KAOS2000 Magazine Concert Review: Van's Warped Tour 1999

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Van's Warped Tour 1999

July 3, 1999 - Oakland Stadium Arena Parking Lot - Oakland, CA
What most promoters could do at this time of our music business juncture reeling with greed and self-gratifying profit margins is take a lesson from the makers of the Van's Warped Tour, the much heeded "anti-rock" tour that is now in it's fifth season. What makes this particular touring festival different from any other rock show? Simplicity. The ability to see a variety of great up-and-coming bands as well as established acts at a very value-based nominal admission price. Most concerts these days create the "desperate" feeling of "having to enjoy one's self" in order to feel that one got their money's worth for their over-priced admission. In the end, the Van's Warped Tour has one of the safest and unpretentiously fun audiences around. Everyone is able to have a good time because they didn't have to pay a month's salary to get in. The reason for this is that this tour is aimed at kids who don't make the kind of money usually asked for this decade. After the under-$25. admission price, everything is affordable - $10. T-shirts, CDs, and other collectibles. Musically, the Warped Tour provides a great cross-section as proven during the 1999 jaunt across the country. Everything from rock, punk, ska, swing and rap is presented with plenty in between. Aside from the main stages and local act side stages, there are numerous thrown-up stages that provide passerbys to see other performing artists. Several had their set-ups attached directly to their touring vans (literally, a personal Chevy or Ford van).
Something that we, as a music appreciating audience of any style, are taking for granted is that now is perhaps the greatest time to be alive in order to take it all in. There is more acceptance and more musical styles available to any audience today than at any other time in history. Van's Warped Tour is one of those few interests that understands that fact and makes for a valid performance package that allows people to interact and share in all different styles. Although it's advertised as a "punk extravaganza" as it were, it remains a true musical melting pot.
This year's acts included such acts as The Living End, Less Than Jake, Zebrahead, Eminem, The Vandals, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Eyed Peas, and many more. We had a chance to interview several of these acts and get some insights to how they viewed the tour but overall it appeared that everyone on the tour felt it was a great opportunity to get out and do some serious playing without the "big business" aspect abounding. It was almost as one big B-B-Q party.
The show itself was a big neighborhood party of sorts with all types of people mingling in and out on a fairly warm day, all there for music itself rather than just supporting only their favorite acts. The crowd was alight in a festive mood with smiles everywhere as it was the Fourth Of July weekend. The bands were all timed so that everyone could catch at least a portion of every act available that day. Like clockwork, bands went onstage and went off without ego. The whole concert day lasted about 7 hours. The best part about this particular stop on the Van's Warped Tour was that everyone who bought a ticket to the concert also got to go, for free, to the Exposition baseball game next door with the Oakland A's playing the California Angels - which was then finished off with a half hour fireworks extravaganza. What a way to enjoy the day - a concert with more bands than you could imagine, a baseball game, and fireworks. This was about as close to true Americana as one could get. One can only hope that the Van's Warped Tour will continue its annual events year after year and set the example for other festival shows on how to do things right.
Kudos are in order for one of the friendliest and most helpful staffs and show producers.
Written by and all Photos © 1999 Philip Anderson

Eminem	Black Eyed Peas
Panzer monster trucks	Oakland Arena in the background	Free-for-all percussion jam

Philip Anderson is a musician, in addition to being a writer/photographer. He has performed as a guitarist/vocalist, as well as songwriter, in several bands over the past 20 years. As a writer and photographer, he has been published by several magazines and in several books, and had his works appear on television.

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