It was a balmy, cloudy start to the day for this years edition of the Van’s Warped Tour at Darien Center. Around twelve the weather turned and the sun decided to stay out making the weather quite enjoyable.
The five piece metal core band out of Phoenix, AZ; led by lead vocalist Tyler “Telle” Smith kick-started the day off from the second they took the stage. Immediately the crowd was engaged, singing along with Smith and the mosh pits starting immediately when the band took the stage. When the band played their hit track “Sellout” off their most recent album Dark Matter, the crowd went insane and a circle pit started and seamlessly didn’t end until the song was near its end. All in all, The Word Alive kicked off Vans Warped Tour with an enormous bang.
The Boston, MA punk rock group, dressed in Hawaiian clad gear took the stage on the Journey’s right. From the jump off the band’s energy ignited the crowd. Playing a good combination of old and a couple new tracks, the band held high energy throughout their performance. With a crew member dressed up as Santa tossing out shirts to the crowd, Four Year Strong lived up to the performances of the past Warped Tour.
The quartet metal core band took the stage and their set up was miraculous. With a giant skull set up with the drum set the middle, INK hands down had the best stage set up on the entire bill. Playing all of their hit songs like, Bury this hatchet in your head, and closing with Me, Myself and Hyde. From beginning to end INK crushed their time on stage and the crowd was involved right from the jump. Lead vocalist Spencer Charnas was the life of the stage as he came into the crowd and really ignited the place around him. Overall Ice Nine Kills put on one of the better performances of the day.
The Buffalo, NY five piece in their first Warped Tour appearance in two years took the day. With it being their homecoming performance on the Vans Warped Tour the band did not pull any stops, with the Buckley brothers Jordan and Keith jumping into the crowd really exciting everyone in attendance for their performance. They debuted a new track off of their upcoming album Low Teens to be released on September 23 of this year. A special gift was given to anyone that purchased any merchandise from their tent, with any purchase a digital download of the new album was given. Overall, the hometown boys really brought down the hammer and heated up the already hot day with the best performance of the day, really showing that Buffalo metal will only live on through this band.
In their first appearance in many years the Canadian quintet showed they still have the juice. Playing all of their classic hits and a new track off of their upcoming album Sum 41 definitely gave this writer the nostalgic feeling of being back in high school. With tracks like Still Waiting, In Too Deep, Fat Lip and The Hell Song; Sum 41 brought the crowd to life with all of their classics as their performance was towards the end of the evening. There wasn’t much room to stand as the revival of an old punk rock classic made their long awaited reunion. One of the most notable parts of their performance was when the band brought up fans from the crowd to party on stage with them, proving that this band is definitely ready to make their way back into the scene. Deryck Whibley looked like he never missed a beat and the band followed his lead and kept the crowd alive with their performance.
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