2005 Vans Warped Tour

This year’s edition of the Van’s Warped Tour featured everything you’ve come to expect from what has become the summer event for the emo/mall punk set: more bands than you could ever expect to see, a mall’s worth of merchandise, people-watching galore and a conversely proportional sun to shade ratio that made for a lot of lobster pink faces and backs by the day’s end. Big name bands included: My Chemical Romance, Thrice, All-American Rejects, Billy Idol, Hawthorne Heights, Underoath, Fall Out Boy and many, many more. But of course, the true essence of the Warped Tour is the smaller, side stage acts that toil in the mid-summer heat in the hopes that someone, anyone, will notice and the up-and-coming, mid-level bands working their hardest to break into the big time. On a socio-political sidenote, the extremely short supply of available water ($5.75 a bottle) and the merciless summer sun, was an interesting preview of the world after a few more decades of global warming. Backstage, stockpiles of water were guarded by hired local mouth-breathers. But such troubles were eased by soothing sounds of emotional rock music blasting from every direction, and though burnt, broke and thirsty as dogs, few left the ample confines of the Sleep Train dissatisfied with this year’s festivities.

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