Cut off the fatigues, slather those tats with sunscreen and break out the shoplifted Oakleys — mid-summer's here, and the Warped Tour is coming back to town. This year's lineup is the most eclectic yet; here are some highlights and lowlights.
Jimmy Eat World See above Music column.
Me First & The Gimme Gimmes The band everybody wants to see. An all-star lineup, featuring members of NOFX, Foo Fighters and Swingin' Utters, filters torch songs, '60s classics and other timeless crap through the lens of the first Buzzcocks album. They've got every punk band that ever covered a shitty new wave tune beat by a mile.
Kool Keith Here's hoping that hip-hop's spaced-out and oversexed man of a thousand faces finds his way onstage — he's been known to just up and disappear. Quite possibly the most underrated performer in rap, and definitely the genre's biggest freak, in every sense of the word.
311 What, couldn't they get Urban Dance Squad, or something? That these fratty has-beens are listed as a headliner raises some very real concerns regarding future Warped lineups (and on the main stage, give it up for Mindfunk!). Granted, they've been mixing rap, rock and reggae for longer that just about anyone else, but you'd think that at some point they would have gotten good at it.
AFI Dark-hearted, metallic hardcore from the San Francisco area. Say what you will about the Misfits obsession and nearly caricatured affinity for all things spooky-ooky-ooky — the band has always torn it up live, and The Art of Drowning is an amazing, if not exactly punk, effort. Singer Davey Havoc might want to rethink the black rubber full-bodysuit, though, if they're going on before, say, November.
Esham Detroit horror-rapper Esham is responsible for inspiring the Insane Clown Posse to take up rhyming. Thanks, dude. He's a legend in his hometown, and completely unknown almost everywhere else. The jury is still out on whether dismemberment and necrophilia will overtake Cristal and hos as popular hip-hop subjects. However, the odd (or constantly recurring) pot reference will never do you wrong.
Midtown One of the few bands on the bill this year that regularly gets saddled with the emo tag, Midtown does a fair job of welding pop hooks and hardcore energy to earnest, angst-ridden rock. Save The World, Lose The Girl might come off as a bit generic the first time around, but those choruses really burrow in. Plus, you just know they jump around a lot.
River City High Regular visitors to our fine region, RCH are not afraid to bare their rock roots at every given opportunity. The Richmond, Va.-bred quartet purveys hangover and heartbreak with equal aplomb, and its cover of The Boys are Back in Town does Phil Lynott proud.
Sum 41 My girlfriend walked into the living room while their video was playing, and promptly asked if I was watching a Hot Topic commercial. Soulless pop-punk by the kiddies, for the kiddies. Undoubtedly, they do the Dew, and their set might be a good time to wander over and watch Incredibly Strange Wrestling, or perhaps check on one's parents in Reverse Day Care.
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 1, 2001.