Our Summer's Need Van's Warped Tour BACK!

"Acting stupid, getting drunk with my best friends, I couldn't wait for the summer and the Warped Tour." Blink-182 and so many others know that with the dog days of summer staring us in the face through those sunny, warm skies, I can’t help but think there is something missing. The true emo heads know where I’m going with this one: Vans Warped Tour. The summer's pinnacle event for over 20 years.

While I know Barstool's biggest music peeps know exactly what I’m talking about, with Pup Punk's playlist spilling over with tributes to Warped Tour regulars, everyone from Robbie Fox to Rone, and Dante the Don to Nick Turani understands the void Warped has left in our summers. For those frantically hitting Wikipedia or thinking of closing out this blog out of pure confusion, let’s talk. The famous shoe brand Vans actually wasn’t always such a giant, and in fact, was close to closing its doors in the late 1990s (geez, I feel so old that I can’t just say "the '90s") until an idea of sponsoring a summer tour came along. With the biggest bands from Blink-182 to G-Eazy , you name it, they had their summer on the Warped. The tour did its job of not only saving Vans but becoming the staple of the summer for the heartbreak kids of emo.

For myself, I hit my concert itch in high school and didn’t stop for at least a decade, going to countless shows (back when a show was 20–30 bucks), but the one that was always my holy grail was Warped. It didn’t matter that growing up in Arizona it meant a 12-to-14-hour day of moshing, running, and screaming in 100-plus-degree heat, it still was everything you wanted, seeing bands from Taking Back Sunday to Yellowcard, or Sum 41 to Bowling for Soup. All together, I got my ass out to six of them before they shut down the cross-country tour for good in 2018. Nothing beat racing into the venue to check out the big board to start planning out your day & which stages you are gonna hit before you start to walk around all of the dope tents to get sooo many freebies!

Before I get into this, the casuals will try to say it is back, as last summer and this summer there are select festival dates, which does mean the full run could return in the future...BUT I'm talking about the full tour all summer long, one day only to see all your favorite bands for under 50 bucks(it's now like 200)! The select dates over six months and split shows maybe is a step forward, but trust me, it's still far from filling the void of the Warped Tour, a full summer tour from late June through August. Also, it wasn’t just about going to your show that day either; another staple of the summer was “Warped Wednesdays” on FUSE TV. Which I know for many 30-somethings, I just unlocked a core memory with that statement. You could follow the tour with interviews, live music videos, and top 10 countdowns, keeping that feeling alive all summer long.

In honor of Warped Wednesdays, here are the top 10 bands/performers I saw at my Warped shows back in the day!

For me, #1 is too easy with Mayday Parade. Now at #2, before you think it's just all about Ocean Avenue, let me tell you Yellowcard went so hard. Probably one of the only times out of the seven I went to in the extreme heat that I almost passed out from going so crazy. The next four are just clear-cut emo and Warped Tour to a tee with Sum 41, The Wonder Years, Neck Deep, & Real Friends. I still rip their music on almost a daily basis, especially in a summer like this.

My bottom four features one HUGE name in Taking Back Sunday, but then you may have three deeper cuts. Wallpaper. is maybe my most random band to love. They never hit it big and could even be seen as satire in many ways, but crazy enough, their lead singer also produced top hits for Jason Derulo, Far East Movement, and others... and I'm in one of their music videos... not a big deal. Watsky was a more underground rapper, and his show was so damn good I downloaded so much of his stuff the very next day. Lastly is This Wild Life, a duo that went so hard in my last Warped show in 2018. Though I had been a fan of them for years prior, they are the perfect summer blues sound.

A lot of times nostalgia can be a crazy drug, but today it is hitting just right. We won't truly ever get the old Warped Tour's back sadly so today, I’m playing my emo songs a little louder in honor of the true Warped Tour days. It truly was the perfect tour to feel a sense of togetherness and connection, not only to your favorite musicians but to all the fans alongside you.