Vans Warped Tour - The Rise and Fall
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- Do you remember Warped Tour? Did you ever go? Well at the very least you probably saw the logo for Warped Tour while buying a pair of Vans at the Vans store in the mall.
But anyway, that's not the important part. What's important here is, Vans Warped Tour was here, and now it's gone. AND it was possibly the greatest music festival to ever exist.
So today we're going to take a look at the history of Warped Tour, why it fell, and whether or not it could've been prevented.
Thank you for the patience between the last two uploads. Everything from here on out will be MUCH smaller gaps. Thanks, -Nate.
Email: modernbusinesschannel@gmail.com
Twitter: / modernbusin
Did you ever go to Warped?
Thank you for all the support everyone. Lots of content coming your way ❤️
Yeah I went to the one in Vegas where I live for the last one in 2018. It was a good set list of bands, but the water stations were super limited. This is las Vegas heat in the summer time and that shit is lethal. It was a good 110 degrees, if not more. I ended up passing out after watching The Maine and had to have water splashed on my face in the shade cause my legs went weak and I went down.
Such good memories
@@Ravioli-uw9uy Yes I went to Los Angeles, Dodger stadium parking lot. Super hot, black top too hot to sit. I did not see any free water. Kids didn’t want to buy water instead bought rock shirts. So kids were getting sick vomiting and passing out in the audience. What bothered me is the kids didn’t care when the other kids got sick. They just looked at them. Lack of apathy. Bad vibes, no one cared. That is
around the time Coachella started getting popular or maybe a little after. Coachella was expensive but you camp out socialize with other people share
an experience. Good Vibes.
1998 through 2008 or so
As someone who travelled on 6 Warped Tours there's a few things that should be said about Kevin.
While Coachella may charge $100's to $1,000's for after parties and backstage passes, Kevin would do things like see kids in a wheelchair and give them backstage access for free. He would bring in bands not because they'd make him a lot of money but because he wanted to give them a chance. He would personally go into the parking lots in the morning to help direct traffic and he would take time out to say hi to people in line. He came on a charity trip with me to Burma and donated to build a water tower for a medical school after meeting them for the 1st time in his life. He would even try to respond to kids on social media for a festival with almost a million attendees! At the end he could have actually sold the tour probably to Live Nation but decided they would change it from what it was meant to be and make it corporate so he chose rather than make a lot of money on the exit he would just let it go. For him it wasn't about the money, it was about his passion for music. Kevin was an amazing guy.
damn this was a great story. I went to warped tour twice when I was younger and man it was always fun & the community was great. I went once in 2015 & in 2016
Kevin, that you?
Truth, he is a nice guy...dldnt do it for the money..it also started from a long gone magazine.
Went to Warped Tour in 2005 when i was 11 with 3 other 10-11yr olds with no parents and literally got the best treatment people where putting us on their shoulders letting us crowd surf security let us go past the gate we got to meet two bands and they gave us autographs, shirts and hats
@@lake0417 yes good point and I will say you could almost never do that at a non-warped tour event. Of course some people had a bad time but you could go to a theme park or a resort and even find people having a bad time lol. The relaxed nature of the festival and the incredible efforts to bring everyone together as well as provide a fun event with very little red tape was unique and for many it gave them some of their most fun and memorable moments in their life.
Regardless of what era of warped you prefer, the idea itself is just so badass. An all day music festival with a bunch of stages and a bunch of bands of all genres. From locals to big acts. Then after their show, you could go to meet and greets, smaller side shows, interviews. All the cool tents selling shit and with games, awesome junk food, free stuff, etc. It just all felt very intimate and down to earth. Then, at the end of the day they packed all their shit and headed to another city. So badass.
I think that Warped Tour was something generational with a clear shelf life. With each generation changing, so do the trends and styles of music. Like Fall Out Boy lyrics go, "We're the kids you used to love, but then we grew old". Great times, good memories.
Warped tour had an expiration date, but I don't think punk and metal really do. I think warped failure was good for these music scenes, helped to legitimize then in a way that helps their longevity
There is stilll room for an alt music festival. Riot fest in Chicago sells out every year. No reason why that can happen on most major cities
I think they lost their way with what bands they needed to have. Instead of always having punk bands that needed exposure, they started chasing the trends, and that killed it.
I know personally me and a lot of friends stopped going when it turned into a scene kid festival. Suddenly braving the 100 degree temperatures all day long didn’t seem worth it. We never went “just because it’s Warped Tour”, we went because of the amazing line-ups.
They didn’t chase trends enough. Punks basically ALWAYS hated Warped Tour and punks/some bands used to refer to it as “Punk Rock Walmart” because popular bands who could sell merch would play it.
Katy Perry, Eminem, and Kid Rock all played Warped Tour
Well said
@@Chestersinthecar oh god man are you really complaining like an old man about scene bands? music changes with each generation especially the whole punk/metal/alternative side if you dont like it your free to go to punk in drublic or some other crust punk nostaliga festival but for me and 75% of my high school seeing those "scene" bands at warped tour is how we got into music and made friends/memories/ ect most of us flat out hated punk/ traditional metal becasue of how uptight and prudish they seemd and warped tour either confirmed that many times or denied it on the rare occasion
I got to go to Warped every year between 2000 and 2005, and by the time that last year came for me when I was 18, how I felt about the tour had changed, as had the newly incoming teens of that year. The bands I loved from those first few years had either blown up to playing larger scale venues, or broken up due to the dwindling nature of being in any kind of band long term. By the time my old band got to play the tour in 2009 at 23, how I felt about the tour had changed yet again - and the only thing I enjoyed about playing in that environment was the looks on our teenage fans faces, which mirrored those of my friends and I at that age. By the time the 2019 resurgence came along, the idea of spending 3 days in the burning hot sun had long evaporated, but I still gave it a try because that tour made more of an attempt to appeal to my age bracket. Do I still love that music? Absolutely. Has my life gotten a hell of a lot more complex in 20 years that it is way more difficult and less reasonable to pull off spending hard earned money to be uncomfortable all day? Also yes.
Here's the thing: people age, and newer generations move in. Plain and simple. What's appealing to your generation will seem to suck to the next one, and vice versa. And with new generations, technologies, ideas, trends, fashions, types of music, or anything really, the culture is going to shift as well. Whether it's Warped Tour, or any cherished memory from growing up, what you're talking about is a snapshot of a perfect moment in time that's valuable to you and those close to you. The tour had to evolve over time in order to cater to its target demographic: teenagers and early twenty-somethings.
What makes each generation different is the way in which we capture and celebrate our nostalgia. For my parents, and many generations before that, they had hard copy photos kept in shoe boxes and photo albums - plus a litany of poorly recorded home videos, which were only revisited on special occasions or small gatherings. With every generation since, we've grown up with technology that has us revisiting old pictures and videos on a near constant basis with social media posts and whatever we keep stored on our phones, which is literally every aspect of our lives. For this reason, we're CONSTANTLY nostalgic. Newer generations will be even more so because literally their entire lives have been immortalized on the internet.
Warped Tour in its glory days is just that: A snapshot of a perfect moment in time, when all the elements (trends, the culture, your age, and every bit of business sense) aligned enough to allow for it to happen to all of those involved.
Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.
This comment made me feel warm and nostalgic. Thank you.
I do admit the tour became much bigger over time, but calling a tour with No Use For a Name, Sublime, No Doubt, and Face to Face a near failure is INSANE
It was a financial failure in the sense that they lost money instead of making it, at first.
He didn’t say the lineup was a failure. A restaurant can have the greatest menu in town and still fail as a business. The same is true of a tour.
You sound like you're in your 20's. As you go through life, you observe that more and more things that you remember fondly have come to an end, only to be replaced by something new. I've been going to music festivals since 1995 and shows since 1991. I attended Warped twice. Warped held on for a long time. In 1995 there weren't many music festivals. I attended one or two festivals every summer. Now there are thousands of music festivals for every taste. That's the legacy of Warped and the other 1990's festivals.
There’s a couple things incorrect with this:
Social media actually helped the fest. In the late ‘00s and early ‘10s, bands were really great at promoting themselves with MySpace, Facebook, UA-cam, etc. And that in turn generally helped the tour.
Punks always generally had disdain for the tour because they always viewed it as “commercial.” They always complained about Blink-182, Sum 41, etc.
The Modern Baseball thing: They wanted to be an indie rock band but caught on with the pop punk crowd. “Indie” bands always generally looked down on pop punk, emo and the idea of playing Warped. It just wasn’t a thing hipsters liked again because it was “too popular” and many still thought of punk genres as “immature music” despite the fact bands like The Wonder Years were playing it and bands from genres they liked were present.
The issue Warped ran into: It tried to play to the same exact scene demographic even though people who were “scene” were too old to be able to take a vacation day on a Wednesday to go to an all-day concert. If they only had it during weekends it probably could have kept going.
Warped Tour was always pretty good at staying ahead of trends. Skate punk and ska were popular in the ‘90s. Emo, nu metal and pop punk were popular in the early ‘00s. Pop punk and metalcore were popular in the late ‘00s and early ‘10s. A lot of those bands who were still popular in the mid ‘10s were too popular to keep playing the fest since Warped Tour didn’t really pay the artists. It was a way for artists to sell merch.
Some of the acts they had featured were playing the fest for years and weren’t necessarily that popular with high school/college-aged crowds towards the end (2018 withstanding). I was 26 I think during the last Warped Tour and bands during that year and the year before I thought were cool. But some of the younger audiences (who apparently just also prefer Netflix to concerts) were probably into Lil Peep and other emo rappers or hyper pop probably just didn’t care about the lineups the way someone like me would have.
Pop punk has had a major resurgence so there’s a chance it could work now, but they’d need the fest to be on selective dates (weekends) and either pay the artists or stay ahead of trends again.
A lot of solid points here, but the weekends-only solution wouldn't work logistically/commercially for a touring festival. Where's a huge convoy of 500+ tour buses, semi-trucks full of stages and backline, vans, trailers, bands and crew supposed to go to sit and wait for the next weekend to come around? And how is everybody going to earn money while they wait it out? This sort of tour needs to be playing the next city the next day, near enough every day. I know cos I've worked it.
@@ChrisWarsop “Next city next day” doesn’t work when you’re doing it all day during the week and it’s harder for consumers to come out to it.
The rest of the bands would schedule dates around it, which a lot of them already did during their regular Warped Tour runs
except by the time social media happened, warped tour was hot garbage and a shadow of its former self. the version of warped tour being represented in the video is objectively the worst version
@@ChrisWarsop People have jobs, kids, bills, and places to be during the week. Your narrative does not work because* (not cos, go learn english) you think" just showing up" is enough to maintain a festival. It's not enough, because it's no way to make a living.
I dont think it would matter doing shows during the weekdays, Im an adult and still tale days off to go to shows for bands i like, its not really a big deal lol
I have a feeling if instead of a tour, they just did a 3 day event in one location, and really packed it with top acts that people would travel to go see it still. Just an annual 3 day event, similar to how most edm festivals are. I've been to a couple edm fests, and people travel across the country to come out and see their favorite artists and enjoy music. There isn't really any event like warped tour anymore to satisfy that genre of music. They could definitely come back.
I was kind of thinking the same thing. I've never really heard of or have been familiarized with any other fests or events for this type of music, other than Van's Warped Tour. It's like they almost had kind of a monopoly for that type of thing, and making a return, I feel would still have a great attendance outcome and just a profitable outcome all-around.
That’s what 2019 but it was way too expensive
That’s basically Riot Fest and other fests around the country
@@jdh21403 It was like $130 for a two-day fest with the bands the people who went to Warped Tour actually cared about. That’s roughly the same price as Riot Fest, Punk Rock Bowling and other punk/alt fests
That's just a standard festival and completely forgets the "tour" aspect
I went ever year all the way from 2014 to the last tour to say this festival was an event is an understatement as everyone in my high school even the kids who didnt like music went so the next week after every social group would have something to connect over for a short time before splitting up again. Best memory is probably seeing bring me the horizon play diamonds aren't forever during a thunder storm with lightening during the break downs, new found glory making a comeback with resserection and everyone in the crowd loving it despite not knowing them very well. Attila fighting with wonder years and winning by being more fun with red solo cups on stage to through ping pong balls into. Asking alexandria playing the first comeback show with dennis. august bruns red prayng with me when my mom had cancer. Hatebreed giving me hugs after my cats passed away. seeing new and intresting or weird music, some of the best memories ever man and a truly unique experience
thanks for sharing this dude, so many awesome memories!!
I'll never forget being a highschooler and attending my first ever Warped in 2008. It was like nothing I've ever experienced. I had a fairly diverse taste in music (for a 16 yr old).. so being at one festival and seeing all types of different bands like ADTR, devil wears prada, suicide silence, anti-flag, the chariot, reel big fish, bad religion, flogging molly, hell even some rappers and fucking nevershoutnever, was a really special experience that i doubt anything will come close to ever again
I remember a lot of talk about the sexual misconduct of a lot of bands in the scene too, and I wonder if that had something to do with it as well.
Seemed like every year someone did something, the whole Front Porch Step thing for example. I remember people saying their parents didn’t want them to go because it wasn’t safe, and a lot of kids wouldn’t want to go, because that predatory behavior was beginning to be taken much more seriously in alternative culture. Or perhaps, social media made those issues more public and easier for people in alternative culture to notice.
Yeah, I was hoping this video would mention that. The cancellation of Warped came post #MeToo when there were allegations almost daily against different members of bands. I used to go every year with a lot of friends, but as more and more of us realized that Warped actually was pretty unsafe in that regard, we stopped going. I really think that the constant realization that a lot of these bands were using Warped as a way to access teenage girls was a big part in the decline.
The video was definitely lacking in mention of the sexual assaults, plus Kevin's place in enabling it/the abusers.
I was a bit disappointed that this wasn't mentioned.
I remember being a teen seeing all of the females around my age sexualizing the band members.
@@EmazingGuitar they're children. It's the responsibility of the adults (the band members) to tell the teenagers "no" instead of taking advantage of them.
Loved the video, well made. But you left out the biggest reason... They went bankrupt because of dozens of sexual assault lawsuits and unpaid wages that got pushed under the rug. However it is good to know Fronz from Attila is waiting till the legal disputes are over to purchase it from Kevin and revive it. But it'll take a couple more years to be settled.
That's not accurate. Warped Tour didn't have sexual assault lawsuits and there's no indication anywhere that they do. A number of bands affiliated in the scenes represented at Warped had allegations and/or possible charges.
Fronz -- who has had allegations made against him as well -- just said stuff on Twitter about reviving it, possibly with Kevin Lyman, but that was a few years ago he said that.
Warped went under because it was poorly attended. Like the Chicago stop in 2017 didn't even have the amphitheater open because they didn't sell enough tickets to warrant using those stages. Attendance dwindled during the last few years and they had fewer and fewer stops as a result.
It's essentially been replaced by a million three-day fests around the country and Sad Summer Fest, which only tours like 10 cities.
@@ryanshinermusic bands? Dude people in those bands. As someone who was in a band with a guy who got in trouble. Its not the bands fault.
hopefully it will go back to punk hardcore and ska and keep emo screamo out or atleast less of it.
There were no lawsuits against Warped Tour or Kevin Lyman. Lyman also adjusted the backstage credentials and rules for fans trying to get into artist areas to prevent that.
Chris Fronzak said it's going to cost way more than he thought to buy it. He also said in 2020 that there were contracts in effect for 3 years, so even if he did buy it, it wouldn't happen until 2023 or most likely 2024.
This is exactly what I was thinking. It was the treatment of SA cases.
I attended the Warped Tour from 2005-2011, and then one last time in 2016. As cliche as it sounds, I feel the corporations that were always there advertising, took too much power. Charging $2 for a map and schedule, and those ridiculous signs that warned about moshing and crowd surfing felt like the final nail in the coffin for me. It didn't feel exciting as it used to, and felt like they worried too much about safety and pleasing the soccer moms reading books in the crowd.
The “no moshing” signs were always at Warped and they’re at every venue I’ve ever seen a show at.
“No moshing” is seen as a joke because it means “yes, moshing but here’s a sign to cover our ass”
@@ryanshinermusic Not sure what years you went to warped, but they weren't there between 2005-2011. Maybe it's a regional thing, but the venues here in the mid-west don't have no moshing sings. lol
Warped tour 05 was awesome.
@@MyFriendsPodcast One of my all time favorites as well, the lineup by itself was damn good.
@@anarchopunk00 I went to Indy one in 05! Great times! I drank beers with Reggie and the full effect at the hotel!
Back in the day in Seattle/Eastern Washington we had Warped Tour at a venue called The Gorge, which was a giant grassy amphitheater on top of a cliff overlooking the Columbia river. I've never seen any warped tour venue as badass as ours was. What made it even more incredible was there was a massive camp ground attached to the venue so we got to show up and camp/party friday night before Warped, wake up and go watch a ton of awesome bands play, then go back to the campground with thousands of other people for this absolutely enormous party, then crash in our tents saturday night and wake up sunday and go home. It was one of the most memorable experiences ever.
Kingdome parking lot had the best warped tour ever
@@Danzigscat Damn you went to events at the kingdome? You must be old like me. I remember watching the best era of the Mariners play there.
1998
The gorge is the shit I live 30 mins from there
Lollapalooza’95 tour started their tour at that Ampitheatre. I have a hair clip from a band called hole that was passed down to me that was acquired from that Lollapalooza show.
I went to the last Warped Tour in 2018 and I felt like it was definitely more commercial and money-hungry than what I heard about from friends who went in previous years. They turned off the only water station, so I filled my water bottle in the bathroom. It was 95 and humid af and I was constantly going back. The food sucked and the only good food was Ben & Jerry's, so I had ice cream for lunch lol. I did get to meet the guys from Knuckle Puck and Real Friends (before Dan left), so that was dope. I just felt like it was more "corporate", I guess, than I expected. Everything for the fans was half-assed and they only seemed to care about pushing merch. The only "punk" thing about it was meeting the bands and talking to cool people. It sucks that it died, but they did it to themselves imo. I definitely got the vibe it was almost like a social media stunt at that point; social media and pop punk maybe, finally being "dead" killed it
I went to the 2018 one also. It was a great experience
My old band got to be one of the local bands to play “the road to warped tour” in Alaska, on paper it was the highlight of our career but they make the first band up play to only the first few people through the door. So we played to like 40 people but it was the coolest stage ever soooo.
i really DON'T think "loss of community" is the real reason warped tour died. i think the real bullet to the brain was scale. it could be argued that scale and "loss of community" are the same thing, but they aren't. all these smaller scale festivals have popped up around Warped (Taste Of Chaos, Sad Summer, Bring It Back, Punk In Drublic, ect) and ALL OF THEM have the EXACT set up and community engagement and run a similar book of business. and ALL OF THEM have the same thing in common: the size. the festival grounds are smaller, the bills have less and more focused bands, there are less vendors, less stage hands, less road crews, less....literally everything. the community comes out in droves, these pint-sized festivals are selling out, the community engagement and social media positivity, literally everything about them keep them JUST AS sustainable as warped tour was.
warped tour scaled up and up year after year. more bands, more stages, larger venues, more sponsors and non-profits. at the height of warped tour they were doing in 1 day what every other 3 day festival was doing. the problem was they weren't able to scale down, and keep a sustainable book of business. Kevin has done interviews saying that 2017 was the worst year in warped tour history. lack of ticket sales, band dramas, promoters and venues trying to scam, the whole thing. and going to warped tour in 2017, i can tell you from personal experience, it wouldn't have been so bad if the festival was literally half the scale.
the VERY LAST warped tour in 2019 did 2 venues, each did a 2 day festival, and at least one of them did about 200k people between those 2 days. which is gonna do a better book of business: 2 days in 1 venue that can do 100k cap, with 50 bands spread across 3 stages....OR 2 days in 2 venues that can do 50k cap, 50 bands across 7 stages? i think really that's why 2019 happened. idk if warped as it was will come back, if it does it would look much more like 2019 than 2017 or the years prior. Kevin still books shows, but he's focused more as a teacher. warped will definitely come back as these new smaller festivals grow in longevity...that's kinda what Kevin is teaching. how to be the next Kevin Lyman. i mean this dude figured EVERYTHING out by himself so he's doing the thing that many of the warped tour generation complain about "no one ever taught me how to do this". from running a book of business to dealing with legal issues and navigating scammers and toxic hanger-on's (btw, that negative social media presence was more than just gatekeeping over "how punk" the bands were. there were more than a few artists that...well....to put it nicely the artists caused security concerns for the underage fans)
1 more note about "loss of community"...you pull up that video of the last ever Bro-Hymn on warped tour. looks almost identical to 1999.
Yeah this vid glossed over a bunch of serious reason as to why the tour imploded in on itself, sounds like the creator is a warped stan who felt slighted personally
@@crabPEOPLE2000 what's a stan? Go home kid
@@crabPEOPLE2000 agreed
Well said
Warped was so much fun. I was fortunate enough to play a date in 2014, and they treated us so well. That community feeling was ever present.
Wow, that must have been awesome! What band were you in?
what band, also did you play the detroit date? 2014 was my first warped, i was 7!! i went every year after, and you can see me as the thumbnail of i wont give in by asking alexandria when they played warped in 2015 or 2016!! i would try to see as many bands i could, especially the smaller ones so i could find new music. i will forever owe my sister for getting me into this kind of music when i was barely sentient, because if she didn’t i would have never experienced the chaos and beauty of warped. some of my best memories to this day!!! im so honored to have been interviewed waiting in line to meet asking alexandria, and ending up in the music video high fiving ben bruce!! my dad also has soooo many pictures of young me on his shoulders at warped, my favorite is when i saw blessthefall after getting a shirt from their tent and their merch guy gave me a free bucket hat, still wear it!!!
I got my license in 2001 and went to Warped Tour every summer until 2006, it was hot AF and water was $5 a bottle, but omg the memories are priceless. Punk rock bands would just be walking around the place-- I met NOFX, Rancid, Bowling For Soup, Offspring, Good Charlotte, Simple Plan, it was a teenage dreamland.
I was into Warped Tour from 99 - 04. Despite being different style bands back then, you really capture the feeling! Well Done!
I got to play the whole 2015 warped. definitely a memory I'll never forget.
What band
Thank you for making this video!
I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin in 2016. I was working as a spa attendant at a resort in Phoenix that many of the bands stayed at that year. I had no idea who he was, but during casual conversation, I told him that I had always wanted to go to Warped Tour. He put me on the guest list without hesitation.
I had the time of my life! Not only did I get to see a ton of my favorite bands, but I also had backstage access the entire day. That was an experience I will never forget and I’m so thankful that Kevin provided me with that opportunity. I agree it’s unfortunate that it ended, but I think he made the right choice. I hope he is doing well.
I went in 05 or 06, right at the end of punk bands being the majority. Killswitch Engage headlined, saw Unseen and ska bands. Post hardcore and emo took over later. In 04 Rancid and I think Casualties both played, idk I know I was pissed I missed them that year lol. At least Riot Fest still exists.
I crowd-surfed at a Killswitch Engage show.
I saw The Casualties live at some show and there was a wall-of-death.
When Kevin announced the last warped tour run in 2018 I wasn't super surprised, it felt unfortunately natural, bc ticket prices for shows were starting to become so damn high that it may have been impossible to keep up with that if warped continued on. They certainly couldn't keep doing it at $35 anymore, that's for sure. And I don't really think the scene has much to do with the fall of warped, ppl gatekeep and talk shit on bands and concerts all the time, Kevin did his best to make sure everyone was included, even the old heads. I think it was just a matter of financial climate in the scene among a lot of those bands either getting bigger or fizzling out as well. They could have continued, but it would have been a lot harder to maintain.
The late 90s early 00s Warped Tours were incredible. NOFX, Pennywise, Decendents, Sick of it All, No Use For A Name, Bouncing Souls, Vandals, Dropkick Murphys, Sugar Ray, Rollins Band, Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Flogging Molly, Rancid, Sublime (I know I'm missing a dozen more) all back to back to back to back. You didn't have time to go get a beer, it was just one killer band after the other. I stopped going because the bands that were starting to get booked didn't appeal to me.
Same. I went every year from 96 to around 2005 or so. As the festival started getting bigger and bigger, they booked fewer and fewer punk bands that I wanted to see. I know they were just trying to keep bringing in the young demographic but nothing about metal core or screamo or whatever that stuff is called was appealing to me or my friends. I did attend the final Warped Tour (at their final stop in West Palm Beach,FL) and I thought it was cool that they brought back a bunch of the old school punk/ska bands for one last go-round.
@@dave011679 Yeah, I understood as well. I like metal just fine, grew up on it, but there's a bunch of other festivals for that. Screamo and Emo aren't my bag either. Is what it is, some great memories with the boys and meeting guys from bands and all that. Good times.
I’m an old dude, so my teenage warped tour years were 96-99. Late 90’s-2001 warped tour was a completely different beast than the latter era.
Yeah, the organic scenes kinda died after the post hardcore resurgence in 98. I blame it on the internet.
I probably started feeling alienated at warped tour when you started going. My warp tour bands were Pennywise, NOFX and Bad Religion. Once the Screamo/Hardcore bands started to show up it was all down hill from there.
I think my first time going was in 2004, and it seemed very inviting back that when it was mostly still 90s punk acts, a lot of pop punk, some hip hop, etc. It was also still very skateboard-centric.
The next time I went a few years later, it was totally different. I felt like I was getting weird looks just for being dressed in shorts and a band t-shirt. Every kid there looked exactly the same, dressed in the typical "scene" look almost like a uniform. It was really strange feeling so alienated there. Some people probably thought this same thing once the pop punk "scene" started to take over, but it was clear that at some point in the 2000s, the whole focus had shifted over to just doing was what trendy and catering to that instead.
I only went to Warped Tour one time, which was 2007, after my senior year in high school. Had a blast, but was a one and done thing for me and I'm glad I did it. But to the point about launching bands, I bought / downloaded the Warped compilation album every year and found so many bands that way.
The Wonder Years, Against Me, All Time Low, Big D and the Kids Table, Vanna, Every Time I Die, Protest the Hero, Mayday Parade, blessthefall, Escape the Fate, Family Force 5, Karate High School, Motion City Soundtrack, Knuckle Pick, State Champs, The Story So Far, The Academy Is, and more. I got into all of them because of Warped Tour. It was such a huge influence on the music I still listen to today in my 30s.
Kevin Lyman walked the walk. I spent 3 summers involved with Warped helping out the nonprofit section. It was an overwhelming experience filled with great memories. But the one thing I have to share is the sight of Kevin picking up trash.
To me, this was absolutely amazing. It was his show…he’s the main guy …he had tons of people working for him. And yet, here he was, doing the grunt work of collecting trash. It speaks VOLUMES as to just how down to earth he is and what it means to be a great leader.
It’s a shame that the Warped Tour couldn’t go on…but it was a pretty amazing ride while it lasted.
I miss going to warped tour and mayhem. Two great festivals. In my opinion the bands definitely played a big role reeling in a greater audience. After years of attending warped it was hard to see them decline in great acts (punk bands in specific). I just remember standing at the festival like yeah this thing is going to go under if they persist with bands they are bringing. Mayhem had the same problem where their lineup started great then declined making it difficult for all fans alike. They get in a habit of having repeated acts that don’t justify the hard rock/metal scene. All in my perspective. I had the best times of my life at these festivals.
my mother would've never allowed me to go :( and we didn't even have money for concerts and what not.
I was there for the 97, 98, 99 and 2000 tours
I come from the punk/goth and rave scene, by 2000 we were less than impressed with the line up we got. Still a good time but not worth it for us, going forward.
on the bright side we found flogging Molly, that was one hell of a stage show, and great music, it joined the music collection.
I never held anything against the changing line up, it was just no longer a scene worth being at. But that's just normal when you are the other, they package up the window dressing of your culture then feed it to the normies as the new cool culture. You just need to know when to check out.
My experience exactly, went to the first 5, and the last couple felt very corporate and fake, went to a couple a few years later and it felt like almost like a parody of itself, which was a bummer cause every year there was at least a few worth while bands, but the line ups on 97 to 2000, can't be topped, and it was genuine counter diy culture.
Well said. '00 was my introduction to Flogging Molly as well. Once crap like Sum 41 came along, it was over.
the butterfly's in your stomach standing in line at 11am to spend all day seeing your favorite bands for 30$. what a feeling. great video
Most successful music festivals are aimed at the 18-25 demographic, and they age out of them and long for the music of their era when new bands or different genres show up. I think Warped Tour was great for all the kids of those specific points in time over 25 years. Times changed and Kevin obviously felt he wasn't interested in keeping up with those trends on the business model he created. I went in the late '90s to see Bad Religion, NOFX and all those bands and then went to cover at as a journalist during its last four years, and it wasn't the same to me but obviously meant something to those kids attending. I remember looking around and seeing the same excitement I had when I was their age watching my favorite bands play. I think they catered to those parents who brought their kids and didn't want to sit in that parental daycare tent by bringing in T.S.O.L., Adolescents, Sick of It All and the older bands. Kevin provided different generations of attendees with memories that will last a lifetime and I thank him for it.
I think a lot of punk's inherent flaws (elitism, gatekeeping, etc) always geta the scene toxic when large groups of people get involved. It needs a strong community in order to function or it'll devolve into a bunch of primitive tribalism. A big part of why I can't stand punk culture anymore. Maybe I just grew up.
I feel like all the problems with punk mostly surfaced in the 00's when punk went commercial. The hardcore scene today is what the punk scene was in the 90's.
Elitism is dismissing a whole subculture by saying you grew up. Maybe you just weren't hanging out with the right people.
@@ryanihm2051 lol no, homies right
Ehh, I see it from both ends. Tribalism can stifle creativity but it also helps maintain a specific identity for a style of music and it’s scene. I faded out of punk/hardcore in the early 2000s after being in it for almost a decade, mainly cause most of the bands I knew and liked had broken up and everyone moved on to other things and what was comming in to replace them wasn’t appealing to me. Got back into the scene around 2010 and caught my second wind only to bail out again in 2014 cause the politics and the way people pushed them in the scene had become insufferable.
"It's my job to keep punk rock elite..."
--Fat Mike
The first year I went to it was the best. It had the best line up, and every year it slightly got worse. It eventually got to a point where there be only 1-2 bands on the show I’d want to see, and couldn’t justify wasting my time and $ attending. The removal of punk rock from a punk rock festival killed the Warped Tour.
I went to warped tour since 2007 and always had a good time even though it was always hot af. I heard that a big reason it shut down was because of all the cases of underage issues with girls. I've seen tons of stuff on that
I went to Warped tour from 2006-2017. I also got to go to the 25th anniversary in Atlantic city. It was some of the best times of my life. Seen so many bands like motionless in white start on the local stage to the main all in a few years. I seen Katy Perry there before she was a household name. Warped will forever be burned in me. I hope it comes back one day
one of the biggest problems the tour had is it was a big commitment for less pay, People always wanted the big bands like Blink or Fall Out Boy or Paramore, but the festival was less money for them than they could earn just touring during peak touring season. This meant mid level bands filled those gaps but they too could earn more doing a tour with fewer bands, playing a regular schedule during peak touring season. it was a huge commitment from the artists and unless you were trying to break out, it wasnt your best bet for money generally.
I have fond memories of the multiple times I went to warped. And with the whole punk thing it was just adjusting with the times. In the 2000s everything was shifting to pop punk, metalcore, and easycore. That's what was popular amongst the skater/alternative community. Katy perry and all that shit had no business there though. I miss it. I mean how else could I see a day to remember, I set my friends on fire, the devil wears Prada, attack attack, escape the fate, and bring me the horizon, all on the same day? Warped tour.
I went to Warped Tour once in 2005 and it probably was the best year to go
I went in 2018 was a life changer. Literally is the reason I’m a musician 4 years later
Ohh man 3:49 I used to go to Chain Reaction around 99-2002 in Anaheim. Saw a lot of good bands there and ticket prices were cheap ($6-10) usually.. Showcase in Corona had a lot of good bands too.
Showcase Theatre was and and always will be my favorite venue of all time.
what the heck when i first watched one of your vids and thought you wouldve had like 2 mil subs cause of how quality the vids are and ive only just realised you only have 25k! Good luck bro
I went to warped tour. People got heat stroke, dudes fought during volumes, and thousands of emo kids. I miss it
I went two different times to Warped Tour. 2012 and 2013. 2012 was great because the line up was killer, the festival was spaced out good, they made sure to have water stations for people to fill up water, there were a lot of chances to meet up with bands between sets. 2013 wasnt as good for a few reasons; it was held at the same location as 2012 but the spacing for the festival was more compact due to weather issues the say before. There were not water stations set up like the year before, there were a bunch of "pay ahead of time to meet bands" instead of the usual being able to meet the bands without paying ahead of time. Both years were great, but there was a stark difference when I went to 2013 warped tour versus 2012.
That being said, I miss warped tour very much and I have huge doubts that there will be anything to happen like it ever again (I especially dont believe the whole ordeal with the When We Were Young festival). Despite wishing that something like Warped Tour would happen again.
I went to Warped Tour from 2011-14, 2017-18 and they never had payment to see any of the bands any time I went.
I went to several warped tours in the 2000's. I was glad to be able to also attend the last Warped Tour in 2018 and the final Warped Years in 2019.
I went in 2009, I saw Escape the Fate, Black Dahlia Murder, Emmure ......I cannot remember the other bands
love your channel!! i’m not rlly a part of any of the skate/alt communities but the commentary and research makes me come back each time
Proud to say I am 50 and made it to 10 Warped Tours. Introduced to many bands that I still listen to. A Day To Remember, Atreyu, Parkway Drive and Bring Me The Horizon in Denver... don't remember which years... will always be in the top of all the shows I have been to. Great trips...sun burns...and a lot of sweat.
I first heard of Warped Tour during a radio commercial sometime in the summer of the late 90's. Went in 2000, but it would be the only one, due to cost and the ever changing lineups that appealed to me less with each year.
It was a worthwhile experience, to enjoy live music all day, get autographed merch/talk to band members, and watch half pipe demos. The naive kid in me back then wanted Warped Tour to stay mostly punk/ska, but now looking back it made sense why the festival had different changes throughout it's history.
While I won't miss it being gone, I will still remember and cherish those memories of going and be able to, during the tail end of an era that I fucking loved.
You literally only went to one? And you have "memories" hell I went six different times from 2006 - 2014 now i have what you would call "memories" lol
@@brocksamson9737 yes just one, and I wouldn't have had any interest attending the years you went.
I can't tell you exactly why WT failed and you might be spot on but I attended during the late 90s and WT always had a good mix of different bands you could go see like pennywise, bad religion, nofx, etc... and you could also check out deftones, limp bizkit, sevendust, etc....and meet the entire late 90s zero team. WT was definitely great for a while.
Me and my friends used to take handfuls of Nitro 2 Go pills, drink a couple Red Bulls, and each take a box of Coricidin Cough & Cold. Man, being 14 was fun.
It’s a miracle you’re alive to type that 😂
I started going to warped tour back in 2006 through 2012. I can tell you it was a beautiful experience. Being able to grow with the bands. See the skateboarding (when the half pipe was there) , unlimited monster drinks, different genres of bands, merch, mosh pits and overall the blazing sun.
It's an experience I wish I could relive over and over again. So many memories. At least I have those still. Thank you for everything you have done warped tour.
I went to this for over 10 years and it was wonderful. Also, I loved that they brought hiphop acts on. It helped shape my musical taste.
warped tour was the best part of my teenage years i will miss it dearly!! i always felt so at home and it truly was a great place for the alt community to come together. it was like the touring coachella of alt music! there was nothing better than seeing that inflatable and running around with your friends all day in the mid summer heat and almost passing out 😭😭 also nothing beats those $50 tickets. i almost went the last year they did the whole tour, but i ended up not going and i truly regret it! even if i didn’t like the bands as much, i still wish i got that last experience!
I went from the late 90s to 2015. All the bands I loved slowly were pulling out. The blaring corporate sponsorship got bigger and bigger. It just changed. Our time had passed. And that was it.
I attended the 95 and 97 warped tour and both dates were awesome. The 95 tour kicked ass
I went 5 times, as shit as my body felt the next day it was literally the most fun I've ever had.
damn so many good memerios during summer at the warped tour, i remember seeing from first to last and sonny just chillin with everyone,.. damn now hes skrillexx
I used to love warped. Miss it. Went twice a year every year from 2011 until the end. Man, the big inflatable schedule. The feels. It was always so good seeing Kevin around, showing love and him remembering you every year despite having seen thousands of people that day alone.
I was at the ‘95 tour stop in Chicago (at the Rosemont Horizon, now Allstate Arena), I was 15 and it was an incredible experience. Skateboarding was getting “cooler” but yeah, we were definitely seen as the outsiders in the Chicago suburbs, I didn’t know a lot of the bands that were even performing, we just new it was skateboarding and loud music. Deftones were amazing, Quicksand, L7, Orange 9mm. I saw Chaka Malik sitting down on the pavement and watching the half pipe so I had to go say hi… I ended up stepping on his hand as I approached him, lol, he was ok about it but I was embarrassed and he was not particularly happy about it. But yeah, it quickly changed to a Hot Topic crowd and that wasn’t really for me. That was the only Warped Tour I attended. I remember it fondly though. Thanks for making this video.
I think that as the years went on in the 2010s, the fact that Warped Tour was a place known for underage girls to get groomed becoming a meme/joke but not really a joke was a huge factor in it's downfall. Then you had Kevin sticking up for Front Porch Step and I think that really was the beginning of the end.
Not just front porch step, but also Austin jones. Now a days all of the bands that have allegations came from things that happened at warped tour. But don’t get me wrong I loved it.
knowing that this is nate the mate after months of speculation is the greatest closure of my life
The Chariot is my favorite band and to hear you mention them literally brought a tear to my eye. Wow it's so awesome to hear such a small unique band get a shout out by you
same here friend
35 & never got to go to Warp Tour. Had tickets twice. First time: I got hit by a drunk driver an hour on the road & nearly died. 2nd time in the latter 2000s: We got to the hotel, checked in, went to sleep, and my ex ended up falling in the lobby & fracturing her skull on a wet floor without a sign in the lobby as we were leaving the hotel to head there.
35 now & my luck hasn’t gotten better but maybe I’ll make it to a Warped Tour Reunion thing in the next 5-10 years.
Babe wake up modern business just posted
Nothing better than paying $50 to see all your favorite bands in one day RIP Warped
Nothing except when the tickets only cost $24!!!!
One of the greatest regrets of my life was missing out on warped tour.
Honestly you can go to any other rock festival and it's the same
@@OmegaRedFan Yea...but it's being able to say. I was there.
Saw SOOOOO many good bands over the years at Warped Tour... Social Distortion, Sick of it all, MxPx, Nofx, Mighty Mighty Bostones, Pennywise, Snapcase, Descendants, Bad Religion, Deftones, Rancid, Civ, Hatebreed, H2O.... Shit even bands like Blink 182 and Limp Bizkit before anyone really knew who they were... those late 90's early 2000's Tours were AMAZING. Shame the tour is no more, but I agree, Social Media is to blame for so many of our current ills. People just don't know how to talk to one another anymore, we're too stuck to our screens and lack real interaction.
Poison the well and the Used
Kinda strange you didn’t touch on the alleged history of sexual shenanigans that took place over the history of the tour. From what I honestly remember (as a fan and regular attendee of warped) the real momentum shift in the downfall of warped tour was when in fall 2017 a bunch of online publications began posting articles citing specific allegations of sexual abuse throughout the history of the tour. All I remember is it was like October or November of 2017 around the same time similar info came out about Brand New, I remember seeing articles all over.
I attend 4 different warp tours, 95 , 97 2002 and 2008.
95 was in a vacant field next to a bus garage in tonawanda New York , it was fucking amazing .
I think it’s disingenuous to talk about the fall of Warped Tour without at least mentioning the legal controversies
There wasn’t anything different about Warped Tour from a legal standpoint that wasn’t happening at any other large fest
@@ryanshinermusic that doesn’t make the issues any less important or relevant to its decline
I am old went to Warped Tour Virginia in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Lots of good memories. Stopped going after 2007, cause it got too commercial. Back then I didn’t understand why it got so commercial, but after living life I understood it was necessary to continue having the event. Kevin is an icon.
It could come back
I went to warped tour 97 in DC. It was my first festival. I was 14. It was awesome.
Let me set the scene. Warped Tour 2002 in Las Vegas on July 5th. 116 degrees, no shade. YooHoo was giving out free samples. I was dying of thirst. I sat and drank YooHoo trying to get hydrated and i ended up sick throwing up all the YooHoo everywhere and dry heaving for 30 minutes after. My mom had to come get me. I still don't drink YooHoo to this day. Thanks Kevin Lyman for the memories.
Haha. Pretty funny YooHoo was attempting to spread brand awareness and adopt new customers, but instead it had the exact inverse outcome -
Instead of being a customer for life, you will NEVER BUY ANOTHER YOOHOO EVER AGAIN!
You fucked up YooHoo.....😔
It's crazy to think about my last Warped Tour was over 20+ years ago. I went every year 1996 - 2001, maybe 2002 but worked a merch tent the last year I went. Overall, the widening of the genres wasn't a killer in the late 90's. Most people enjoyed seeing Eminem, Ice T, Body Count, Jurassic 5 and the Deftones, however as the music styles continued to change, it was obvious WT started chasing trends, and being less about the community and scene. And while I understand the tour needed financial support to operate, but it just started skewing more and more corporate and money driven by the early 00s. I mean, fuck, they started having Military and Army recruitment tents the last one I went to.
Thank you Kevin for giving my band a chance to tour with my favorite bands of all time. I would have never lived the best days of my life in 2001 and 2002 had it not been for this man. Went from 1997 to 2002....easily the peak of the tour
Even though I was *VERY* late to the party, I’m so glad I got to go. I went to the shows in Camden, NJ in 2018 and Atlantic City, NJ in 2019. Every time I went it was so cool seeing my favorite bands. I even got a photo with Simple Plan and got a signed poster from them! It’s a memory I’ll absolutely never forget. Thank you for the video and the trip down memory lane. :)
I went to countless Warped Tour events. At the time I was in a successful band and was part of the scene for sure. My landlord in 2017 was the producer of the tour working directly with Lyman. It was a shock when he told me it was over. In my opinion Warped ended because in these times in order for a tour to be commercially successful it requires major headliners. Rock music has plummeted in the charts and many casual fans can't even name but a handful of successful rock acts. To put it bluntly there wasn't a scene to be had anymore. Thanks for the post. Fond memories
What band were you in?
I miss posting up at that inflatable before the concert coming up with a game plan for the day. It breaks my heart that kids will never be able to go again. I almost forgot about the free monster area and finding a hose to fill up a water bottle
I think that the pivotal part was the first wave of social media popularity and the overall hate/sarcasm mindset that came with it (people finally had an easy way to vent to the public) and the alternative scene was a lot smaller, thus more "precious" (who the fuck cares if it is emo or ska, stfu or the whole event gets cancelled, and it did)
hey you're right
Warped tour was my first concert when I was 17. It was perfect, I wasn't super into metal or punk and we saw everything from Devil Wears Prada to Reel Big Fish to Katy Perry. It had something for everyone and exposed me to a lot more music and we had so much fun
I liked old school warped tour of the late 90s early 2000s, my first one was in '97 . when i went more recently it just wasn't the same :(
My favorite memory was bringing a whole carton of cigarettes and passing packs out like I was running for office.
Good times man
I used to go to warp tour in the 90’s when it’s was still good. As it grew the bands I liked started to drop off more and more till there were no bands I wanted to see so I stopped going. But in its glory days it’s was AWESOME! I went to the Club La Vila show in Panama City Florida because I lived in Pensacola. It was something we all looked forward to. Like you said it was very communal with everyone there, the people going to the shows got not only see the bands they loved but there was a good chance you would get to meet them at some point during the day because they were down in the pit with you watching other bands they like play. Good times.
Warped tour was everything to me I went 4 years in a row ❤️
I will never forget the first year me and my friends met up in Tinley Park go to to Warped Tour in 2001. So many memorable moments. It was such a cool experience for me, and I was getting ready to start high school. I went 2 more summers after that, saw a ton of bands, but as me and my boyfriend got into more punk music we felt like there wasn’t many bands we wanted to go see anymore. Still a great experience overall those few summers. I’ll never forget it.
I was judging the C.A.S.L California Amateur Skateboard League here in southern California in 1997. I did an X-Trial event which is a trial to get into the X-Game in 1999. In between these two events mostly the CASL. I got to do the Warped Tour also. The last Warped Tour I help out was in 2000 at Anaheim, California.
I remember Matt Hensley came by the street course. Matt ollie over the pyramid piece doing a grab tail spin 360 shove it in his black nana shoes. Matt was one of my favorite skateboarder when H-Street was around in the 1990's. I was so stoke and I got to meet Matt that day.
Matt was playing in his band The Flogging Molly at that Warped Tour 2000. That was the last first and last time I saw Matt Hensley. I remember Matt telling me to come by after his band end and he would give me some products. I was so busy tearing down the street course and forgot all about it, lol. So that is my memory in one of many warped tour that I got to help out.
I remember hearing about old school Warped with OG bands with the punk and ska mix. I remember Deftones screaming was what paved the way for an entire genre (screamo) to be made, as screaming was extremely controversial, even in punk/hardcore scenes. Most of the bands had people in them that actually skated themselves. I was always into skating and vans and when I went in 2010 I felt like an outsider at a place I should have felt at home in. It was like having a thing that on paper should have been perfect for you, but it got taken over by these insular cloistered scene kids that looked nothing like the skate kids. Bands that were huge back in the day like The Casualties and Pennywise were essentially delegated to the smallest venues as a consolation. There were two ska bands, and everyone in the crowd just kinda sat there and folded their arms for the most part while the band was giving so much energy and putting so much heart into it. Skating was a lifestyle and the music was just an extension of that. Metalcore isn't a lifestyle. The whole thing felt like it totally missed what the original skate culture was about. It just felt wrong and off and I never went back to another one.
TL;DR - They took the ska punk and skating out of the ska punk and skating show
TWO Monster Energy Drinks?!?! This guy is nuts!!!
You all talking about going to Warped in 2011, 2013, or later really know how to make a guy feel old. We were hitting Warped in 96, 97, and 98 and holy shit that was a long time ago now.
UA-cam just recommended this, a really well put together and written video, good job 👍
First: When your target demographic is made up of 13 year old "punk rebels" then you must accept that your product has a shelf life. 90% of young kids age out of that sort of nonsense by the time they finish college. The 10% who dont either end up drug addicts/homeless/dead/prison (9%) and the 1% left may become succesful and keep being a "punk rebel." So the whole tour started out on number days.
That said, I went in 2002 (Pittsburgh) and met Pauly Perrette (who became famous the next year, for being on the original NCIS tv show) when she was the singer of Lo-Ball, who played on the tiny little stage. Pauly and I stayed in touch until around 2006 when she just kind of faded out of our friendship and never spoke to me again. In hindsight I should have tried to get her bass players number (Ginger) who might have been a better friend.
Once something becomes unrecognizable from what it once was, it’s days are numbered. Warped tour (imo) hit that point sometime in the early 2000s.
Bro, I have permanent hearing loss from seeing The Chariot live in San Diego. Killer live performance. Dudes went OFF!
I got a concussion at the Machine Head concert. You can't even talk about "loss"
I was on the warped tour in europe once and it was one of the best concerts of my life
I’ve heard that concerts in other countries are way better than here in America
The reality is it was a great thing in that moment in time. I saw and skateboarded in the 2000 2001 and 2002 Warped Tours. Every generation has its music and what they think is cool. This was Gen X’s time to shine! It had the bands that Gen Xers wanted to see. As they updated the line up into the 2010s, they lost their punk rock base and the new generations didn’t support the new bands. As Mellenials and Gen Z take their turn in the spotlight, they want their own identity. Warped Tour was awesome ! If they brought it back with bands I wanted to see, I would definitely go ! Unfortunately as a 49 year old aging punk and skater, I am no longer the target demographic. Youth has to drive the festival! And they are going to Coachella and Lightning in a Bottle.