With the exception of Bouncing Souls last year, Warped's main stage has never had a good opener, and 2000's edition kept that tradition alive with Oskar, some Guttermouth-style punk band that weaseled their way to a record deal with Epitaph (they probably had incriminating photographs of Brett Gurewitz pleading with the Devil to make the Offspring re-sign and make his label successful again). Oskar's onstage strategy to win over the crowd seemed to be to insult them in between every song. I don't get the point of being an asshole to the audience; it was all revolutionary and different when the Sex Pistols did it in the 1970's, but that was over twenty years ago - now people will just hate a band even more if their singer talks shit to them. Oskar finished without much fanfare, and you know what? I was happy. Although, I was also a bit upset, because I learned from the trusty performance schedule that I had just missed Ugly Duckling, a cool underground hip-hop group, on one of the side stages. And I had to endure nearly fifteen minutes of Oskar telling me to fuck off! Damn!

My ears would further be tortured by the Donnas. Yeah, they were pretty friggin' bad. Imagine the Ramones on estrogen, and that's the Donnas. I believe they're fairly well received by critics, and I have no idea why. They reminded me of a group that would be playing at a prom in some teen movie starring Jennifer Love Hewitt. In fact, I believe they were on 90210 a while ago, though I may be mistaken. The Donnas did a lot of the same tough-ass posturing that most retro late '70's punk bands do, by making references to drugs and stuff, but it was just laughable as all hell. Sorry, Donnas, but L7 beat you to the whole riot grrl image years ago.

Once the Donnas completed their set, Snapcase, one of the bigger hardcore bands in the country, began on the other main stage. Surprisingly, they weren't half bad. The metalish guitar riffs and movements onstage I've seen and heard a million times before, but there was something fresh about their live show that I haven't seen at a lot of hardcore shows at much more intimate venues. They were all right, though only pockets of hardcore kids seemed to really dig them. Once they finished, my friends and I took our position at the front of the stage awaiting Jurassic 5's set. Meanwhile, Swedish ska-punkers Millencolin played on the adjacent stage. Actually, they don't play much ska anymore, because it's, like, totally unhip to be labeled as a ska band these days..that's so 1998. Another thing that Millencolin has seemingly gotten rid of is their accents, though they still speak with overly perfect sentence structure, like they're still trying to learn how to use conversational English correctly. Otherwise, it sounded like standard skate-punk, nothing overly bad but nothing to get excited about either.

Jurassic 5, the only main stage hip-hop group on the tour this year, began on the other main stage which I was situated in front of. Since hearing their debut EP a few years ago, I and many other fans had been waiting patiently for a full-length album to drop. Finally, Quality Control was released a few weeks before this show, and it was well worth the wait, as it is easily one of the best hip-hop albums of the first half of the year. J5 launched immediately into their set with the first two tracks on Quality, "The Influence" and "Great Expectations." The amazing chemistry between the four MCs that is found on their studio work translated even better to the stage. They sound like a tightly bonded unit that would fall apart if any of the components were missing, unlike a lot of other hip-hop crews that sound like just several MCs thrown together (ie Wu-Tang Clan). The fact that there's four of them tossing rhymes back and forth helped to keep the attention of an audience that might lose interest if there was only one or two MCs. Another aspect of their recordings that carried over to the live format was Chali-2na's ability to stand out from his partners. Although Marc7 was sort of the "host" of the set, introducing the group and most of the songs, most eyes were constantly fixated on Chali. Don't get me wrong, all the MCs are badass, but Chali's baritone voice and 6"6 height gave him way more natural stage presence than the others. Despite J5's MCs' cohesiveness, however, the foundation of the group is its DJs, Cut Chemist and NuMark, who put on a jaw-dropping dual turntable exhibition in the middle of the set. The duo threw around samples and ultra-fast scratch solos, and at one point, NuMark, who had earlier displayed his musicianship by strumming a stringed Japanese instrument, placed a rubber band on the needle of his turntable and began to pick it like a bass! Damn that was cool. But J5 was at their best when all the elements came together as one. They performed nearly all of the EP, including underground classics like "Jayou" and "Concrete Schoolyard," and, of course, several tracks from Quality Control, such as "Improvise" and "Twelve." J5 concluded with "Quality Control," the album's first single, which was smart because it may have helped to remind some ignorant people of exactly who they are and influence them to purchase the record. The crowd was very appreciative of their performance (as were Billie Joe Armstrong and Tre Cool of Green Day, who were watching and head bobbin' on the side of the stage), which was great to see considering this was not exactly a hip-hop audience. After their set, their merchandise table was jammed, whereas before, when I was able to talk to Cut Chemist, there was no one around. Obviously, J5 made a good impact on people.

After J5's magnificent set, what should I hear but the grating growl of Dicky Barrett, signalling the start of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Man, the Bosstones are not a good live band, plain and simple. I may have enjoyed them at Warped Tour '97, but in hindsight, they were really terrible. Dicky's voice is just unbearable live unless you're a diehard fan or just drunk off your ass, and the thrash of their earlier "ska-core" material sounds way too messy and directionless. Of course, the Bosstones have adopted a more rock sound in the past few years, so not only are they annoying, they're bland, too. And what's with the guy who just dances onstage with them? It's not like he's such a great dancer that he just had to be included in the band; in fact, all he does is skip around and headbang -- he should at least learn how to breakdance or something cool. It seems to me like he was some dude who kept begging to be let in the band, but couldn't play any instruments, so eventually they just said, "All right, all right, you can tour with us and just skank around -- but you sleep in the luggage compartment of the tour bus and get paid in bags of peanuts, okay?"

So obviously not wanting to sit and watch the Bosstones, we decided to walk around the venue and catch some of the side stage acts. We happened to wander upon the end of a set by Neville Staples & the Hitmen. Geez, what happened to this guy? A few years ago, as frontman of the Specials, he was set to blow up at the height of the US ska revival. With the ska trend dead and buried, however, Neville has been abandoned by all the remaining original Specials (even loyal guitairst Roddy Radiation), and reduced to playing Specials tunes to a dozen confused skater kids with musicians he probably met a few days before in some blues bar at two in the morning. I feel bad for Neville because I loved the Specials, but maybe it's time for him to move on to selling real estate or something.

Meanwhile on the main stages, Papa Roach, the latest crappy band to capitalize on the current rap-metal boom (who'll probably be backing up Neville Staples by next year's tour), went over their alotted time and were summarily dissed by punk legends TSOL, who were forced to cut down their set to make sure everything still ran on time. I'm not a big fan of TSOL, but that's pretty fucked up to them and their fans. We continued to walk around while all this was happening, and watched some strange funk band on a stage buried pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was kinda surreal watching one of the vocalists, cigar (or blunt) in hand, stumble around drunkenly while the other, a black guy in tight black jeans and a Knack shirt, tried in vain to get the small crowd clapping. I thought I was trapped in some Bizarro World after seeing both Neville Staples and this "band." Around this time I also caught the beginning of local Oxnard heroes (well, heroes to some -- definitely not me) No Motiv's set. I've seen these guys seven times over the past four or five years, which was seven times too many for me, so I continued to visit booths and gather up free crap.

I completely missed Good Riddance's set (more on purpose than accident), and while the Suicide Machines (another band that has abandoned their ska sound since the trend has faded) played on the main stage, I watched the B-Side Players on the side stage. They're a funky Latin band, with a hint of reggae, sort of in the same vein as Ozomatli, but sorta not..if you understand. Their musicianship was very sharp, but they did not connect with the small audience nor did they make any attempt to. They seemed content to just jam out and never interact with, or even acknowledge, those that were watching them. I can appreciate musical talent, of course, but there has to be some sort of bridge to fill the gap between the crowd and the performer and make the entire live experience worth seeing; otherwise, I may as well just watch a video and dance in my living room. They did intro a song with the beginning of Jane's Addiction's "Mountain Song," which was pretty cool.

After B-Side Players were finished and Suicide Machines ended on the main stage, I took my place near the front of the stage to await NOFX. On the other stage, the Lunachicks began. Despite looking like extras from Little Monsters, the 'Chicks had a lot more melody than the Donnas, and played the "punk rock grrls" role way more convincingly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I think they're a good band, but as far as all-girl groups go, they were the best of the day. At one point, one of their songs broke down into a chorus from "Thong Song" ... man, I'm gonna shudder when I hear that song for even more reasons than I did before. Well, as soon as the Lunachicks left the stage, the crushing and the pushing and the elbowing and the kicking and so forth started. Yeah, those are the tell-tale signs of a NOFX performance. NOFX are the punk rock veterans of the tour (unless one counts TSOL, but they broke up and recently reunited), and the effects of prolonged touring is becoming visible: they all look much older, Fat Mike is even fatter, and El Hefe has gone through a divorce. Still, even though they were seemingly going through the motions here, they managed to kick the collective asses of 99% of the bands that have copied their style. After some chatting with the crowd, NOFX endeared themselves to the audience with "Fuck The Kids," which segued into "Linoleum." The skitzo crowd responded to each skate punk classic by both applauding and flipping off the band and calling them "sellouts." The sarcastic comments and jokes between songs seemed to take precedent over the songs themselves, and the band probably spent more time blabbing than playing.. but again, that may be why NOFX is still one of the most popular punk bands around, because they act like they just don't care about what the fans think, and people actually believe them. I personally don't, because I've had brief meetings in the past with Fat Mike and El Hefe and both of them seem to truly enjoy hearing positive comments about their band. When NOFX does play their songs, though, they sound like the vets they are, playing tighter and better than their hundreds of imitators. Their set included most of their classics, like "Bob," "Stickin' In My Eye," "Perfect Government" and "Soul Doubt." They tacked on a few minute-long blasts, like "Murder The Government" and "Six Pack Girls," and a few from their new album, Pump Up The Valuum. I was almost expecting them to come out and just perform their great 18-minute epic "The Decline," just to piss most of their fans off, but they chose the sane route and did the songs everyone wanted to hear. They ended with the usual sing-along show closer, "The Brews," to send the NOFX fans home happy.

If one half of the crowd was watching NOFX, the other half was waiting patiently for the triumphant return of Weezer. The audience surged when the band took the stage and began, without saying a word, unlike NOFX, with "My Name Is Jonas." The shyness and "average guy" personality expressed on their recordings manifested into their live show, as vocalist/guitarist/tortured genius Rivers Cuomo covered half of his face in a Beatles-esque mop top and hardly looked up from his guitar. There were rumors that Rivers had gone crazy and locked himself in a recording studio after returning from the road last time, but he could definitely pass for sane here (or, at least, just as insane as the rest of us). What the band lacked in physical self-esteem was made up for by the confidence in the massive distorted crunch of their guitars. Weezer simply out-rocked every other band on the tour. The sides of the stage were packed by members of nearly all the other headlining acts, watching and singing along as the quintessential underdogs reclaimed their spot atop the nerd-rock mountain. Their set consisted of nearly all their singles, chiefly from their self-titled debut; the only selection from their sophomore album, Pinkerton (one of the most underappreciated albums of the '90's), was the quirky "El Scorcho," whose intro actually garnered one of the loudest crowd reactions of their show. In between each song, there were more "W" hand signals in the air than a Westside Connection video, and the warm response from the crowd cracked smiles on the band members' usually stoic faces. Weezer didn't have to run across the stage, make stupid jokes, or jump off stuff, because songs like "Surfwax America," "Buddy Holly," and "Say It Ain't So" (one of the greatest "alternative" rock songs ever) spoke for themselves. After ending with their first hit, "Undone (the Sweater Song)," the crowd chanted "Weezer" in a vain attempt to bring them back for an encore, something that did not happen for any other band. Although they like to present themselves as geeky losers, I'd rather hang out with Weezer than just about any other band.

On the other main stage were perhaps the polar opposite of Weezer, personality-wise, the Long Beach Dub All Stars. A bunch of tattooed, beer-guzzling and weed-smoking beach bums, who are, of course, the continuation of Sublime's musical legacy after the death of Brad Nowell about four years ago. The problem I have with LBDAS is that while they are a good Sublime cover band, their originals are purely mediocre reggae tunes. Brad was a terrific songwriter and irreplaceable singer; he was the element that made Sublime great, and its kinda pointless to carry on his music without moving away from the reggae/hip-hop/punk thing, because nobody could write music in that style as good as him. LBDAS established from the start their connection to Sublime, starting their set with "Scarlet Begonias," a Grateful Dead song that Sublime morphed into hip-hop reggae. In fact, their set was dominated by covers, from Sublime ("Right Back," "Let's Go Get Stoned," "Badfish"), Descendents ("Hope," which Sublime covered on 40 Oz. To Freedom), and Bad Brains ("Attitude," "The Regulator"). All of these sounded fine, as the band, which includes ex-Sublime members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh on bass and drums, is damn tight. However, when they performed a few of their weak original tunes, the crowd's energy sort of deflated. LBDAS catered to the drunk asshole contingent of the crowd during "Let's Go Get Stoned," with ice-faced DJ Field Marshall Goodman interpolating several sexually explicit sound bits into the song. Although Sublime attracted a lot of jerks, Brad Nowell knew how to write songs that could cross over and reach a diverse audience; LBDAS, at this and a few other points in their show, instead alienated portions of the crowd with their machismo.

Just a few years ago, it was considered completely unhip to like Green Day, those sellout, wannabe punk rock brats. However, with the trio having been out of the public eye for a few years, it was time for all the hypocritical "punk" kids who dyed their hair purple when Dookie blew up then denounced the band by the time they released their last album, Nimrod, to roll out the red carpet for them and pretend they've supported Green Day for the past six years. I myself, I admit, bought Dookie in 6th grade, and later their older albums, and even purchased their follow up, Insomniac. I've since sold those albums as my musical taste has changed, but I've never jumped on the "Green Day are the worst band ever" bandwagon, nor have I aligned myself with the "It's so dorky to like Green Day that it's cool now" group, either. I was down in the pit with the excited masses, singing along to every song simply because I knew I wouldn't be able to contain myself from doing so anyway -- Green Day was a pretty big part of my junior high school years, after all (though I was always more of an Offspring fan). There were some guys who were trying to look hard by staring stone-faced at Billie Joe and the rest of the band as if they hated them, but I caught them mouthing the words to "Longview" and "Basket Case." Green Day refrained from playing anything from Kerplunk! or 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (with the exception of their cover of Operation Ivy's "Knowledge," during which they invited someone from the crowd -- who turned out to be Armand from local Oxnard band the Whereabouts -- to play guitar) or any new songs; instead, they played it safe and packed their set with all the singles everyone knows: "Welcome To Paradise," "Geek Stink Breath," "Hitching A Ride," etc. Hey, at least they know their place with the nostalgic fans. Luckily they chose not to perform their acoustic attempt to cross into Matchbox 20-ish territory, "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)," because there probably would've been a riot. They ended appropriately with "When I Come Around," then proceeded to go all arena rock and light Tre's drumset on fire. Well, that was stupid, but still, it's hard to truly hate Green Day. Their show didn't persuade me to rush out and re-buy all their albums or anything, but seeing Billie Joe run across the stage, smiling wickedly, blissfully aware of the novelty act they're becoming, and lead the crowd in a fist-pumping session, and the fact that I was doing it along with everyone else, made me laugh more than just about anything the whole day.

As is tradition with Warped Tour, the final band to close the mainstage is one that few people really give a shit about, and this year it was MxPx, but I, like most of the crowd, was heading home as they were starting to play. I heard later that their set was plagued by technical problems, so I'm even more glad I left. But this was definitely the best Warped Tour I've attended. Warped has matured into the new Lollapalooza in many ways, showcasing several diverse artists with a common thread running through them. Each year, the lineup gets more and more interesting, and considering the past two years, Warped 2001 could be awesome.

Click here for the Warped Tour 1999 review...
Click here for the Warped Tour 1998 review...
Click here for the Warped Tour 1997 review...