Blossom’s Warped Tour lineup boasts nearly 80 bands
The Warped Tour (which comes to Cuyahoga Falls’ Blossom Music Center this Wednesday) is one of the first day-long music festivals I ever attended, and, at one time, was the top summer show on my personal concert list. Then, the tour started veering away from its crusty punk-rock roots to diversify the music and appeal to a larger audience and younger teens.
Check out a review of my favorite Warped bands and some pictures of the chaos here!
I recall a Warped Tour from the mid 2000s where I saw fans of The Casualties booing Hellogoodbye off the adjacent stage. That epitomized the growing rift in fans to me. While it may be fun to watch persnickety scenesters get their asses kicked by hardcore punkers, the music was really starting to suck and truly devalued fans’ experiences.
The Warped Tour, at that point, was becoming a mockery of its former self, shamelessly boasting horrid lineups with no continuity and way too much pop rock (“pop punk” is an oxymoron, and I stubbornly refuse to acknowledge it as an actual genre). Diversity can be a great thing in music, but replacing the Tour’s smaller, focused lineups with dozens of bullshit bands in a desperate attempt to bring in droves of teenagers with allowance-stuffed pockets left the former Warped regulars — who, like myself, probably yearn for the classic lineups featuring Bad Religion, NOFX, MxPx, Pennywise, Guttermouth and The Casualties – feeling betrayed and complacent. What once felt like “our” summer concert was stripped of its identity and taken over by the commercialism.
That’s how I felt anyway.
So, after a four or five-year hiatus, I’m planning to give the Warped Tour another shot this summer. It may have changed drastically from what it was in the 1990s and early 2000s, but it’s time to see what the modernized festival has to offer. Blossom’s lineup is still noticeably void of a lot of true punk bands, but high in diversity as the music ranges from folksy acoustic sets to metal, rap and pop rock. Some popular bands I liked as a youth in high school — like New Found Glory, Taking Back Sunday, Yellowcard and The Used — could be nostalgic to see again, while performances by some of the contemporary metal bands — like Every Time I Die, After the Burial and Born of Osiris – sweetened the deal for me this year.
Anti Flag is definitely at the top of my list, though, because they always put on a fun show and pander to their long-time fans with plenty of their classic songs — how anyone can resist skanking along to “Drink Drank Punk” or moshing to “Die For the Government” is beyond me. They’re also a rare connection to the show’s former punk glory. Ultimately, the good bands are still in the minority, but I’m hopeful there’s enough quality music that the time and $45 I burn to get in Wednesday won’t be in vain.
Check back this week for my reflections on the July 11 Warped Tour at Blossom Music Center. In the meantime, let us know if you’re planning to go and what bands you’re pumped to see! Below is a complete, alphabetical list of groups primed to play the show at Blossom Music Center as of July 9:
- A Loss for Words
- After the Burial
- All Time Low
- Anthony Raneri
- Anti Flag
- Ballyhoo!
- Bangups
- Bayside
- blessthefall
- Blood on the Dance Floor
- Born of Osiris
- Breathe Carolina
- Brian Marquis
- Champagne Champagne
- Chelsea Grin
- Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!
- Cold Forty Three
- Danielle Barbe
- Dead Sara
- Echo Movement
- Emily’s Army
- Every Time I Die
- Falling in Reverse
- Fireworks
- For Today
- Four Year Strong
- Funeral Party
- G-Eazy
- Greek Fire
- Hyro Da Hero
- I Fight Dragons
- iwrestledabearonce
- Koji
- Lost in Society
- Machine Gun Kelly
- Make Do and Mend
- Man Overboard
- Matt Toka
- Mayday Parade
- Memphis May Fire
- Miss May I
- Mod Sun
- Motionless in White
- New Empire
- New Found Glory
- Of Mice and Men
- Owen Plant
- Pierce the Veil
- Polar Bear Club
- Rise to Remains
- Senses Fail
- Skinny Lister
- Skip the Foreplay
- Sleeping with Sirens
- Stepdad
- Streetlight Manifesto
- Super Water Sympathy
- T. Mills
- Taking Back Sunday
- The Constellations
- The Ghost Inside
- The Green
- The Silver Comet
- The Used
- Title Fight
- Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds
- Tonight Alive
- Tony D’Angelo
- Transit
- Twin Atlantic
- Vampires Everywhere
- Vanna
- We Are the In Crowd
- We Are the Ocean
- We the Kings
- Wick-It the Instigator
- Yellowcard
- You Me at Six
- Young London
Doors to the festival open around 10 a.m. and times/stages aren’t finalized until the morning of the show, so if you’re lucky enough to have the day off and want to be sure you don’t miss your favorite band, get there early.
