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I Got Warped at Columbia Meadows 7-10-05 By Robin Steeley    A wet and rainy day didn’t stop a record turn out for this year’s annual Warped tour at Columbia Meadows in St. Helens, Oregon. My first trip of the day’s 71 bands and many stages was the Ernie Ball stage where I was proud to catch Portland locals Blue Turns White, Falling Closer, and Dear Whoever. We even Rumble working the board for the bands to guarantee they would get a good sound on such a big day. Blue turns White has a solid sound just heavy enough but also having an element of radio friendliness to it. It’s the melody and screaming mixed together that works for them. What they have that stands out the most is punishing breakdowns that you can really feel.    Following is one of the better local bands from our scene, Falling Closer. They are the real reason I came to Warped Tour this year, well, them and the great Billy Idol. They have been steadily rising since their recent album release and their appearance on Warped Tour just proves their impending success. Falling Closer is fast and driving, the melodies and extreme vocal talent are what make up the unique sound of this band, they have an energetic stage performance and really draw the crowd in. When they started playing, there were hardly any people there but by the time they hit their second song there was a crowd building.    Next up and last on my list of locals is Dear Whoever who are much heavier but also have that melodic sing/scream formula that I’m finding is very familiar to most of the bands on the Warped bill this year. Some just do it better then others and Dear Whoever is one of them.    We wandered over to the MLB batting cages and even in the rain they are staying busy. They offer a hat design contest and we were given free shirts just for showing up to say hello. They have an indoor video station including games and an internet connection to MLB.com. We were so busy checking out their station that we nearly missed mxpx, who had some serious high-energy punk style to their sound.    We checked out Hawthorne Heights who have so far today drawn the best response, starting out the mess of crowd surfing that would soon ensue. I’ve heard so much about this band I’ve been waiting to see them and I wasn’t disappointed. They feature radio worthy, catchy tunes that are easy to remember. Afterwards we checked out Samsung’s Punk Rock Museum, which got us out of the rain for a few minutes but was very crowded, it seems like a feature of the tour that is getting some serious interest daily. Most of the vendors are band merchandise, record labels, and corporate sponsors like Trojan walking around handing out condoms that reportedly “make you tingle”.    We wandered back to the main stage, better known today as the “Mike” stage, just in time to catch a bit of Matchbook Romance’s set, which was well worth the walk over. They played to a huge crowd, directly before “My Chemical Romance” was to play next door at the Bishop Stage. It was funny to see the crowd race from in front of one stage to the other, since the band started the second the other one finished, it was like a mad race to travel 30 feet. I really liked Matchbook Romance; they have a more organized style then many of the screamo bands I’ve been hearing today.    We cruised to yet another area of the lawn to search out the band “Bleed The Dream” since I was a huge fan of their recording. From Los Angeles, the band offers a much heavier set the most I’ve seen today. They look like experts at what they are doing no matter how small the stage is, or the crowd they are playing too. We needed a break after all of this so we wandered to the back fence and sat down to listen to My American Dream on the Ernie Ball Stage. They were super fast, a driving force, rushing around like they all drank three rock stars right before they jumped on stage, it was great to watch, even at a distance.    We made our way back to the main Mike stage to see the Dropkick Murphy’s. I can’t be emphatic enough I LOVE THIS BAND. They are overwhelmingly the best thing I have seen yet today; They blend their infectious songs with a little old school punk rock, some Irish bagpipes, and a whole lot of swagger. The vocalist was jumping into the crowd, singing with them, and it was amazing the connection he had with the fans. It was the most crowd surfing of the entire day, probably put together all the rest of the bands crowd response and you get the love the crowd gave to the Murphy’s, flying banners and screaming the songs so loud the band didn’t even need to sing. These kids sang the songs as if they were their life’s anthems. It was definitely a highlight moment of the day.    We ran back over to the Smartpunk Stage to check out California’s Yesterday’s Rising. They have a heavy yet melodic sound with well-formulated songs and they had several tunes that really stuck in my head. I had the same problem when I checked out Boys Night Out, their music was stuck in my head for a long time after I heard it. They were definitely one of the better acts. They are playing in support of their new album “Trainwreck”. This band is more fun then most and the vocal duties are shared by a beautiful tattooed girl that I bet will break her share of hearts this tour with her great back up vocals and keys work. Not that the vocal lead is to be outdone, he showed excellent stage presence and great vocal ability. Overall BNO impressed me with their sound and overall delivery.    For our final performance of the evening, we ran over with most of the day’s crowd and waited for Billy idol to grace the stage. All I can say, is he IS AMAZING. The man doesn’t age, and neither does his music. It was so crazy to look out into this sea of younger generation and to see them singing the words to his timeless music. He is sexy, charismatic and in terrific shape. The legendary lip curl, defiant fist thrust high into the air, seemed like an exclamation point to the entire day.    As much as I like Atreyu, Thrice, and The Offspring, this was as many bands as I could cover in one day. My warped tour was over, I was going home. Overall, its way more organized then last year. I would love to see more of a variety in musical genres, as many of the bands sounded the same, and after a full day, it all started to get chaotic and run together. That’s the only ounce of criticism that I have, mix it up a little. This is supposed to be punk rock, a celebration of all that is alternative, yet much of what I found here today is the same. There isn’t enough diversity in the music, but the diversity I found was in the crowd itself, and that is the real point to this tour, the celebration of being WARPED. Bands we covered (photos Included) Blue Turns White Falling Closer Dear Whoever MXPX Hawthorne Heights Matchbook Romance My Chemical Romance Bleed The Dream My American Heart Dropkick Murphys Yesterday’s Rising Boys Night Out Billy F’ing IDOL And Also – our pick for best vendors Samsung Punk Rock Museum MLB Batting Cages U Mix It demonstration at Tent World Content copyright © 2004 Crave Magazine. All rights reserved.