Tsunami Bomb
Basic Training
2008-02-12
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As fun as it may be, the long, hot summer days of the Warped Tour can get uncomfortable. Tsunami Bomb frontwoman Agent M has experienced what amounts to punk rock boot camp from both sides—as an attendee as well as a performer. Maybe she’s a masochist. Synthesis caught up with M before she and her band headed out to Europe to discuss her experiences on the summer’s most popular traveling carnival.
This is your fourth time on Warped Tour…
Yes.
What keeps you coming back?
It’s a lot of fun. A lot of bands don’t seem like they appreciate Warped Tour just because it’s the same thing every day. You’re just playing in a new parking lot every day and it’s really grueling. It’s a really, really long day—starting at 8 AM until, like, midnight. But I think all of us in the band feel the same way about it, that it’s really fun because it’s so different than a regular tour. It’s almost like you’re a part of a traveling circus or something, and you get to meet a lot of bands and people that you never would have met otherwise. There are a lot of bands on the tour that we probably wouldn’t have toured with outside of Warped Tour, until we met them. For example, the last time we were on it, Poison the Well was on it, and we made really good friends with them, and we did a couple of shows with them. They’re not in our genre of music, but it was still really fun, and it still worked out.
Is it almost like networking in a way?
Yeah, sort of, but it’s really fun, and you get to meet a lot of really good friends along the way. It’s almost like everyone’s trapped there, so you either make a really good time of it or don’t.
Warped Tour is kind of like its own city almost, it picks up and moves on to the next place. Do you find it hard to get readjusted to the outside world when you leave that setting?
Yeah, it is really weird, but I think only when you do the whole thing. When you’re on the whole tour, like we were in 2003, it’s like 40 shows or 50 shows or something like that, so when you’re done, you’re like, “where’s the parking lot?” It feels weird to wake up and you’re not riding on the bus or moving, but this year we’re only doing 11 or 12 shows, so it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust.
Would you rather do the shorter stint, or would you rather do the whole thing?
We’d rather do the whole thing. Besides it being a fun tour, it’s also really good for the band, because so many different bands bring so many different kinds of kids, and you gain all kinds of fans. We really wish we were doing the whole thing, but we only got the first couple dates.
With so many bands, and since you have shorter sets, how do you streamline your performance for that kind of setting? Do you worry about how you’re going to make the band stand out?
It’s kind of nice; since you only have a half-hour, it really is like a showcase for new fans. We can just select the material that we think is the very best and shove it into a half-hour set. And since the set isn’t very long, it’s easier to keep your energy up for the whole thing.
Have you attended the Warped Tour as just a spectator?
Not since before we actually performed it. It’s funny—every time I tried to go to it before we played on it, something would come up, like we were playing a show, or I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out. I went to it last year when we weren’t on it.
What was it like just being a member of the audience?
It was hot [laughs]. You got to give credit to the kids who come to the show. It is tough being on the tour and being there every single day in the heat, but at least the bands have a bus or a backstage to go to when they’re tired, and the bands get bottled water from Warped Tour—the kids have to pay four bucks for a bottle of water—and it’s so hot. It’s like boot camp for the kids… Last year, I went to the Sacramento stop and it was super hot, and I didn’t eat all day, and I didn’t even realize it. By the end of the day, I thought I was going to pass out.
Before the Sacramento/Marysville spot, they used to play Boreal here in Northern California. It was on the side of a mountain, the sound was bouncing off of everything, and all this dirt was getting kicked up. I was coughing it up for days.
[Laughs] Yeah, we went there in 2002, I think. We didn’t end up playing, because our van broke down, but some of us hitched a ride and sold merch, anyway, and I remember it being so dusty. It was pretty, though.
Well, since Tsunami Bomb won’t be along for the whole Warped Tour, what are your plans for the rest of the summer?
We’re going to start writing our next record. We haven’t exactly figured out if we’re going to be touring at all in the summer, besides Warped, but most likely we’re going to have the rest of the summer off to write.
Are you looking forward to not being on the road for a little while?
Yeah. Basically we have these next two tours in a row [a trip to Europe on the Atticus tour followed by a string of dates in the Pacific Northwest, western Canada and the Midwest], and we’re not even stopping, and I’m just starting to get sick right now. I’m hoping that I can get better before I get on a plane to Europe, or else there’ll be no return.
This is your fourth time on Warped Tour…
Yes.
What keeps you coming back?
It’s a lot of fun. A lot of bands don’t seem like they appreciate Warped Tour just because it’s the same thing every day. You’re just playing in a new parking lot every day and it’s really grueling. It’s a really, really long day—starting at 8 AM until, like, midnight. But I think all of us in the band feel the same way about it, that it’s really fun because it’s so different than a regular tour. It’s almost like you’re a part of a traveling circus or something, and you get to meet a lot of bands and people that you never would have met otherwise. There are a lot of bands on the tour that we probably wouldn’t have toured with outside of Warped Tour, until we met them. For example, the last time we were on it, Poison the Well was on it, and we made really good friends with them, and we did a couple of shows with them. They’re not in our genre of music, but it was still really fun, and it still worked out.
Is it almost like networking in a way?
Yeah, sort of, but it’s really fun, and you get to meet a lot of really good friends along the way. It’s almost like everyone’s trapped there, so you either make a really good time of it or don’t.
Warped Tour is kind of like its own city almost, it picks up and moves on to the next place. Do you find it hard to get readjusted to the outside world when you leave that setting?
Yeah, it is really weird, but I think only when you do the whole thing. When you’re on the whole tour, like we were in 2003, it’s like 40 shows or 50 shows or something like that, so when you’re done, you’re like, “where’s the parking lot?” It feels weird to wake up and you’re not riding on the bus or moving, but this year we’re only doing 11 or 12 shows, so it shouldn’t be too hard to adjust.
Would you rather do the shorter stint, or would you rather do the whole thing?
We’d rather do the whole thing. Besides it being a fun tour, it’s also really good for the band, because so many different bands bring so many different kinds of kids, and you gain all kinds of fans. We really wish we were doing the whole thing, but we only got the first couple dates.
With so many bands, and since you have shorter sets, how do you streamline your performance for that kind of setting? Do you worry about how you’re going to make the band stand out?
It’s kind of nice; since you only have a half-hour, it really is like a showcase for new fans. We can just select the material that we think is the very best and shove it into a half-hour set. And since the set isn’t very long, it’s easier to keep your energy up for the whole thing.
Have you attended the Warped Tour as just a spectator?
Not since before we actually performed it. It’s funny—every time I tried to go to it before we played on it, something would come up, like we were playing a show, or I had to get my wisdom teeth taken out. I went to it last year when we weren’t on it.
What was it like just being a member of the audience?
It was hot [laughs]. You got to give credit to the kids who come to the show. It is tough being on the tour and being there every single day in the heat, but at least the bands have a bus or a backstage to go to when they’re tired, and the bands get bottled water from Warped Tour—the kids have to pay four bucks for a bottle of water—and it’s so hot. It’s like boot camp for the kids… Last year, I went to the Sacramento stop and it was super hot, and I didn’t eat all day, and I didn’t even realize it. By the end of the day, I thought I was going to pass out.
Before the Sacramento/Marysville spot, they used to play Boreal here in Northern California. It was on the side of a mountain, the sound was bouncing off of everything, and all this dirt was getting kicked up. I was coughing it up for days.
[Laughs] Yeah, we went there in 2002, I think. We didn’t end up playing, because our van broke down, but some of us hitched a ride and sold merch, anyway, and I remember it being so dusty. It was pretty, though.
Well, since Tsunami Bomb won’t be along for the whole Warped Tour, what are your plans for the rest of the summer?
We’re going to start writing our next record. We haven’t exactly figured out if we’re going to be touring at all in the summer, besides Warped, but most likely we’re going to have the rest of the summer off to write.
Are you looking forward to not being on the road for a little while?
Yeah. Basically we have these next two tours in a row [a trip to Europe on the Atticus tour followed by a string of dates in the Pacific Northwest, western Canada and the Midwest], and we’re not even stopping, and I’m just starting to get sick right now. I’m hoping that I can get better before I get on a plane to Europe, or else there’ll be no return.
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