The Warped Tour 2007 rundown

Lucky sevens meet the lucky 13 at Utah's State Fairgrounds


Whether the “warped” in the name Vans Warped Tour refers to the warped music of the bands that join the tour each year, the warped individuals who attend the all-day, outdoor event or the speed at which the tour moves (large numbers of bands playing a large number of cities in a short amount of time), it definitely lived up to its name as it made it’s annual stop to the Utah State Fair Park last Saturday.
This year marks the “lucky” thirteenth anniversary for the tour, which, ironically, came to Salt Lake City on July 7, the day referred to by the superstitious as the “lucky sevens.” This year the luck of the two numbers must have been with tour, because this year it was fantastic.
Starting at 11 o’clock and not ending until later in the evening, everyone flooding the fairgrounds came prepared for a long, hot day of music, sun and free stuff.
I was one of those in attendance. Since the tour is too large to report on the entire event, I have chronicled my personal Warped Tour 2007 experience in order to give some insight on the spectacle:

Though not having extensive experience with the tour, I am not new to the Warped Tour experience either. In 2004 a number of excellent bands came with the tour to Utah, but the experience that year as a whole was severely bogged down by anti-Bush speeches that kept the actual music to a minimum. 2005, though stacked with excellent performers, lacked in quality of performances. It seemed everyone was either plowed or half asleep when they took the stage.
This year was different. Even though a lot of the bands I caught on the tour this year had come either in ’04 or ’05, the actual performances of those bands I saw were much more up to par than those of the previous two tours I had been to.
For starters, Yellowcard came in 2004, and though they put on an excellent show then, they killed the excitement of the performance with political banter. But they did get an excellent circle pit going. This year Yellowcard cut the political fat out of their performance and got down to the essentials – playing their music. The only difference is they had a larger grab bag of songs to pull from, and the circle pit was superior to that of three years ago.
The Starting Line came around this year, primarily in support of their new album, Direction, which hits shelves July 31. But their performance was light years better than two years ago when they came, again, in support of a new album, Based on a True Story. That performance was terrible. Riddled with bad timing and Kenny Vassoli not only singing bad but dancing bad as well, I didn’t expect much from The Starting Line this year. But I was pleasantly surprised as Vassoli and crew pulled of a magnificent showing of songs from every part of their discography and improved dance moves from Vassoli.
Also on the tour this year was New Found Glory, who have never failed to impress. This time was no exception. The set, even with a shift in weather creating a disturbance with equipment, was incredible, including a taste of what to expect from From the Screen to Your Stereo Part 2, a punked up version of Sixpence None the Richer’s movie hit, “Kiss Me.” The record is an excellent addition the summer of sequels syndrome at the box office. One band I was not super impressed with this year was Coheed & Cambria. Between the time it took them to set up all their fancy little banners and all of the technical difficulties they kept apologizing for between every song, they only got five songs in before they were done for the day. The set was lack luster and, given the massive crowd that gathered (one of the biggest on the day) I felt they were extremely anticlimactic this go-round.
Other bands that did an incredible job this year included Anberlin, Amber Pacific, Circa Survive and Boys Like Girls. Also doing a great job were the people handing out free stuff. My backpack was pretty full with stickers, magazines, posters and sampler CDs.
And not to be forgotten, Provo's very own The New Nervous was even in action at the tour this year, playing in the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands stage. They were great, though I only caught the tail end of their set. Much better than the bands (My American Heart, Throwdown) I saw and heard follow them on that same stage.
There were other great bands at the show this year, but due to conflicting time schedules, walking from stage to stage, trying to see what was going on in the freak show tent in the middle of the park and having to leave early, I was not able to catch them all. But what I did see this year renewed my faith in the Vans Warped Tour. Whether it was because it was their lucky number 13, the lucky date or just a slew of talented bands actually trying to put on a good show this year, the end result was success.