The 24th, and final Vans Warped tour came to an end on Sunday, August 5 in West Palm Beach, Florida. I decided to go to it with my boyfriend and my best friend, and I've been going back and forth on writing about it ever since. I don't know, I've kind of lost my taste for writing some, and I did do a vlog. Not a very good vlog, but I did vlog none the less. So I was questioning if it was even worth it to write, but I keep getting the slight nagging feeling to do it. So clearly that means I must, even though its four days later and I am beginning to feel like its irrelevant at this point. I'm going to try to ignore that feeling, and press on. Also, if you've been here a while and have read any of my other concert ramblings, you will know they're a bit all over the place. Events and times may be told out of order, its all just as I remember them.
So, we chose to go to the West Palm Beach date, which actually is notorious for being awful. Not due to the sound or the sales, or even the crowds. But behind the scenes is awful, and from what I heard from a friend of mine who was behind the scenes with a press pass, that had not changed. However, this was my first festival ever without a pass, and my first show in several years without a pass. It was such a foreign concept to me to not have a pass, to the point that I still started to walk to the media tent when we arrived for my tickets. That's usually where I got them, so it was basically muscle memory. But because our tickets were not there, we actually went to the box office and that took all of two minutes. There was no line, and it was quick and easy. Cost me $108 for two tickets, but whatever, it was worth it. Security was a breeze, which is something I'm not actually overly used to at shows. As press, I don't even go through security most of the time, but usually have at least one or two stop me to start to tell me I couldn't bring my bag in. That never lasts, as soon as they realize I'm press they leave me alone. But they were a total breeze, didn't even mind that I was actually carrying stuff for a friend that was with me so I had double the things. We get inside and Mayday Parade is already on stage. They were on the Journey's Left Foot stage and both of the Journeys Stages were set up in the amphitheater at our venue. My best friend and I really needed to pee, because we did have a two and a half hour drive over to the venue, so we made a beeline straight for the bathrooms while my boyfriend went and sat down in the amphitheater. I know this sounds like a completely random detail that is irrelevant but the reason I wanted to include it was because not only was it an actual bathroom, not a port-a-potty, but because I could hear the music perfectly. It was like I wasn't missing a thing, because I could hear it word for word, every instrument just fine. It was just a little muffled due to the concrete walls. Like for real, I was sitting there singing along to "Jersey" while doing my thing. It was just something I haven't experienced at a lot of shows. Usually if you have to go to the bathroom, you're either using a disgusting port-a-potty or are missing your entire show because you set off to find a real one. Plus, there was no line, which is extremely rare. Then again, it was only a few minutes after noon and the doors had only been open for one hour, so maybe that's why it was so empty. Anyway, I just wanted to quick acknowledge that because that was a venue note that I greatly appreciated. By the way, I might pin point a handful of things regarding this venue, which was the Coral Sky Amphitheater just because I actually have been to Warped tour at this venue before. My very first Warped tour in 2012 was held there and we had such a horrible experience there that frankly, I was slightly unhappy to go back. I only chose to because I really wanted to say I went to the absolute final Warped tour since it was in Florida. This ended up being a very good experience, but you're going to hear more about that as we continue this conversation. Now that I put that little tidbit out there, I can get back to what I was saying. So we watched Mayday Parade from afar unfortunately. The pit stayed consistently full through every performance from what I saw, which was completely to be expected. We had to sit on the upper part of the amphitheater, so frankly Mayday Parade looked a bit like specs on the stage. But they still sounded great! It was my 3rd time seeing them, second at an outdoor venue. I will say nothing about their performance stood out to me, except for Derek's bright pink shorts. Those stood out greatly to me, but I do think that might be because they were so far away and I'm used to being extremely close to the stage. I feel like I felt a little disconnected from the music that way, which sounds entirely stupid now that I put it out there. I don't know, maybe its not stupid. You can't feel the base, or see the facial expressions, you're not really interacted with when you're far back, ect. I still enjoyed them though, and it was nice to see them with my best friend and boyfriend. It was their first time seeing Mayday Parade and they were extremely happy to be seeing them at all. Like most Warped tour performances, it was short. They only played like five songs and I'm suddenly forgetting all of them. I know they ended on one off of their new album Sunnyland, which I haven't gotten a chance to listen to much yet. I'm sorry, everything was such a blur, this is actually why I'm supposed to vlog a lot more than I actually did. As soon as Mayday Parade said their good byes and started to depart the stage, we got up and started working our way to the Mutant Lightning Stage, which is where Motionless In White was playing. Now I'm actually not a fan of Motionless In White, but they're one of my best friend's favorites and my boyfriend loves them as well. Nobody else was on at that time that I really wanted to see, so I went with them just to take pictures. That being said, and I may get some hate for this, for some reason Motionless In White gives me such a headache. I really can't pin point why that is, because lyrically I like them, as people I like them. I don't dislike the sound of their music, but for some reason without fail, I get a headache from Motionless In White almost every time. Live was no different, and by the way, this was not my first time seeing them. I saw them when they were basically brand new with Escape The Fate in January 2011. If I remember correctly, they gave me a headache back then too. I wanted to give them a second chance, so I did. I will say I enjoyed watching Chris Motionless on stage. Sadly he was the only one I really could see because of the angle we were at, I really only got glimpses here and there of anyone else. I tried to get some pictures, but that didn't quite work out. I was actually extremely disappointed with the lack of pictures I managed to get. I didn't account for the fact that I usually I get a ton of pictures just in the press area, and then I usually don't focus on the photography because its damn near impossible from the middle of the crowd. I was extremely worried about my camera getting crushed, or wet, plus it felt like it was overheating at one point. I don't think it really was, but its black, and it was easily 95 outside so it grew very hot to the touch. So between all that, I honestly only got pictures of Motionless In White and As It Is. And As It Is wasn't even by me, that was by my boyfriend, Jesus. He has a natural talent for photography and is 6'3 so he can actually see over the heads of everyone else. I wanted pictures during As It is, so I just handed the camera off to him, and I am so glad I did. Which is actually the perfect lead in to the absolute highlight of my day, which As It Is' performance. This was my second time seeing them, with the first being on Warped Tour 2015. I honestly love them, and have since they started. I actually initially found them back in the days when Patty Walters did YouTube and a lot of covers. His covers lead me to an early version of "Can't Save Myself", I believe it was, and they've come so far since then. Their third full length album comes out tomorrow, and actually just before their performance, someone was selling advanced signed copies. So we got one for $15 and I already did a review. Please click here to read it, I am so excited about it and love it so much. I'm proud of them. Also wanted to point out that they had a signer! They had a girl on the left side of the stage signing as someone talked before hand, and during every song. And she was having a blast, you could tell! I was having fun watching her and I don't even understand ASL. That was something I thought was incredibly awesome, plus they had someone on the stage speaking about mental health. I completely forget who he was, but I think I got most of his speech on camera, so that's cool. There was also a moment that hit me right in the 'feels' as the internet would say. You know that feeling you get in your chest when a band you really enjoy is on stage and in that moment nothing else matters? Its been a very long time since I've felt that when a band first comes out on stage. Like I said before, this was my first show without a pass in a very long time. So usually, when a band starts their hype music and starts walking out on stage, I'm focused. I'm snapping pictures and trying not to bump into other photographers. This was different, and it feels a little silly to say this, but I found myself tearing up a little bit like as soon as they started. This wasn't because of them really, but it was because they gave me that feeling again that music is supposed to give you. I feel like I got a little desensitized to that from working so hard for so many years on the journalism. I didn't always enjoy music and shows the same. I still got those moments but they weren't overwhelmingly joyful, and they were never right off the bat like that. I really appreciated that feeling and had to acknowledge it. I absolutely loved their performance, they were such high energy, and have grown so much since the first time I saw them. The first time was great too, but I could see not only how excited they were to be on Warped tour but how much fun they all were having. Also got such a laugh out of Patty Walter's because when he took a moment to introduce the band, he said, "We are My Chemical Romance, welcome to the 2005 Warped tour." I honestly bust out laughing at that because my first comment upon seeing the promo shots for the Great Depression album was, "Hey MCR is back." Totally jokingly, I might add. He also gave a whole speech about how he doesn't enjoy the "typical front man bullshit." Of telling fans what to do, and asked if everyone was having the best day of their lives. Of course he was answered with screams, rather than actual words, but Patty had more to say anyway. He said something along the lines of, "Its okay if you're not. You can have the second best day of your life, or whatever day you feel like having." That's when he lead into the speech about the front man bullshit, and said he doesn't want to tell people what to do. "So anything I tell you to do is merely a suggestion." So that something different that definitely stood out. But honestly I just had a ton of fun during their set, even helped a crowd surfer up. Kind of felt bad because the only way I was able to help was pushing up on her backside when someone started to drop her, but there was nothing else I could do. For some reason people kept picking up crowd surfers right next to me, so I did get kicked three times and was on the edge of a mosh pit at one point as well. I actually have that part on camera. The song that stood out the most to me was "Dial Tones" because wow, the energy on that song! Patty was highly encouraging people to get as loud as possible, and just go for it. He actually said something about us owing it to ourselves to not only be the best Florida date but the best date of the entire tour. Which of course got people going insane, but obviously that's a matter of opinion so I'm sure other bands had better crowds at different dates. There were people actually screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs, and it looked like the entire band was actually laughing with just pure excitement over the energy. It was an extremely cool thing and is one of those moments I wish I could go back to. I forgot to mention this too, on the way to the As It Is tent, we actually met Brooks Betts from Mayday Parade, and bought a signed copy of Sunnyland, their newest album, and got mostly escorted to their merch tent by him and their friend. I have most of that on camera, but I wanted to throw that out there because I completely forgot to mention it. A review of Sunnyland will be coming soon as well, so please stay tuned for that. So after As It Is was finished, as much as I wanted them to stay on, it was time for Simple Plan. They were on the Journey's Right foot, so we headed back to the amphitheater and had a hell of a time finding a spot to sit. Finally found one, even further back than we were for Mayday Parade, and I couldn't see anything. We only stayed for three songs, which were "Jump", "I'd Do Anything" and "Welcome To My Life." Which let me tell you, "Welcome To My Life" live is awesome! I couldn't see anything except people's butts, but hearing thousands of voices singing such a classic song was just incredible. I don't really have words but that too is in the vlog. Because we couldn't see though, we decided to try to go to the As It Is signing, because why not? After some searching, we did finally find it but there was such a long line, so we kind of just said never mind. We then debated if there was anyone else we absolutely wanted to see, and there wasn't really. Everyone else were all ones that we didn't mind seeing but weren't dying to watch, and it was already going on three o'clock. So we decided to wander the merch tents and slowly work our way out from there. Its actually the first time I've ever left a show early and felt content. We all felt that way, and it was honestly a great experience. I don't really know what else to say there except I also got some merch, all of which has been posted on the Facebook page. I honestly think that covers it. So I want to ask, did you go to any of the dates on the last Warped tour? And if you did, what date did you go to and what were the highlights for you? You heard everything from me, and if you want to watch the vlog for it please do. You can watch that by clicking here, or check out my outfit ideas video which could easily work for any event by clicking here. You can also read my review of As It Is' The Great Depression by clicking here, and you can get that wherever music is sold starting tomorrow. The Sunnyland review is coming soon, and I'm now officially out of things to say. So thanks for reading, and hopefully I will be able to get back into doing this more often sometime soon.
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