Hi everyone! As I mentioned in a previous post, I am going to recap my day at Warped Tour thus year. I hope you enjoy!

The Warped Tour Experience 2015
Friday, July 17, 2015
Molson Canadian Amphitheatre, Toronto, Canada

 This is my fifth year attending the Vans Warped Tour, and I’d like to think I’ve gotten pretty good at the whole show down. By this I mean beating the lines. There are always crazy lines, and the amount of people that attend every year seems to double, or that’s how it feels anyway. This year however, it seemed to rain on our parade, and to think the whole week leading up to Friday was sunny and warm, go figure right? This isn’t my first wet Warped Tour, but rain is never pleasant to an outdoor festival. Usually it’s a nice downpour and then the sun comes out, but this year was constant on and off rain, with a gloomy sky all day. That just paints you a beautiful picture of how it felt to be soaked all day.

But looking beyond the crappy weather, my brother and I got there somewhat early, maybe the earliest we’ve ever gotten to the line (9:50a.m.) I still wonder to this day, what times does the first person in line get there, 5, 6, 7 a.m.? Doors open at 12, and we got in fairly quickly, grabbing a copy of the schedule and highlighting everyone we wanted to see. Then comes the part where you have to wait for your favourite band, so you do the walk around.

Sidebar: I’ve never liked where they moved Warped Tour, it used to be in a big parking lot, 20 minutes from my house, (that’s just an added bonus) but the parking lot made it very easy to run around and see all the stages. Where they hold it now, there are places where it gets bottlenecked with people because the lane way is too narrow, and the stages are too far away from each other. There is no way of seeing a few bands within walking distance because of the amount of people in the way. My rant is over, back to the show.

On our walk around, while they were still setting up a majority of the tents, we ran into a band called Our Last Night, they were nice, even though I was very honest with them and said I didn’t know who they were, one of the band members laughed, smiled and pointed to their name on the tent. I think that made things a little awkward, but my brother was over the moon to meet them.

At the Journey’s tent they were giving away wristbands for a meet and greet selfie with Pierce the Veil, but we got there too late, and they were all gone. 😦 There went meeting them again, oh well I still have the memories from three years ago.

We headed to the main stages afterwards since that’s where all the action seemed to be happening. We caught the tail end of Sliverstein performing. Every time they come to Warped Tour, I always manage to see them, I’m not really sure why. I don’t know any of their songs, but they put on a good live show. I should start listening to them since they actually started to follow me on Twitter, I feel a little proud about that, sorry to brag, you should too follow me on Twitter: @milloh

Juliet Simms came on afterwards. I should mention, the main stages (which are supposed to be two separate stages) where morphed into one stage so the artists had to play on half a stage pretty much. Thanks Pan Am games. I say this because if you didn’t know, or are living under a rock, the Pam Am games are in Toronto this year, and it’s taking up a lot of room. The volleyball venue is right beside, the Molson Amphitheatre, therefore causing everything to be even more crammed then it has been in the past, boo!

So Juliet played on the Shark Stage, at first I didn’t even recognize her voice, it’s been so long since I’ve listened to her music. But she was amazing playing in the pissing rain. To be honest I don’t know what she sang, but the songs sounded familiar, how’s that for great blogging, am I right? But if you’re going to Warped, or you already did, I hope you had the chance to see her because that lady has some pipes!

After her set finished, Pvris began to play on the other side, the Unicorn Stage. Now I’ve never heard a single one of their songs; my brother is in love with their lead singer, and so we had to see them. They began and you could tell the crowd was ready for them. Everyone was standing in anticipation just waiting for the moment the drum would kick in. Man I didn’t know anything, but I was jumping around, throwing my hands in the air like I knew all the words. They played such a captivating set that I was taken away by the music. Next time I see these guys, I need to know all the words because I can bet it’ll be one hundred percent better. I think I had more fun than my brother who knew their songs ha!

Moving through the crowd of humans, we made it to the Monster Energy Stage where the crowd was a lot larger than I anticipated it would be. All these people here to see a band I didn’t think many had heard of, obviously I was wrong. The crowd that turned out for Our Last Night was huge. Unfortunately we got there late so we had to stand in the back, but it made it easy to maneuver out when we had to leave early to see Pierce the Veil.

Back to Our Last Night, this is a trend this year, watching bands I’ve never heard of. Like I mentioned earlier my brother is a big fan of them so we went to see them. I had the unpleasant experience of standing beside a guy drinking beer and singing at the top of his lungs, out of tune and pitch, all the words. He was probably having fun, me not so much. I again just went with the flow and threw my hands in the air screaming, just to feel included. It was fun. Ducking out before their last song we had to shove our way back to the Unicorn Stage (I’d really like to know who came up with these names) to see Pierce the Veil.

The moment I had been waiting for was finally coming true, the only reason I came to Warped Tour this year (okay, probably a lie I would have come anyways) Pierce the Veil. I’ve seen them once before, three years ago when they were on Warped Tour last, and I’ve never had such an overwhelming experience, and not in the good way.

There were so many people that there was no room for breathing almost, and this was before they even came on stage. Once they started to come in stage, forget everything. I lost my brother in the two seconds it took for the crowd to all push forward, which pushed me off the ground. I can say for the most part, my feet didn’t touch the ground because I was pushed in so many directions. Two songs in they literally had to stop playing because everyone was getting hurt. It was just a madhouse of bodies everywhere. The people around me were very thankful that security told the band to stop playing; otherwise there would have been a lot of hurt people. They opened with their new song, the Divine Zero. I think a lot of the crowd just moshed through this song because no one knew the words; I am one of those people. But they played classics like Yeah Boy and Doll Face, Caraphernelia, Bulls in the Bronx (which is the song they had to stop playing) ending it off with King for a Day. They played a few more but I don’t remember because a lot of it feels like a blur. They may have played Hell Above, or Disaterology, or a Match Into Water, but I couldn’t tell you.

Although from what I remember, the correct order would be:
The Divine Zero
May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight
Hell Above
Bulls in the Bronx (where they had to stop playing right at the instrumental part!)
Yeah Boy and Doll Face
Caraphernelia
King For a Day

After that experience, both my brother and I were done. It poured while the band played for the first part and we were soaked, tired, and overall spent. Seeing Pierce the Veil this time around wasn’t as grand and exciting as it was the very first time. I couldn’t even see the band play I was stuck in the middle of the crowd. But it’s still an experience I will remember, I can’t wait until I can see them again- have no fear, this hasn’t turned me off of their live shows forever.

From the back of the crowd we watched Memphis May Fire perform, again not a fan but watching them was a nice break from all the crowds.

After this we decided to just walk around for a bit, or as much walking around as you could do with the crowds and clusters of people. We ended up at a pinic table listening to Asking Alexandria, Miss May I, and Black Veil Brides. We decided to call it quiets then. We saw what we came for, pretty much (Modsun, Set It Off, and Never Shout Never all played later, but when your cold, tired and wet all you want to do is jump into some nice warm, dry clothes, not wait around for bands your only half fans of.)

Just before leaving, since we spent all day trying to find this one photographer, Adam Elmakias, (who’s pretty famous for photographing some very well known bands such as All Time Low, Pierce the Veil, and A Day to Remember) that my brother grabbed my shoulder, sending me into a mini panic, that he was spotted. The line was short, so we waited the two minutes it took to meet him, such a cool guy. He was so sweet taking photos with us, and just chatting away. I really wish I could have talked to him more about photography; instead all I talked about was the weather and his cat ha!

Overall, another Warped Tour in the books, it was fun, really cloudy, and rainy, but we still left with smiles on our faces, which is the main thing. Can’t wait until next year!

All photos From that day can be found here!