Keagan Ilvonen's Blog Entry

Choosing between ETID and FYS was so hard. You chose well, Keagan, but ETID's wall of hugs was the most passionate explosion of all things awesome that I'd seen in a while. Enter Shikari's and Emarosa's sets were incredible, too.
Did you catch a glimpse of BMTH's and Vanna's crowds? Wow, huge.

Motion City Soundtrack, duhhhhh

I saw Jonny Craig eating a burrito after Every Time I Die's set in the Emarosa tent. Pretty amazing.
Also, shame you didn't see Enter Shikari, their set was above and beyond the call of duty. They jump off amps like nobody's business.

Funny how you were all over the area for SYG but didn't see the massive explosion of violence int he pit at the beginning of Gaia Bleeds.

" On my travels I caught the last song of ETID’s set, which was simply insane. Made me question if I had made the right choice"

isn't that the story of warped
i feel lucky since outside of IWABO all my favorite bands are mainstaging this year

Man. I saw all the bands you didn't save for Sparks and FYS. o:

Awesome review Keegan; It sucks so much that I have to wait till the last date for Warped, which will have some shenanigans for sure! I hope Adam gets back to me, so I can see if I can pull off a good review like you.

Sadly, Portland warped doesn't get Polar Bear Club, Four Year Strong, The Swellers, etc.

Luckily, The Swellers are in town the following week with Fireworks/Transit/Man Overboard, so i'm stoked for that.

having to choose between FYS/PBC/ETID was a huge pain in the ass, but you missed a killer ETID set especially the wall of hugs during "Floater" I think it was.

and yeah Set Your Goals' set was my favorite next to ETID. you probably saw me at some point during their set I was in a black Ambitions shirt with a repeated green logo. good runthough dude!

Johnny Craig has a pretty awesome mullet thing going on.

This is the first year I've gone to Warped tour and while I've heard that earlier years were amazing I was really happy with the bands I got to see. I love the Cab because as poppy as their music is they always put on a good show (and to be honest my music preferences do lean that way). I would have loved to see Four Year Strong, especially at a hometown show but I was late getting in and by the time I found the lineup (let alone the right stage) I'd missed most of their sets.

Sparks The Rescue definitely didn't have their greatest performance; they were better when I saw them in Montreal, but I was still okay with the fact that I skipped the All-Amerian Rejects for them. This stop definitely made me sad in terms of set times, it seemed that all the bands I wanted to see were playing at the same time so it was really hard to get as many bands in as I was hoping to.

I have to say the biggest find for me was probably You Me At Six who I checked out at the suggestion of the Cab's drummer. Very happy to have new music to check out. Got to see bits and pieces of the Swellers, Motion City Soundtrack and a bunch of other bands. Definitely spent way to much money on CDs. I have to say Reel Big Fish brought me back to memories of early high school. Althought I left about halfway through their set to avoid the hellish traffic at Comcast I think it might have been the highlight of my day.

i think the line up this year was terrible compared to years in the past. theres only so many times i can watch syg and fys before they just get old

Nice write up. I enjoyed reading this.

I just went to Warped in Camden NJ and had a blast!

Sparks played old shit and killed that performance is what I heard haha. A bunch of Maine hxc kids crowd killing on a pop band.

I know that PJ fellow, he is a douche. We've got to chill sometime man, are you going to Transmission Fest in August?

I enjoyed Warped Tour a ton but the crowd this year was especially wretched and the scheduling of bands was absurd. Four Year Strong should be bumped up to main stage for the Mass date of Warped Tour. You were right about Set Your Goals though, truly an amazing set. I was right up at the front with my girlfriend. By far my favorite of the day. I did have a blast at Polar Bear Club and was glad that I made the decision to see them over FYS. Johnny Craig fucking killed it live with Emarosa too. It was a fun day but I hope next year the scheduling works out better.

Wow, I had no idea you were from around here. Yeah, I've only been twice to Warped and this year was, by far, the better of the two. I was at I Can Make A Mess, Four Year Strong, Flatfoot 56, Sparks the Rescue, The Swellers, Set Your Goals, Motion City, and Sum 41.

The Swellers' crowd was slightly disappointing; these girls at the center of the pit kept on punching anyone who tried to mosh, so I left for SYG and then Motion. SYG was amazing though; I got there as "Gaia" started.

You haven't been to Warped before? You must be really young Keagan. I agree with someone's comment above that you should have check out Enter Shikari. Their set is amazing. Unfortunately they won't be at my date. I'm glad you did an interview with After Midnight Project, looking forward to hear/read it soon