Soundgeist Weekly Roundup: It was never a phase

This has been an incredible and busy summer so far and it just doesn’t feel like it’s slowing down at all. Call that an Eternal Summer (I’m just happy we got a new album from the Strokes, quality aside).

Warped Tour Recap

It’s been almost a week since Warped Tour and it’s still fresh in my mind (recovery is also ongoing). After Saturday, I basically was this meme:

If this is a safe Substack to admit it: this was, in fact, my first Vans Warped Tour. From the moment I checked into my hotel Friday, and even more so on Day 1, I could tell Warped operated as a real cultural foundation.

Festivals these days feel largely coopted into extended photoshoots, but here you could feel an actual living history (there was a Warped Tour Museum, which ruled). It made me wonder what the requirements are for Vans Warped Tour Veteran status. And while I run (well maybe jog at a sustainable pace) from any unc allegations, the happiest people all weekend were the ones boasting about what they’d seen back in their day. Having Warped function as a genre unto itself lets it work as both a time capsule and a living tradition still being added to. Punk’s not dead, ya know.

On the music side, there was no dead time. A common refrain all weekend was how dense the lineup was, which meant hard choices about who to see, groups splitting apart, and, I’m sure, a few couples breaking up.

Bowling for Soup was easily one of the weekend’s highlights (did you know they sing the Phineas & Ferb theme song? I didn’t). Frontman Jaret Reddick had incredible stage presence, and the set could have doubled as a standup special, he had a Matty Matheson energy to him in the best possible way.

Another highlight: Amigo the Devil at the DoorDash stage. The smaller stages had some of the most devoted crowds of the weekend and were ripe for discovery. The one-man acoustic set was a perfect palate cleanser, and the singalong felt organic rather than forced. I got to chat with Danny Kiranos briefly afterward; he was incredibly friendly, appreciative of us coming out, and then he had to go greet a fan’s infant.

The festival culminated with headliners Hawthorne Heights, who had no trouble pulling a crowd after two long days. They closed on “Ohio Is For Lovers,” a very suitable sendoff. Comebacks are always tricky, but Vans Warped Tour pulled it off and settled right back into the cultural ether.

This explains a lot to me how some people were in high school.

The Vans Warped Tour crowd demand this be played and sung along too.

Been obsessed with this hidden gem of a song lately. If I wrote a screenplay I would use this as the basis.

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