Punk revels at 'Warped' celebration
FOXBOROUGH -- A fist-pumping air of celebration marked yesterday's 10th anniversary show of the Vans Warped Tour, where punk stars from Rancid to Good Charlotte and Boston's Dropkick Murphys thrilled a young crowd braving 90-degree temperatures in the parking lot of Gillette Stadium.
The special show followed the Thursday finale of the regular summer Warped tour. The two shows drew a combined 30,000 fans, though organizers were surprised that the anniversary event, which featured bigger names, didn't draw as much as the more youth-oriented Thursday lineup (12,000 came yesterday, compared with 18,000 on Thursday). Yesterday was seen as almost "a nostalgia show," said copromoter John Peters of MassConcerts.
That's a slight exaggeration because yesterday's lineup also contained many young bands -- including upcoming Boston acts the Street Dogs, Lost City Angels, the Unseen, and the Explosion -- but the focus was on well-known Warped alumni that had originally jumped to fame through the tour and were giving back.
"Happy birthday, punks!" read a sign on the grounds, testifying to the upbeat mood of the day despite scorching heat that fatigued some moshers and sent them scurrying for shade in the various tents throughout the parking lot, and to the stadium concourse, which was open though access to the field was not.
The parking lot setting was hardly the Ritz, but it elicited praise from attendees. "It's much better than last year at the Brockton Fairgrounds, where rocks would kick up in your face when you moshed," said Jared Wagner, a 14-year-old from Avon who walked around in a Rancid T-shirt. Added Peters, "The nice thing is that we don't have to create an infrastructure. The kids can use the bathrooms in the stadium, and there's a first-aid station already there."
The two main stages were the Brian stage and Teal stage, named for the stage managers of each. They hosted the bigger acts and it was fun to see New Found Glory and Good Charlotte, who both played the Worcester Centrum Centre last year, settle into these small, club-size stages where they could feed off the crowd's intimacy. And the volume wasn't bad at all, contrary to the worries of some Foxborough selectmen.
New Found Glory was a bracing surprise, rocking harder than its last pop-punk CD would attest, while Good Charlotte previewed some material from its next album that sounded like a step forward for the group. And Dropkick Murphys rocked as hard as anyone, playing its Red Sox rally-cry anthem, "Tessie," as fists were pumped even higher. And the Vandals had the most electric moment when Warren Fitzgerald jumped up hazardously on some speakers and screamed, "I'm doing this all for you!"
The side stages were fruitful for rediscovering some old-school talent (Fishbone's ska-punk still held sway), but also hot emerging acts such as hip-hopper Atmosphere (who jumped into the middle of the crowd and grooved with fans) and Boston's Street Dogs, led by former Dropkick Murphys singer Mike McColgan. He exuded showmanship and worked the crowd up with snippets of the Clash's "Bank Robber" and a revised version of Sham 69's "Borstal Breakout," changed to "Boston Breakout." They were a highlight of this Warped party, which may be the first of many at this asphalt home at Gillette Stadium.
