currently writing this blog while sitting at a picnic table at an RV Park near Shasta Lake in Northern California. Most of the Warped production and sponsorship peeps are out on houseboats on the lake right now, while a select few of us who didn't feel like boating (not me) or who had too much work to do considering it's still a Monday in the "real world" (me) are camped out at the RV park with the buses. Not that I can really complain. I'm sitting in the shade, facing gorgeous mountains, and the shower facilities here are top notch. I've got a bag of Baked Doritos and a can of Mosh Water, and I am ready to rock out the e-mail all day. :)

Anyway, back to the tour. Yesterday, we were in beautiful St. Helens, Oregon. I actually didn't realize how pretty the venue was until after we took down the tent for the day and I could see past some of the stages. We were definitely surrounded by lots of forest and mountains, which was rad. It was also cool all day long, which is super rare for Warped, so everyone was loving it. Like I mentioned yesterday, I only had a view of the Skate Stage during the day, but after take down and dinner, I caught Rise Against, Every Time I Die and the Academy Is..., who were the last three bands to play the mainstages for the evening (which were set up next to each other again, for maximum aural enjoyment).

I have to say, while ETID may've had the smallest crowd of the three (not that it was that small, by any means), they were by far the most energetic. First, singer Keith Buckley pointed out the dudes in Four Year Strong, who were apparently in the pit, instructing the kids to catch them "mid-windmill" if they wanted a FYS autograph. Then, as Keith was introducing the last song, he said, "I'm going to take this party straight back to the forest as soon as this song's over! Who's with me?" And indeed, at the end of the song, he crowd surfed to the back of the crowd and then literally sprinted the entire width of the venue to get to the steep, tree-covered hill at the other end, all while ripping off his shirt in the process. He and the throng of audience members who ran after him were unfortunately stymied by the fence at the edge of the venue. But, it still looked pretty good. Oh, what you won't do when there's a dude filming you for your upcoming DVD... (This of course was all soundtracked by TAI's first song, which made it even funnier.)

Also, if you were at St. Helens and missed the end of the mainstages, hopefully you caught 3OH!3 (I think on the SmartPunk or Hurley.com Stage... I can't remember), because apparently Katy Perry made an appearance as a crowd surfer, and she was wearing a skirt and may or may not have flashed the crowd... Based on the excitement from some of the dudes on our bus, I'm gonna go with "may have."

Okay, time for me to get on with some more work. Tomorrow I'll be coming to you live from Monterey Bay, California.