Van’s Warped Tour
Last year at this time, I was begging my mom to let me go to the Vans Warped Tour. All of my favorite punk and rock bands would have been there–Rise Against, Devil Wears Prada, and Bad Religion, to name a few.
Not only that but I would be able to see up-and-coming bands.
My mom said no. I was too young even though she goes every year.
But this year I’m going.
The annual Vans Warped Tour will be at the Pomona Fairplex on Friday, June 26. The lineup is dominated by hard rock punk bands. Schedules to play are 3OH!3, Anti-flag, Bad Religion, NOFX, Silverstein, Thrice, Underoath, and my favorite, Devil Wears Prada.
There will also be several old school punk bands performing, including The Addicts, The Exploited, U.K. Subs, Fear, and Fishborne just to name a few. These bands will play on he Oldskool stage, which will only be featured in California shows.
This year, the Warped Tour has made positive changes in their layout of their stages. In the past few years, there were two main stages where bands would have 30 minutes to perform. This year, the two main stages have been condensed into one main stage with each band playing in 40 minute intervals.
In past years, the KIA/Kevin Says stage will no longer feature unsigned and local bands. Instead this stage will showcase upcoming or newly signed bands. The bands playing on this stage will be competing with each other in a battle of the bands-type competition. The winners of this will go on to play on the east coast for the rest of the tour.
Those groups trying to break and earn a contract will perform elsewhere.
Hurley, Hurley.com, Smartpunk.com, Ernie ball, and Skullcandy will all have their own stages all with various bands playing. There will be two special stages that will offer differences compared to the other stages.
Rockstar Mayhem Festival
Marilyn Manson is back in California as the headliner of the second Rockstar Mayhem Festival, which rolls into Callifornia on July 10 with its first stop in Marysville.
Two days later, the tour will be in the Socal area playing in San Bernadino.
In only the tour’s second year, the lineup is just as star-studded as it was last year. Last year, the concert had a awesome lineup including Slipknot, Disturbed, Mastadon, and Dragonforce. Although this line up may seem hard to beat.
But Rockstar has in fact out starred itself this year with even more big name bands.
The headliners include Slayer, Killswitch Engage, Bullet for My Valentine, Cannibal Corpse, in addition to Manson.
Along with these bands, there are rumors that Slipknot will make a surprise performance.
With Slipknot fresh from their tour of the states for their new album, they are expected to make a surprise showing at the tour. On top of these great bands, there will be 30 other bands in total to watch.
New and up-and-coming bands will perform in a battle of the bands on a secondary stage.
But, make no mistake. This stage is not for the faint of heart.
Every band playing is either a punk band or a heavy metal band. That means that there will be lots and lots of mosh pits and death circles.
My advice is if you love metal and hard rock, and you want to see the best in the industry play, go to this concert. But, if you arent exactly one to take physical punishment, then I would not recommend this concert to you.
