LOUDER: July 2012

Friends of mine will tell you that the one place I am truly in my element is when I'm watching a band play. For many years my love of pop punk/alternative/rock music culminates in what can only be described as the "best/worst" day ever- Vans Warped Tour. This year, that firey red headed best friend I always mention was my date to her very first Warped Tour, and unfortunetly for her, getting there was slightly more dramatic than usual. Imagine this:

It's Thursday morning, Warped is Friday. You are repeatedly calling everyone you know looking for a place in Orlando to stay tonight so you don't have to wake up at the ass crack of dawn, drive 2 hours, spend all day in the raging Florida sun, only to have to drive those same 2 hours again that night. And of course, no body is answering. Then you check your bank account, and that is a sad story in and of itself. Everyone you ask for help is telling you that you obviously shouldn't be going to this concert because you can't afford it and things clearly are not working in your favor. Your response to everyone is "I don't care, I'm going. I'll sleep in my car." Long story short we found a friend that let us crash at his place and scored a big comfy hotel bed the following night, so it all worked out, but not without me bursting into tears a few times in a raging 24 year old temper tantrum worthy of some kind of trashy reality tv show; I threw another one when we were stuck in traffic trying to get to the fairgrounds when it took us an hour to drive the last mile and park, and then again when I discovered not only did we miss Tonight Alive and Four Year Strong but All Time Low and Mayday Parade were playing at conflicting times (if you know me, you know this was my WORST CASE SCENARIO).

But Alas, we made it to the fairgrounds and enjoyed what I can say with complete confidence, the best day of my life. As we walked in we caught the tail end of Polar Bear Club's set and wandered around trying to get our bearings and prepare ourselves for the day ahead. We watched Lostprohpets play a few songs before heading over to the Kevin Says stage to catch I Call Fives, where I shamelessly flirted with one of their merch guys, who liked me because I already owned their brand new full length, and convinced my best friend to buy it- so worth it. We got an excellent spot for New Found Glory even though I had to suffer through the ramblings of the most obnoxious shirtless guy in white sunglasses about how much he hated The Ghost Inside (playing the other main stage), I swear I almost punched him. As soon as NFG came out on stage in their matching basketball uniforms the crowd went nuts, it was perfect. After that, we skeddadled over to the Monster Energy stage to catch Sleeping With Sirens. Sidebar- Kellin Quinn is such a little guy, but I swear my face turns into that cute little emoji with hearts for eyes when I look at him. His lyrics are so intense and watching him sing them with such passion nearly brought tears to my eyes, most definately one of the high points of the day. After that we ran back over to jam with Taking Back Sunday, not the first time I've seen them but they were amazing as usual, and even had a special guest from A Day To Remember for a couple of songs.

It's inevtiable that at every Warped Tour, 2 bands I want to see will play at conflicting times and I'll be forced into making a choice I don't want to make. As I said before, my WORST CASE SCENARIO was that Mayday Parade (my favorite band) and All Time Low (one of my favorites, and one of two bands on the tour I have never seen before) would play at conflicting times. Fitting with drama the previous day had provided me, Mayday was set to play at 5:30 on the Monster Energy stage and All Time Low was playing at 5:40 on the Kia Rio stage. We decided to watch Mayday play 3 songs and then bolt across the fairgrounds to catch All Time Low, as it turned out I couldn't even enjoy Mayday because I was so concerned about being far away when All Time Low was playing, and when I faintly heard the opening tune of Damned if I Do Ya, I gave my best friend a look and we bolted away from the Monster Energy stage and pushed our way through the crowd for All Time Low. I shoved my way to the middle and got stuck behind maybe the tallest, biggest guy ever....figures right? I stretched and squirmed for 2 songs before I found my way in front of him, surely stepping on his toes and jumping all over him while screaming the words to Heroes, Time Bomb, Weightless, and Jasey Rae (I've said it before and I'll say it again, my all time FAVORITE song by them). I teared up as they played The Reckless and The Brave as other girls threw their bra's and Jack hung them on his mic stand (I didn't see this happen for any other band all day, girls love All Time Low) and had the biggest smile on my face after hearing Dear Maria, Count Me In. I'd drive 1000 miles right this very moment to see them play again (I smiling to myself right now, fangirl much)? I know by the way I felt after that set I had made the right choice but that didn't stop the tears streaming down my face the past 2 days at every Mayday Parade song.

I'm tempted to say that I don't listen to We The Kings too much but as we ran over and watched their set which was actually really awesome, I surprised myself by knowing the words to every song they played, and surprised myself even more by wanting to be all over Travis Clark and that mane of red hair, boy has some serious stage presence, just saying. At this point in the day, it's 7:00, we've been in the sun for 8 hours, clothes soaked in our own (and a million other peoples) sweat, 8 bottles of water and 1 PBR deep, with raging bra tanlines that are still infuriating me now- and fading fast. We dragged over to watch We Are The In Crowd on the Tilly's stage and were kind of shocked at the number of manly tattooed men in the crowd, I love WATIC and have a legit girl crush on the beautiful and Talented Tay Jardine (I even have her haircut) and I was feeling their set but feeling a little rough at the same time. I caught a peak of Alex Gaskarth backstage and got all hot and bothered and immediately fired up at the prospect of him coming out to sing Kiss Me Again, I compeletly lost my shit when he did. It was perfect.

As we walked slowly back over to the main stages to watch Yellowcard, we considered skipping out on Breathe Carolina because of how exhausted we were. Looking back on it now, I would be a miserable disaster if we had. Watching Yellowcard sing Always Summer, With You Around, and Ocean Avenue was pretty amazing even though Ryan was chewing a piece of gum in between words in the most annoying and obnoxious way (the littlest things bother me, I mean honestly, who cares right)? Fun Fact- Yellowcard was actually the first concert my mom let me go to by myself right after Ocean Avenue came out, she dropped me and my friends off at Hard Rock Live and we just thought we were hot shit (I still kind of think that though, ha). Every Band we watched talked about how they were being fined for cursing on stage that day so in the middle of their set, Ryan implored everyone to yell their favorite curse word on the count of 3- have you ever heard thousands of people yell the word "FUCK" 3 times? I have, and it was awesome. As soon as Yellowcard finished, I heard the familiar electronic tune of a Breathe Carolina song and ran over (with everyone else) to the other main stage and just broke out dancing. I've watched a lot of bands play over my 24 years of life, and I can say without a doubt that those 30 minutes Breathe Carolina played were the best I have ever seen. Even though it was 8:30, the sun was set and everyone was exhausted, the excitement in the air was more palpable than it had been all day long. I don't even know how to describe it because there is no way I would be able to do it the justice it deserves, but I cried with the biggest smile on my face when it was over- euphoric and so bummed at the same time.

I'm deep in the midst of a hollowing post concert depression right now, check out the pics while I go cry myself to sleep because I can't go to Warped every day.