A Day In the Life: Warped Tour 2011 (photo dump)

Hello there, I'm back (and exhausted) from Warped Tour. So, so very glad I went this year even though I thought this morning I was going to have to pay a whopping $40 to get in. Everything worked out beautifully though and I met up with my friend Alex who I haven't seen since I left San Diego (because he lives in San Diego) and ran into some friends from the past. 

Great day really.

I decided last night I was going to do a major photo dump for warped tour so that meant I was going to have to take a lot of pictures...

So I did.

Get out of bed after gates open. I'm a sleepyhead. Text Alex to make sure my favorite band wasn't playing until late. They weren't. Hopped into the bath to shave the legs for some shorts wearin. Good decisions because it got warm out there.

After bath went crazy with the sunscreen. New tattoo needs lots of protection... well, my ghost white skins (do not take this as me putting myself down, I love my pale skin) needs a lot of protection from the sun. I hate the spray stuff. I tried it once a while back and it stayed shiny and sticky and when I tried to rub it in a bit it balled up. Gross. I love the cream sunscreen though. Doesn't smell super sunscreen-y (I hate the smell of sunscreen) but is 100 spf soooo, that's good. I know they say that only up to like 75 spf actually works, after that it can say high spf but it's still just 75 but I buy the possibly more powerful stuff just in case.

Make up time. Didn't go too crazy because I knew I was going to be sweating a bit (ew gross, I know) and so I did my eyeshadow thing that I've been doing and loving lately and left the rest of my face alone. I mean, it was sunscreened up anyway. 

What's in my bag? Warped Edition. That I'll be posting tomorrow!

Went to Kettleman's Bagels, which, by the way is a local company. Great bagels. The lady that served me is super cute and tattooed and pierced and really nice. Can I just say I love great customer service? Yeah. Thanks. Everything bagel with loads of cream cheese.

Yup, breakfast (technically lunch at the time) of champions. That's a DC. Don't you worry.

Sitting in traffic because a three lane highway got taken down to one lane in the middle of the day on a Sunday. At least it wasn't at 4-5 on a Friday afternoon, but still. Pretty view all the time though. Weather was perfect. It would get super sunny and hot and then the clouds would come over the sun to give us a little break and there would be a breeze and then out the sun would come again.

ARRIVED! View of schedule from parking area. Way better and closer parking than in San Diego. Goodness that's a hike back to the car sometimes. AND this venue had all dirt and weeds and such instead of asphalt like in San Diego. Clearly SD is not my favorite venue for Warped. I think Ventura and San Francisco are.

Oh the board of wonders. What time is my band playing? What time is my band playing. Take a picture, it's easier. Love the clarity of iphone pictures.

One of the first bands I watched today. Gym Class Heroes. Watched/listened to them for a bit, Alex left to take care of some official business because he's super cool and working with bands and such. Lalala. (jk Alex is awesome) So then I saw a friend, Chris, from when I USE to live in Portland a few years ago and went to talk to him. We ended up hanging out off and on for the rest of the night because he was going to stages with bands that put on good shows. Today I was in a hardcore mood for sure. I wanted to see people windmilling and high kicking and such. Oh boy... I definitely got that.

No matter how many trash cans get put out all the crap ends up on the ground. It just can't be helped. Suggestion for next year, don't put trash cans near stages that are going to have bands that play breakdowns. Kids get crazy, start wanting to throw things... the trashcans are easy to grab, trash starts flying... trash can useless.

These dudes definitely made 15 minutes of my day just that much happier. I'm talking about the ones in the blue shorts with the yellow Michelob on it. They were dancing around so hard for a group called Bad Rabbits who were really entertaining (both blue shorts and the band).

I would like you to take a second and admire the spikes on the kid's mohawk. Seriously, how much crazy glue did he use in that thing? I've seen kids work on their mohawks and have them droop either within the first couple of hours if the glue just sucks or at the very least after some heavy movement, but these things just did not move. 

This picture is also an example of what I go to shows to see. It's pretty much a bunch of fun and if you look at the bottom left of the picture you'll see someone's fist. That's probably the person I'm standing behind. They have to hold their fist out to attempt to keep from getting hit when the kids (like mohawk boy) go crazy and ninja like. I'm pretty sure it was during this band's set that a girl got hit in the face because she was on the inside edge of the pit then got irritated about it.

I'm sorry, I get that you're a girl, but you did choose to stand there. Be smart like me and stand behind one layer of people, that way you see everything coming and if you don't, well, you still can't get too mad. 

I did get kicked in the leg (not on purpose, that's just how these things go) by my friend Chris. It was funny, after all the crazy died down I told him.

My favorite band on Warped. Probably one of my most favorite bands of all time to see live. Paramore is the only other one that comes close that I can think of. 

They did a circle pit around the sound tent and then did a wall of death and then this was open for the next breakdown. I worked to get to that spot. I was so happy when they opened the circle pit because I was able to move a lot easier (most people were heading for the hills) to the middle where I wanted to be. Glorious.

A Day To Remember killed it as always. I feel everything I use to feel, all of the magic that going to shows had to offer so long ago, when I see them play. 

Look, a tan.... haha NOPE, that's just dirt. Yeah. That's how it was there.

After ADTR we were all (friends Chris and I had found along the way) were all incredibly tuckered out. Chris and co because they had stirred up some crazy in three pits basically back to back and me because I had only eaten my bagel and had some water the whole day. Plus standing in the sun makes me really tired for some reason. 

Chris needed a ride home (well, it was better than riding the Max home with everyone) so I gave him a ride and in return he bought me Burger King for dinner. Veggie burger. Not so bad when you are so frickin hungry (and thirsty) and have had dirt in your mouth all day.

Picture makes me look a lot less wrecked than I looked in the mirror in the bathroom. Sunscreen on the face makes the black eyeliner and sunscreen travel down. Yeahhhhh!

As you can see, another DC. (I am having bunches of water now and did have a bottle of water there... don't judge too harshly)

Last picture of the night. By this point my body quit wanting to do anything but sit. 

All in all I have to say that if I had to pay to get in today it still totally would have been worth it. Good friends, good shows, favorite band, some sun, some dirt... couldn't have asked for a better day.

Oh yeah, and the styles still boggle my mind.

What is your favorite band to see live?

xoxo