So I got to play the Warped Tour. If I could talk to a version of myself from three months ago, I probably wouldn't believe myself. A year after a horrible band split, and after a year of recording all the material that I should have recorded years ago, I was back upon my musical feet again with a band (Hawkzilla in case you didn't know) and gigging. I actually got the Warped Tour gig before booking my band's first gig (the CD release July 23).
Here's how it went down: I submitted a demo song from the album to the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, folks voted on it, and Hawkzilla won a spot. I think I emailed the fella back three times with questions before believing that I had actually won. This happened in late June. Then I decided that I had to get it in gear and get the CD ready and the release party over. I couldn't let the Warped Tour be our first Gig. So I got to mixing, sometimes late into the night with a baby boy on my knee trying to grab the keyboard and mouse.
I got it all done just in time for the cd release. The band (Zach Quam, Matt Tauriainen, and me) had a short set worked up and we rocked out the cd release. We had a good turnout and had a load of fun.
Then, after much anticipation we were ready for the Warped Tour date. We left around 5 pm for the long, boring drive through Missouri and Kansas. We got into a hotel around 10 pm, just in time to have some celebration beers and go to sleep.
The next morning is where the trip got interesting, and it is also at this point where some readers might think that I am not grateful for the opportunity to play the Warped Tour - I am (oh trust me, I am), but perhaps you'll find my experience interesting and maybe a little comical. This was also the first time I had been to a Warped Tour show so it was an especially unique experience for me.
We left the hotel at 9:20, since the email with instructions said that we HAD to be at a band meeting at 10:00 am sharp or we would not be allowed to play. We went to the reserved gate, as instructed, but the security guard wouldn't let us in, and made us go to the main gate. So we had to pay $10 to park and wait in the giant line of cars to get into the venue.
When we got out of the car, the time was 9:40, and we were just about to panic (well, actually I think Matt was, in fact, panicking). We got our gear out of the car. I had two guitars and a backpack, Matt had two basses, and Zach had two bags of drum stuff (the Ernie Ball stage requires that we play through their backline, which is actually pretty darn good). There was already a huge line that was a few hundred feet long and about 20 feet wide for the main entrance. We walked by the VIP line and walked up to the security guard to get in. She directed us to check in at the box office. This seemed reasonable, so we waited through the box office line to be told to go to "the blue tent" which was way on the other side of the massive line. We waited through the line at the blue tent and asked for our band passes.
"This is the canned food dropoff, bro," we were told by the guy working the tent. "You neet to go to the box office."
We told him we were at the box office a few minutes previously, and at that he shrugged his shoulders. There was another band behind us who was just as frustrated as we were, and behind that was a band that was actually being PAID to play that day. We formed a tiny mob and went over to the main gate and shouted at the security guards who finally told us to go to the rear entrance for police and emergency services.
So, we walked past the huge main line, past the box office, around the side of the fence to a little dirt road inlet that was being manned by a teenager. Our tiny mob, all of us at once by the way, began telling him that the main security sent us to this entrance to let us in. Looking a bit overwhelmed, the fella let us in. We walked a round about way and found ourselves at what would have been the main stage at any other event at the amphitheater (the Warped Tour is setup so that the main stage needs to be on flat ground to accomodate the platform rigging and skating ramps).
I asked a guy working on stage where the Ernie Ball stage was. He said he didn't know. We then walked around the right side of the stage and through a long corridor of people setting up booths, none of whom knew where our stage was. We then walked to the back parking lot of the venue where five more stages were set up.
We stopped at the first stage that was setting up. No one there knew where the Ernie Ball stage was. In fact, one guy said "It's a black truck that folds out, and I haven't seen it all day - I don't think it's here today." We walked on to the next stage where we heard the same story. At this point we were seriously freaking out as it was a few minutes until ten o'clock.
Suddenly I heard from behind "hey you guys made it in." I turned around to see the singer from the band who I referred to earlier as the one that was being PAID to play that day. I asked her where the Ernie Ball stage was. "Right around that corner at the back," she said, and we said a quick goodbye while rushing off toward the stage.
We made it to the stage at 9:59, asked for the person we were instructed to ask for, who was sitting on a crate beside the stage. He gave us our wristbands and said "well guys, looks like we're running late so I think we'll have the band meeting at around... well... maybe 10:45-ish."
So we waited...
One unique thing about the Warped Tour is its organization, or lack thereof. While frustrating, it completely fits with the vibe of the tour. We already noticed the downside of it with the communication between the tour staff and the security company, but on the bright side it meant that each band individually has a little booth for merchandise and signings. We walked to the main stage which features a large board for the schedule that hadn't been filled out yet. There were already lines forming for some of the signings.
Everything there is for sale. Schedules, water, and interestingly, passes to shorter lines. I looked out the main entrance to see a line that went so far that I couldn't see the end. There were people walking up and down the lines selling VIP tickets to the shorter line as well as passes for water and other things inside the venue.
The band meeting was interesting. Several bands stood where the audience usually stands in front of the stage (which as described, folds out of a truck), while the Ernie Ball stage guys set up and told us the rules of the stage (basically, to show up at the time appointed and to not break their stuff).
My favorite quote was: "Basically, this will be like a club gig except that it will sound good, and we're not assholes." He was right. They were cool fellas, and the sound was great.
They then handed out our timeslot. We got the first slot at 11:30, so we basically played for the VIP line waiting to get in (this made me hopeful for merch sales), the bands, and a few other folks who were early birds. We waited a half hour, tuned up our guitars, and got on stage. I tuned my backup guitar while Quam actually tuned the provided snare drum on their excellent DW kit.
My only problem came when it was time to plug into the amplifier. Krank sponsored the stage, so I got to play through a Krankenstein half stack, which is a high powered Dimebag Darrell signature amp. I plugged it up, plugged in, and checked the sound. It was too loud... and I mean wayyy too loud (and I like loud). I usually play through a Peavey Classic 50, and this amp sounded JUST LIKE Pantera. As much as I like Pantera, Hawkzilla just doesn't sound anything like Pantera. We had three minutes until showtime, and I looked at the amp controls, which looked like gibberish to me. Included in the DIME Channel was two different volumes and a gain. This confused me enough that I decided to keep the settings the way they were because I at least knew that I had a clean channel, distortion, and that my distortion was louder than my clean channel. I didn't want to waste any of our precious 20 minute set time screwing with the DIME-balance of the DIME-Channel. I ended up just turning up the bass on my guitar to even out the DIME-splitting DIME-distortion.
The second we were finished checking, they told us to go on. We opened the set with "Hypocrisy" and went on to "Hooshburger", which has pauses between each main riff. During those pauses, the DIME-amp was giving me DIME-feedback, and not the good sounding kind of feedback. This caused me to have to palm-mute during the pauses which made the song a great deal heavier than it was meant to be. I think the best sounding song of the set was "Don't Even Try," after which we had a tuning debacle and had a false start on "Lowercase Eyes". We ended with "American Dream", and our short set on the Warped Tour was complete.
The set went great. Everything sounded awesome, and I haven't had better monitoring at a live show. I even saw the soundman smile and laugh during "Lowercase Eyes", and I NEVER see soundmen smile during songs. They are always sullen and staring with their arms crossed when not messing with the mixer.
I went out and tried to sell some merch after the show and utterly failed. I had a couple people inquire about shirts, but they were small and all I had were larges. Why oh why were those punk rockers all so tiny? I suppose I'm used to burly metal dudes.
We packed up our stuff and noticed that if we would have been allowed into the correct parking lot, our walk would have been 30 feet to the car. As it was we had to trek the mile and a half or so through the entire venue to get to the general parking, including the GIANT hill up the amphitheater. Compound this with the fact that I had no money for water, and by the time I got to the car I said "I don't care if we don't see anything else.. we can leave now if you want." But Matt was driving, and said he'd buy us each some water if we went back for another hour or so.
They ended up regretting that decision, because back inside the venue I saw that Bad Religion would go on at 2:55, and I insisted (or begged) that we should stay to see their set. Neither Zach nor Matt were familiar with Bad Religion, but I told them that it would be worth it, and it was. It was even worth the sunburn I got during their set, and the hunger I endured due to not eating anything since breakfast. I hope the other two guys liked it enough to make up for those hardships, but I thought BR ROCKED! While waiting for them we also saw several awesome bands on the other stages. While I only cared about one band on the main stage, the real experience at Warped is seeing awesome new acts on the smaller stages and being introduced to new music.
The way home we were drowsy from playing, and the only eventful thing was when Matt locked his keys in the car at a small grocery store in the middle of Missouri. That sucked and wasted time, but was yet another strange thing that happened on a strange trip.
The whole experience was surreal, and I'm glad that we have a picture of the main schedule board with our name on it to prove that it actually happened. I hope that the next time we play the Warped Tour, we'll be on a different stage and actually get paid to be there. I'll take what I got for now though.
