teng time

After a hot day at Warped Tour at the Home Depot Center in Carson, there was an After Party at the Nonstop Riot headquarters in Hollywood. Presented again by Nonstop Riot and Casa de Awesome on Sunday night, 8/17/08.  3OH!3 was the main event and they definitely ended the night with a high energy performance.  Scroll to bottom of post for photos.

Home Depot Center was the last stop on the tour. It was a lot of fun, and I had the unique opportunity to partake in a bit of a behind-the-scenes, industry experience. Tagged along with Hopeless Records friends on stage to see All Time Low play an acoustic set and later that afternoon the main plugged set. It was a completely different experience than being that kid standing elbow to elbow with a hundred other kids for hours in heat waiting for the band to come out, and then fully exerting myself by singing, jumping and shoving through the crowd. This time I actually had a completely unobstructed view of the band and even the crowd. My favorite part of the vantage point was seeing the crowd of a couple hundred kids undulating and going crazy for the band. Observing mob behavior from the stage is very entertaining. I even witnessed a girl fight break out during the set in which fists were thrown and faces were punched.

I’m probably near the tail-end of the warped tour demographic now, which is probably a good thing. It’s interesting to see how much the scene kids have changed in only 5 or 6 years. Whereas then you’d see a sea of monotone black shirts, now it’s oversize prints as pop art on tees. Clothing companies catering to this aesthetic have become much more prominent at warped tour. Their booths and labels are intertwined with the bands and the music. Sponsorships are everywhere. But they’re not in-your-face and that’s probably why they’re working. But that’s another post topic altogether.

Album with pictures from the Warped Tour After Party can be found HERE (you’ll have to wait until I fully complete my upgrade to Wordpress 2.7 plus enhancements – coming very soon). Here are some fun ones: