Rock 'n' Roll Summer Camp

The Vans Warped Tour rolled into Toronto on Friday, July 24, 1998 at The Docks. Sean K. Robb was there with Photog Jess Ruge to tell you all about it

On a terribly hot and smelly day down at the lakeshore, over 30 punk bands gathered to kick out the jams for a few thousand kids as the Vans Warped Tour rolled into Toronto.

The annual festival is a travelling road show of punk rock and "extreme" sports, as angry/goofy guys battle skateboards, bikes and motorcycles for the crowd's attention. With four stages at opposite ends of the grounds, and various ramps, half-pipes and climbing walls constantly in action, there was never a want for something to look at as the sun baked the already-baked (ahem) green-haired masses.

Ska survivors The Specials showed the kids that age has nothing to do with it.	The Specials
Save Ferris: Don't laugh, dude. I had an uncle killed in a horrible trombone-swallowing accident. It scarred me.	Save Ferris "Hello, Vans? Are my silk pumps ready?"

One peculiar thing about the Warped tour is that you never know when any one band is going to appear on stage. The deal is that fisrt thing in the morning, all the band's various tour managers gather to draw names from a hat, and the day's schedule is made up in the order that names are drawn. Very democratic, very fair, very punk.

Save Ferris played early in the day, and did a jumpin', horn-boosted set of ska that was topped off with their crowd pleasing cover of Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come On Eileen". Civ and All both played fine, tight sets of pure punk pop, with Civ encouraging security to let the kids storm the stage and dance, dance, dance.

Rev. Horton Heat's bass-slappin' apostle Jimbo	Rev. Horton Heat makes some impressive psychobilly noise!
Sinisters: Mickey de Sadist gettin 'Iggy wit it.	Rancid

The swing thing had it's moment in the sun, as The Cherry Poppin' Daddies (love that name) actually got the sweaty kids dancing. The jock-punks moshed, the weird kids twirled each other about, and the old school punks skanked away in their army boots. A legitimate triumph. NOFX took the stage and sparked the first real mosh pit of the day. An obvious crowd favourite, the boy's did four songs in ninety seconds (after naming a kid in the front row "The Fruit of the Loom Guy", they proceeded to play a five second song called "Fuck the Fruit of the Loom Guy"), as well as a good mix of new stuff and classics.

The recently reunited Specials showed that you don't need to be under thirty to rock the blocks as the ska-godfathers got the crowd hyped with a few new numbers tucked inbetween classics like "A Message to Rudy" and "Concrete Jungle". Front man Neville Staples hopped around the stage like 1977 was yesteday, all as if to show the Sex Pistols that reunion tours really can be just as good as the first time around.

No Use For A Name; No use for white supremacists or Nazis, apparently.	No Use For A Name
Cherry Poppin' Daddies' stylin' singer Steve Perry (no, not THAT Steve Perry) does his best impression of The Mask (or else he's constipated)	Less Than Jake: Or is it Status Quo?

The highlight of the day however, had to be those mohawked Californians Rancid. Mixing up the old ("Radio") with the new ("Hooligans"), TIm and Lars worked the crowd like vets, with Tim constantly jumping into the crowd, and Lars dedicating every number to a different band that had played earlier in the day.

Bad Religion and The Deftones finished the night off, and the whole thing came to a screeching halt just before 9pm.

Bad Religion kick out the jams in their jammies.	Deftones: Here, Chino models the fabulously retro 'blood' look.
NOFX: Nobody ever said rock and roll was pretty...	Dropkick Murphys: Irish hardcore...wanna make somethin' of it, boyo?

And somehow, despite the incredible lack of food (Punks need to eat too! A couple of hot dog stands don't cut it!), and the gravel that served as flooring (badly scraping the elbows, knees and faces of many a mosher), the constant procession of rip-roarin' three-chord playin' punks kept the heads bouncing and the grins shining. OI!