The Southern California venue this year was in San Bernadino, which is the absolute pits of the Los Angeles area. I mean, there is nothing there. So just by driving around the "city" looking for the Orange Show Fairgrounds, I got the image in my head of the venue being just a huge, run down, empty lot; like a place where swap meets are held. From what I could see from the line, however, it looked to be a cool place, with a lot of grass and shade. After waiting in the 90-plus degree weather for an hour before getting inside the place, I found that the nice area was actually where the second and third stages were; the main stage area was a large open space with asphalt ground. It looked a bit shitty at first, but I got used to it as the day progressed.

The show finally kicked off at 12:30 on the main stage with the Bouncing Souls. The Souls were near the top of my list going in of "bands I have to see". Unfortunately, they got the unenviable position of being the opening band, so half the crowd wasn't even inside the Fairgrounds yet. There was a decent sized crowd, though, but mainly everyone was just watching. The Souls began with "Hopeless Romantic" from their new album of the same name, and a small pit broke out and was maintained by the same four guys for the remainder of the set. The band seemed slightly bummed by the small turnout for their set, but they still managed to perform well for those who were interested in seeing them. They began to take requests from the crowd and looked to be playing without a setlist, so they really did do a lot of the songs people yelled out for, like "Born To Lose", "I Like Your Mom" and "Lamar Vanoy". The singer looked like he could be a white guy in Blackstreet with his Kangol, silk shirt, and twirling cane. They covered a TSOL song in celebration of TSOL's reunion and half of "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister because someone requested it. When they continued with Bouncing Souls songs, they did two new ones, including a duet with a girl backstage (during which half of those watching were more interested in flipping off an onstage camera), and finished up with "Here We Go". The singer didn't move around much aside from jumping off the drum stand a few times, but that could be attributed to the low amount of energy from the crowd. Also, the toms on the drums were miked too loud, so it sounded weird every time the drummer did a fill. Nevertheless, a good show by the Bouncing Souls, who I believe could've been ten times better had they gotten a better time slot with a more pumped up crowd.

The next hour and a half was crap on the main stages: Zebrahead, an annoying rock/rap group that got some airplay with a single last year, played at one; Grinspoon, some hard rock/pop punk band that I heard doing a horrid cover of the Cheers theme song, at 1:30; and some band whose name I don't even remember, Hblockx or something, at two. So my friends and I had some time to do some exploring. Over in the Groove Tent area, we caught the first of a few sets that were to be done throughout the day by Common Sense, a reggae/rock group who had a song called "Never Give Up" on the radio a while ago. Normally, reggae/rock groups are sloppy and forced to play bars for their whole careers. Common Sense is a bit more professional than those bands and they sound a whole lot better. There was only a dozen people paying attention to them, while others were taking a break in the shade and walking to the various booths in the area. The singer, a professional surfer, managed to keep the women's interest by gyrating on a catwalk that extended from the front of the stage (for a fashion show later) with his shirt off. I was only half watching them, but they seemed to have their shit together live (though they sound too polished and cheesier on record). I caught their performances of Bob Marley's "Waiting In Vain", their own "Never Give Up", and Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower". Although they did a decent job of covering "All Along..", it can't help but to sound cheesy when you cover such a well known tune and reggaefy it. Toots and the Maytals' covers of "Louie Louie" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads" are good songs when they stand alone, but when you realize that they're famous songs, it's hard to take them seriously.

We decided to walk around to the second and third stages to see whatever there was to see over there. As it turned out, not much. Just a dozen people watching a horrible DefLimpKornTones wannabe band. That style is boring to me to begin with, but now it's getting overdone as well. The less said about whoever these guys were, the better. We walked back to the Groove Tent, and since nothing worth catching was going on on the main stages, I decided to enter a Punk Rock Jeopardy contest. I was in first place going into Final Jeopardy, and I knew the answer to that question, too ("What does DRI stand for?"), but the guy sitting next to me cheated by first trying to look at my card that I was writing the answer on (my friend quickly blocked it with his hand), then had his friend whisper the answer to him. He wagered more, so he won first place (and an expensive MP3 player) and I won second place (and a shirt and a hat). Bastard! Oh well, I had fun, and I am the uncrowned champion of Punk Rock Jeopardy, and everyone knows it! =)

The game ended at 2:30, just in time for me to catch the legendary Mike Watt's set. Watt was of course the bassist for the Minutemen, seminal SST punk/weird funk band. It seemed like few "punks" at the show realized what he has done for punk music. The crowd for his set was small but appreciative. Man, Mike Watt is one of the most amazing bassists I've seen. He has the most intense style of playing, where he'll do normal finger picking, then he'll thump with his thumb, pop a string, and then just pound on the strings with an open palm. He was awesome to watch, and it was visible that he was deeply into his music. The emotion just pours out of him when he plays. The same goes for guitarist Nels Cline, who plays just as intensely as Watt, slamming his strings with a metal rod every few moments. The drummer was damn good, too. I don't think a lot of people knew what to make of his music, that definitely had a punk attitude to it but not a punk sound that most people are used to. It's kind of a punked out indie rock/thrash/blues/funk, I guess. It's hard to accurately describe. No matter what you call it, I liked Mike Watt's set a lot. I think he embodies the true spirit of what punk is more than any mohawked guy in dirty clothes with a bad attitude. He fucking rocks, straight out.

What would the Warped Tour be without shitty generic ska? The represenatives of that genre this year were Australian band the Porkers. I've never liked them on record, and I certainly don't like them live. That's all I have to say. At 3:30, the Vandals began their set. This was my sixth time seeing them live. Really, it was the same thing as the three other times I've seen them this year, so if you want to know how they were, read my review of their headlining Ventura Theater show or Extravaganza 1999, but add their cover of a Pennywise song from Hitler Bad, Vandals Good and the old tune "Pizza Tran" to the setlist and an opening of a bean bag chair in the pit, with its styrofoam contents spilling over myself and all the sweaty moshers. They were going to end with "So Long, Farewell", but Suicidal Tendencies were starting a bit early on the other stage, so they stopped the begginning of the song in order to avoid getting the crap kicked out of them by Mike Muir.

Based on what I've read, I was expecting a near riot to break out once Suicidal Tendencies stepped on stage, but surprisingly, it was relatively calm. Yeah, a lot of people were singing along and there was a pit, but it wasn't full throttle chaos like I had anticipated. The first two or three songs did not sound very good to me, but for some reason, when they began to play one of the few songs I know by them, "Subliminal", I was drawn to the front of the stage (or barrier). They were far from being awesome; their bassist slapped way too much. Slapping sounds cool when it's used moderately and at the right time. This guy added slap parts to songs like "I Saw Your Mommy" and "Fascist Pig", which didn't need it at all. Also, Mike Muir's between song speeches sounded rehearsed. Though I agreed with most of what he said (believe in yourself, don't follow the crowd, etc.), he was talking so fast and was trying so hard to get the words right that the ideas seemed lost and synthetic. Onstage babble is more convincing when it's done spontaneously. With those faults, though, ST still managed to pull a surprisingly good set out of their ass, mixing new stuff from the Freedumb album nicely with old material. I expected "ST Army" to segue into "Institutionalized" for a roaring, insane ending, but no dice. Wait.. let me read that sentence over. They didn't perform fucking "Institutionalized"?! What bizarro world is this?! Seriously, I was in shock that they didn't do "Institutionalized", their most famous song and one of the best and most ingenious early hardcore songs ever. A band can play whatever they want, I know, but it seems like that song would have to be on their setlist to close the show. Damn! Still, a solid set. Watching ST live you can see how much they influenced a lot of today's bands, especially Limp Bizkit. I hate that band, but from what I've seen of their live shows on television, Fred Durst owes a lot of his onstage persona to Mike Muir.

Over on the other stage, Less Than Jake began their set. It was weird to follow up a Suicidal Tendencies performance with some cheesy television workout show parody intro. The LTJ Traveling Circus had their usual band of characters onstage to make the crowd give a shit about them, including a guy with a skull mask wearing a cowboy hat -- I'm sorry, guys, you're not Oingo Boingo. I've seen LTJ at Ska Against Racism and last year's Warped Tour, and I really didn't need to see them for a third time, so I decided to walk around a bit. I spoke to Mike Park (aka Bruce Lee, former frontman for Skankin' Pickle and the Bruce Lee Band, and creator of Asian Man Records) over at the Anti Racist Action booth. I never was a big fan of any of his bands, but I said hi anyway. Unfortunately, it seemed that he was only interested in doing business, as he tried to turn away from me after shaking my hand. Whatever. As I was walking towards the second stage to claim a spot for Eminem's set, I was nearly run over by a pit that suddenly formed, at the command of Less Than Jake's frontman, around the sound booth directly facing the first stage. Did I need another reason to dislike LTJ?

Once Less Than Jake mercifully ended, Eminem began the first of three hip hop sets for the day. He was introduced by a protege who I thought was Royce the 5"9, but then learned it was just some guy to hype and back up Eminem live, and possibly to get Eminem more over with certain fans who can't believe that any white person could be a legitimate rap talent without help from a black person (of course, he already has Dr. Dre behind him). Eminem flew out from backstage and ripped straight into "Brain Damaged" after a brief intro using "The Imperial March (aka Darth Vader's Theme)" from Star Wars. I wondered if Eminem would be able to make the transition from underground superstar to mainstream performer, but from the start he seemed to be comfortable on stage in front of a lot of people, running around and climbing on speakers, etc. He exuded more physical energy than he probably would have in his underground days, since a lot of underground hip hop fans look to the beats and lyrics more than stage presence in a live show. "Brain Damaged" segued into a cover of "Nothin' But A 'G' Thang", the Dr. Dre/Snoop Dogg classic. The Other Guy instructed everyone to chant Dr. Dre, teasing that he'd make an appearance. I was pumped at the prospect of seeing Dre come out, but he didn't show. Instead, Eminem and his friend did a few verses from the song, changing a few lyrics around (like "Aftermath is the label that pays me" instead of Death Row). That was probably the highlight of the set; not that it went down from there. In fact, nearly the whole set was great; the thing is, it's hard for me to pin down what exactly I liked about it. There was just something about his animated stage presence and the atmosphere that made me really enjoy the set and list it as a highlight of the day. The setlist consisted of the songs you'd expect: "Just Don't Give A Fuck", "My Fault", "Role Model", "Still Don't Give A Fuck", and of course "My Name Is" which whipped the crowd into a frenzy. Eminem ended with "As The World Turns", one of his not-so-good songs. I was hoping that maybe a performance of "Guilty Conscience" (being the new single and all) would prompt a Dr. Dre appearance, but no dice. Still, I left with few complaints.

To change gears completely, the Dropkick Murphies started on stage one. I couldn't judge them since I didn't watch any of their set, but I'm not a fan of theirs on record so I doubt I'd enjoy them too much live. We made sure to get a good spot for Black Eyed Peas on stage two as soon as the Murphies were finished. To be honest, I was only vaguely familiar with the Peas' material at this time, though I thought that their hit single "Joints and Jams" was one of the best things to come along mainstream hip hop radio in a long time. They have an absolutely kick-ass live band, which gives them credibility with some hip hop detractors at the show who usually say, "It's not really music, all they do is use other people's songs." As for the three MCs themselves, well, all I can say is that they know how to do hip hop live. Not only are they skilled lyrically, but they know how to give people a visual show as well. The Peas hit every spot of the stage and didn't stop moving the whole time, even venturing into the crowd at some points. They even put on breakdancing exhibition at one point. The audience wasn't too big for them, but those that were there were very appreciative of their performance, chanting "Black Eyed Peas" in vain for a encore. In summary, the Peas put on an incredible show, though I almost enjoyed myself more during Eminem simply because I knew more of his songs. Honestly, though, there's no way I could say that Eminem put on a better show than BEP, because they just whooped everyone's ass.

To switch gears yet again, Blink 182 was next. Yipee. Like Less Than Jake, Blink is a band that I really don't need to watch three times, so I didn't. I was around to catch the inevitable performance of their big hit "Dammit", which excited both middle school girls and drunk frat boys alike. Once they were done, Ice T began the final hip hop set of the day. When DJ Evil E began to play DMX's "Rough Riders Anthem" to rile up the crowd before T strolled out onstage, I knew I was in for a crappy set.. but it was crap I had to watch, just because Ice T calls himself the "creator" of gangster rap (yeah, right). T's first song used the beat to Nas's hit "Hate Me Now". I think you know it's time to pack it in when you're rhyming over beats to current popular songs to excite a crowd. You also know you're washed up when you're still using the tired ultra-misogynist, hard-ass "gangsta" attitude like Ice T is. His between song banter was so goddamn laughable I thought I was watching CB4 or something. His songs were just terrible, too, with his DJ mixing in a soundbyte of Ice Cube's trademark "yay-yayee" call every three seconds. I was hoping Ice Cube would come out, push T off stage and do a set to end this shit. T then went on to annoy me even further by claiming that "no one could tell [him] shit about punk rock" because he knows all about Rancid, NOFX, Black Flag, the Exploited, etc. Wow, you memorized some names of bands, good for you, T! Then he said that being punk is "being a middle class white boy and telling your friend 'Suck my dick, I like Too Short'." I think Mike Watt knows a hell of a lot more about what punk is than Ice T. As if that weren't enough, T went on to give us a hip hop history listen, where he placed himself in a group alongside Public Enemy, NWA, and Erik B & Rakim. Okay, Public Enemy is one of the most groundbreaking rap acts ever, NWA - no matter how fake they may have been - put gangster rap on the map, and Erik B & Rakim are two of the most influential MCs in history. Where the fuck does Ice T fit in? History will always remember those other groups; everyone has all but forgotten about Ice T already. He ended with the one song I can tolerate, "Colors". Ice T was by far the worst act of the day, and one of the worst performers I've ever seen in my concert going career.

After that unpleasantness, Pennywise, the day's headliners (well, Sevendust was actually the last main stage act, but would anyone consider them a headliner?), began. I was only half watching their set because I was so damn tired. Despite guitarist Fletcher's idiotic comments in between songs, their live sound is really tight and comes close to sounding exactly as they do on record, which could be a good or bad thing. They threw in stuff from all of their records, none of which I can remember (except "Perfect People", one of the most memorable new school punk songs so far). I was surprised that they did their rendition "Atomic Punks" from the Misfits tribute album. Of course they ended with "Bro Hymn". Not much more I can say about Pennywise, aside from please kick out Fletcher.

Well, there's the show. We did see a Family Values metal band playing in front of a band to about three people on our way out, but that doesn't count. All in all, great concert. Musically, it's second in the three Warped Tours I've been to behind last year's, and in terms of the venue it's first, but it was so easy to get from stage to stage and to get drinks and food, etc. Like I always say, can't wait 'til next year! Click here for Warped Tour 2000 review...
Click here for Warped Tour 1998 review...
Click here for Warped Tour 1997 review...