Aging

A friend notes the 2007 Warped Tour lineup:

Coheed and Cambria • Bad Religion • K-OS • New Found Glory • Killswitch Engage • Pepper • Underoath • Tiger Army • Cute Is What We Aim For • Paramore • Chiodos • The Starting Line • Pennywise • Circa Survive • Red Jumpsuit Apparatus • Amber Pacific • Straylight Run • Poison The Well • Funeral For A Friend • Hawthorne Heights • Escape The Fate • Gallows • Bayside • The Unseen • Spill Canvas • The Toasters • The Dear and Departed • A Static Lullaby • The Rocket Summer • Vincent Black Shadow • The Human Abstract • Alesana • Bless the Fall • Haste the Day • The Graduate • Mayday Parade • Madina Lake • Anberlin • Cinematic Sunrise • Big D and the Kids Table • The Almost • Meg & Dia • The Matches • Boys Like Girls • Parkway Drive • Scary Kids Scaring Kids • P.O.S. • Family Force 5 • All Time Low • Evaline • The Fabulous Rudies • Bleed the Dream • My American Heart • Valencia • Mustard Plug • Throwdown • The Chariot • Pure Volume • The Mix Tent featuring Street Drum Corps • One.Be.Lo • Massive Monkees • Addverse • Cottonmouth Texas • Comedians

Pennywise, Bad Religion, and the Toasters -- yeah. I think I saw a Hawthorne Heights flier once. And then who? And yet the Warped Tours of 1997-99 were seminal moments of my life. I used to know this stuff.

Comments

I'm supposed to know these bands authoritatively, but every time Warped announces a lineup, I lose another round of "stump the critic." Being old and in the way is an occupational hazard.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-sh20warpedbrjul20,0,6623051.story

Posted by Sean | July 19, 2007 7:51 AM

Being old and in the way is an occupational hazard.

Don't feel bad, Sean--I'm not a rock critic, and I've never heard of almost all these bands either. The only exception being a certain old hair metal band apparently now doing Pink Floyd covers . . . Poison: The Wall?

Posted by rea | July 19, 2007 8:00 AM

Matthew:
Always blame the music!
You're not getting old- music just sucks now...

Posted by Preston | July 19, 2007 8:15 AM

Is there some band name auto-generator I don't know about?

Poison the Well
Escape the Fate
Bless the Fall
Haste the Day
Bleed the Dream

C'mon, kids. You can do better than this.

Posted by Trevor | July 19, 2007 8:21 AM

Also, P.O.S., a rapper from Minneapolis, is really worth checking out. As are Killswitch Engage, Coheed and Cambria, and these small up-and-comers no one has heard of, Bad Religion. I think they're going to be pretty big.

Posted by Trevor | July 19, 2007 8:27 AM

I don't think Warped tour is really on the leading edge of the zeitgeist the way it was in the late 90s anyway. The shows that have been getting the buzz in my social circles this summer are Coachella and Bonnaroo.

But maybe that's just the crowd I roll with.

Posted by Taylor | July 19, 2007 8:41 AM

I don't follow music closely at all, and most of these bands are a mystery, but a couple stand out:

Coheed and Cambria has played on the Warped Tour a couple times before. New Found Glory actually had a modicum of success in the early '00s, with a couple songs getting rotation of MTV. Tiger Army has toured for years with The Dropkick Muprhys.

BTW, Wikipedia is most unhelpful in determining the lineups from previous Warped Tours before 2004.

Posted by GeorgieTheK | July 19, 2007 8:41 AM

I used to know this stuff.

At age 45 I've moved beyond "I used to know this stuff" and onto "I no longer care about this stuff".

I do appreciate younger friends pointing me to good new bands and music but feel no loss in not knowing them on my own.

Posted by Curt M | July 19, 2007 8:43 AM

I'm 31 and I have to say I share Curt M's "I no longer care about this stuff" sentiment. (Sure I'm always happy to hear good new music, but it doesn't bother me if I don't keep up with things.) Just hang in there a few more years, Matt, and you'll be fine.

Posted by Kurt | July 19, 2007 8:54 AM

You know, I actually braved going to Warped last year so I could see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (among lots of other bands I enjoy), and I was deeply dispirited to find that I was one of the oldest people there, at the ripe old age of 24. Certainly the oldest person who didn't bring their kids.

Posted by Jacquie | July 19, 2007 9:10 AM

Man, I'm your age and you have no excuse for not knowing Killswitch Engage, Coheed and Cambria, or Tiger Army. And Mustard Plug is a real old-school ska band; they might be 40-year-olds by now.

Posted by Cryptic Ned | July 19, 2007 9:13 AM

I don't think Warped tour is really on the leading edge of the zeitgeist the way it was in the late 90s anyway.

Ba-zingo. See also "Rage Against The Machine, Reunion of."

Posted by James Gary | July 19, 2007 9:14 AM

It's not just us fogies. I offered to take my tweener to the Houston date, and she dismissed it with, "Nah, I only like a couple of those bands."

Posted by paperpusher | July 19, 2007 9:16 AM

Oh, and A New Found Glory had more commercial success than Pennywise, the Toasters or Bad Religion ever did. They marked the point at which music could be considered "punk" by the press while having absolutely no political content, having no non-mainstream attitudes, and being played by all-American quarterback types. This may have been the result of the mainstreaming of the skater lifestyle, and soon led to Avril Lavigne.

Posted by Cryptic Ned | July 19, 2007 9:18 AM

Like other people, I'm really surprised Coheed and Cambria didn't jump out at you. Second (third?) coming of prog-rock.

Girls Against Boys should have a reunion just to go on tour with Boys Like Girls.

Posted by steve | July 19, 2007 9:20 AM

Warped Tour '97 was my first concert. I remember Blink 182 was playing one of the smaller stages and they came out to their merch table to meet fans. Almost no one showed up. Those were the days.

There's something about jumping around with a bunch of 16-19 year olds that just isn't appealing anymore. Teenagers seem almost alien to me.

As for knowing bands, being indie when you're a teenager is totally different than being indie when you're in your 20s. There came a time when listening to maudlin songs about getting dumped sung by pouty teens over three chords no longer moved me.

Wow, I haven't heard Mustard Plug since the late 90s. I thought they were dead.

Posted by BF | July 19, 2007 10:16 AM

I wouldn't call NFG quarterback-types - do you remember their bassist? I think it was the bassist. The really fat one. Other than that I agree with ned.

Big D and the Kids Table has also been around for a really long time.

I have heard the starting line and red jumpsuit apparatus on commercial radio. I recognize like 1 in 5 of the other names but I couldn't pick any of their songs out of a mix.

Posted by Drew Miller | July 19, 2007 10:18 AM

I guess my moderation-requiring comment with links in it has been disappeared, but I'd like to note that my friends' band, The Box Social, will be playing four Warped dates in Florida (though they're from Madison) which I think are July 20-23. They describe their sound as Tom Petty covering Nirvana, or vice-versa, which is accurate enough. They've got a ton of material on YouTube if you want to check them out, and like Blink 182, they will totally meet you at the merch table.

Posted by Aaron S. Veenstra | July 19, 2007 10:51 AM

I actually went to the Mountain View, CA date of this year's, and it, well, sucked. Easily the worst of the many years I have gone to it. The huge number of emo-like bands really got on my nerves.

I wasn't even the oldest person there, at 40; maybe the appearance of the Circle JErks drew some old fogies.

Posted by Kevin | July 19, 2007 11:45 AM

Man, this list doesn't even include the one group I like, I Am Ghost. Unfortunately, the just lost their violinist to health problems...

Posted by Mark | July 19, 2007 12:50 PM

you're not the only one aging -- how old are the members of bad religion? brian's in his early 40s now, the other guys are the same or older. how can 40 year olds playing rock in a 20 year old band be alternative (or edgy or progressive or whatever), by any definition of the term.

Posted by dj superflat | July 19, 2007 1:14 PM

They marked the point at which music could be considered "punk" by the press while [...] being played by all-American quarterback types. This may have been the result of the mainstreaming of the skater lifestyle...

Skater culture has always had one foot squarely planted in jock territory.

Posted by benny | July 19, 2007 1:28 PM

My friend, you have not even begun to get old.

Wait until you start hearing all the music you liked in high school played in grocery, sporting goods and department stores -- especially songs you never thought you would hear again, and didn't miss. Guessing at your age, you will have to wait until about 2022 to see what I mean.

Shopping to Q-feel (Dancing in Heaven) or Kajagoogoo (Too Shy) is a bit disturbing, on the other hand, getting my groceries to early U2, English Beat, Madness, Echo & the Bunnymen and Devo rules!

Of course, the whole time I'm thinking, "they want my money..."

Posted by mroberts | July 19, 2007 2:24 PM

The Warped Tour line-up hasn't been any good for a while now, which has a lot to do with the unfortunate lack of good punk out there right now. For the most part it's become a haven for pop-punk and emo.

Posted by Ned | July 19, 2007 2:36 PM

You're not doing so bad. I thought for a moment that was Kaos. Oh, well.

Posted by godoggo | July 19, 2007 9:17 PM

Gallows have been getting a shedload of press in Britain, and for good reason - they fucking rock. Everyone should be listening to them.

But the rest of the line up looks a bit stinky, so I'll wait for the club tour, thanks.

Posted by ihateemo | July 20, 2007 12:32 AM

I've heard of The Matches. The one song I have is from an Oingo Boingo tribute album, except the song is actually a cover of a Boingo cover of Willie Dixon's "Violent Love." And they do it note-for-note like the Boingo 1980 recording.

Posted by Grumpy | July 20, 2007 2:22 AM