Vans Warped Tour 99
Sydney, 9th January 1999
by Geoff

Well we headed off to Manly early that morning and having no real idea where Keirle Park was cause we were just in sydney for a holiday (well mainly to go to the big day out) but I heard about the warped tour and it seemed pretty cool so I went along to check it out.  SO eventually we found the place, wasn't too hard just headed down to Manly then just follow the trail of penywise t-shirts.  But when I got in there there wern't too many people there (yet) the reason for this is probebly because there were diffirent times put up for it starting.  Like on the tickets it says gates open at 10:30 while in the magaznes, postors, street press etc it said 11:30.  I wasn't too sure so I just rocked up at 11.

So the first band was alomost finished which was Nancy Vandal I hadn't heard much of them so I wasn't terribly dissapointed that I missed them.  Then next up was the band from the usa 22 jacks, they seemed pretty good for I band I had never heard and they talked abit to the crowd which was incredibly small that early (at first I thought it was because most people went to warped the day before which was at a diffirent venue in Sydney) I kind of felt sorry for them cause most of the people were sitting down and they had about 10 people standing up watching them.  But they seemed to love playing to a such small crowd, so after them was local band front end loader who were alright actually but nothing wonderful.  So after there 30 min set Latex generation hit the stage dressed exactly the same as the security guards which confused alot of people, but they got the growing crowd warmed up with some good old punk rock.  But they were followed by another american band Less than jake who seemed to have quite abit of a following it seemed.  But having not heard them before I didn't know what to expect, but they were totally awesome ska core is what they are classified as but they really had  the mosh going crazy.  They got a heap of new fans that day.

Area 7 had a good response with their much played no logic being a crowd fav, and I remeber them telling the crowd about their "new single" which was bitter words and that was the first time I ever heard it and I thought it was a great song.   MxPx also seemed to have a pretty big following with their huge mosh pit (the crowd was LOTS bigger at this point)  But I didn't get to see much of them for I was suffering some dehydration cause it was a pretty hot, dry day.  After they finidhed their great set (from what I heard) there were afew bands I didn't really get into like suicidal tendencies, porkers, cherry poppin' daddies and hepcat.

But it seemed I wasn't the only one, when hepcat played there were more people at the local stage (gameover were playing) But the crowd came back for pennywise were after hepcat, they seemed to be loved by everyone and are the kings of the warped tour it seems but they are a great band.  I didin't go watch them thouhg, I sat down to get out of the sun and rest so I would ahve some energy for the next band.  Which was the deftones (which was the main reason I came to warped) I knew like 2 of their songs at the time.  But they were incredible, they had the biggest mosh pit of the day for sure.  I couldn't work out how a heavy band like this managed to make it on the warped tour.  I wasn't complaining though, the crowd loved My own summer and Be quiet and drive where Chino the lead singer went stage diving in the middle of the song and took the mic with him!!!! which really surprised everyone, pretty crazy thing to do though.  But thanks to this awesome 30 mins of entertainment they are now my fav band and I am trying everything to get stuff on them.

But after their set frenzal rhomb came out and played a good set, after them was unwritten law.  These guys are sooooo amazing live (including a food fight with onions), they have so much energy and everyone there really got into them.  But they really won over heaps of fans that day, but sadly they got kicked off the tour after this gig.  They kind of started up a food fight with the crowd (which was started by frenzal rhomb earlier) then it started up again but with tomatoes this time.  Then for their last song Scott the singer goes "ok guys pick up ANYTHING you can find and chuck it at us" what a mistake that was.  Because it had been such a hot day there were plastic bottles and cans absolutley everywhere so I think jsut about everyone in the crowd got involved.  It was so much fun though, but at the end of the song the stage was wrecked but they seemed to have fun.

Then the last band for the day Grinspoon came out and told the crowd that unwritten law had been kicked off the tour.  But Grinspoon were abit dissapointing I thought, after unwritten law, deftones etc they just didn't compare to those guys.

But overall it was an awesome day and I read that they got around eight thousand that day which was the biggest crowd so far on the tour.  But it really let me see a whole new bunch of bands which I now am really into, but the good thing about warped is it's not just music.  If there is a crap band on u can go check out the skating or the motorcross, there is always something to do.  I am really looking forward to going next year, even if it mean not going to the big day out (save money that way too)