Summer at the Warped Tour

Ah Warped Tour, a day of heat and craziness. But also some of the best and memorable times of your life. I've been to a lot of festivals, but Warped Tour always holds a place in my heart. A lot of my friends always associate me with metal music, but its really pop/punk and emo music that holds my heart. Don't get me wrong I do love metal, but this music just hits different.

I wanted to share some pictures and a story from the time I went to Warped Tour in 06. So many of my favorite bands were there: AFI, Rise Against, Senses Fail, Saosin, Hellogoodbye the list goes on. My main focus was to see Underoath. I am so thankful I was able to see them that day, because after that tour they stopped touring, at least on the west coast a long time!

If you have never been to Warped Tour before it takes place in the dead middle of summer. The venue that I attended had literally no shade, and it felt like hell. But hey when you're 19 all you care about is seeing your favorite bands up close. As most girls do I of course had a crush on a member of the band, so I had to make sure I was right up front so they could see me! Oh to be young again, dreaming of getting the muscians attention from the crowd. My crush was on guitarist James Smith, and when they performed I was on his side of the stage!

Underoath is a special band too me because they were shown to me by my best friends at the time, and we would drive around town singing their songs at the top of our lungs. So I was not only determind to see them, I was going to be upfront. Back then since we didn't have cellphone with nice cameras, the only camera we could use was disposable. So weird to think we had to pick and choose what we took pictures of, and we wouldn't know for weeks if the picture actually turned out!

Through out the day me and my best friend kept moving our way up to the front, and finally made it before Underoath came on. The crowd kept growing increasingly larger as the bands became more popular, which didn't help since it was so hot. During the band that was playing right before Underoath I began feeling dizzy. I was thinking "this can't be happening, I've waited all day for this." I hadn't eaten or drank much that day, it was expensive but I also didnt want to lose my spot. Never would I do this now, but back then I didnt care. Since we had been standing there all day, we got to know the security staff. The one that was standing in front of me heard mention I was dizzy and said I looked pale.

He knew that I was waiting for Underoath so he told me that I needed to go sit down and come back when they were going to start. I was worried that I wouldn't get back to the front but he assured me he would help me. So he gave me some water and I went and sat down. Once I was able too cool off and drink water I began feeling better, so I headed back. Of course by now even more people had packed in, so working through people became tough. And you know how it goes, people assume you're lying just to get to the front. Eventually I got back to were the securtiy gaurd could see me, and as promised he helped me back to the front.

This moment became one of my most memorable concert moments for so many reasons. One being that someone cared enough to make sure I was okay, but also helped me be able to come back and see my favorite band. I also feel that this was one of the last concerts I went to were I truly lived in that moment. I was having fun, singing all my favorite songs with my bestie, watching the crowd around me also singing along. Seeing people up on their friends shoulders, crowd surfing, the band jumping in the crowd.

I feel once smart phones became a thing, we've all started taking a million pictures and videos to post for social media. To be honest most of those photos and videos sit in my phone for years never to be looked at again. Then when I look back on those shows all I remember is messing with my phone, or getting mad when someone got in my shot. As of late I have been trying to be much better about putting my phone away. With all social media platforms these days you'll be able to find photos and videos to the shows. I also think its respectful to the artist too, as they work so hard on their music and the show.

I've been really nostolgic recently with everything going on in the world, and it was nice going back to a happier time. If you've went to Warped tour what was your favorite year? Who are some bands that you got to see that you wish you could see again? Do you hope Warped Tour comes back one day?