[40 LIVE SHOW PHOTOS] Warped Tour Rampages Through Camden, New Jersey

Written by Mike De Man.

Every year the average Warped Tour goer anxiously awaits their date where they can go see a plethora of bands they’re really into or thoroughly enjoy. As a place where every type of music is covered, and with a new addition of a comedy stage this year, Warped Tour was hopping with creatures like us who have been hiding in the woodwork since last summer’s date.

This year was quite the adventure, as I had looked at Warped as something I would always go to every year, but until Pierce the Veil was announced on the last day of announcements, I didn’t even think I was going to go, but I was very wrong after I actually walked through the gates I loved so much that filled my mind with the sweaty and sunburnt goodness of dozens of bands playing across the day.

My first stop was to catch up with my old friend in the hippy hop business, Mod Sun. I’ve seen him on previous Warped Tours, but never have I actually seen him early in the morning, so catching him at 11:15 was really nice. He made the day have some great vibes, but his set was a little wonky. He had stopped mid set to say the sound was awful and then played a song that was only him on guitar, where he had a band performing with him. Then he did a drum solo and some other cool stuff, but right after he ended, I had an attack of nostalgia.

Right next to Mod Sun, there was a band ready to go on within a minute or two of his set ending, and that band was Matchbook Romance. Back in the wee days of me growing up, they had a song on guitar hero, which I became absolutely obsessed with called Monsters, which I’m sure a lot of people would be familiar with once they hear the chorus. Their entire set was great to hear, but that was definitely the highlight.

After that, I was doomed to go into the blistering sun, as the last two sets were under the amphitheater. At that time, Hands Like Houses was ready to go on, which was 12:35, perfectly aligned with the mood of the day. Although I love their music, this was the first time I was able to make it through an entire set, mainly because of some random thing popping up and me needing to miss a few minutes. Needless to say, they were easily one of the better bands of the day.

After being stunned by the Aussies in Hands Like Houses, I didn’t have much to do, so I ran over to shoot a couple pictures of Matty Mullins and the rest of Memphis May Fire. They were always one of those bands I stuck on the back burner. Having released an album I was pretty into (Sleepwalking, which was released in 2009), I always had respect for them, but I knew they wouldn’t dabble into the tunes I was a fan of, so I carried on to the next set of the day.

Finally, it was time for one of the few sets I had been looking forward to all day, Alive Like Me. Being one of the newer bands signed to Rise Records, they get a lot of shit for being “Sleeping With Sirens knockoffs”, even though I barely see any similarities. Alive Like Me only has one album out at the moment, which to be honest, is really rad because then you kind of know what they’re going to play. Given, I enjoy the entire album, so hearing them play songs like “What Did You Expect?” and “Our Time Down Here” was exceptional.

After I was done fangirling over Alive Like Me, I ran over to the Unicorn Stage, which is the secondary main stage, to catch a band I’ve been catching on Warped tour for the past three years in a row now, Attila. Being a partycore band is hard, especially when more than 50% of your lyrics include cursing, but it seems like Attila really have a tight grip on what it is they do best, performing. After seeing them three years in a row, I must say that nothing beats their 2013 Warped appearance, but the setlist this year, consisting of all time favorites like “Rage” and “Middle Fingers Up” was a true blast.

Next in line was home-based Kosha Dillz, a rapper who started up only about 20 minutes away from where I live, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dillz is super proud of his Jewish background, as he brings up his religion in many of his songs and action. As a rapper, his flow is pretty cool, seeing that his songs are not of typical “Fuck bitches, get money” rounds of hip hop. Although I wasn’t really into it, I would definitely go back and try again after listening through his tunes a couple more times.

Earlier in the day, I had seen a local-ish band walking around promoting their set, and they happened to be a Ska band, so I couldn’t turn that down. Stacked Like Pancakes, which is a band from the Maryland area but was following the tour was not something you would want to miss. Ska is way too dead and that upsets a lot of people, so seeing a bunch of cool dudes play the Super Mario theme song on their horns and other instruments was a dream come true.

Right after them, I ran over to catch another set of a band repping New Jersey, Palisades, who come from the small town of Iselin. I’ve been following them for quite a few years now and to see that they’re now playing Warped Tour is really cool and shows any band can do anything if they really apply themselves. Palisades played all songs off of their new album other than their single from their sophomore release, which was a little disappointing, but still a great performance. It’s great watching their crowd grow every time I see them.

I had some time in between, so I decided to shoot a couple pictures of Escape the Fate. When I was younger, I was into one or two of their songs, neither of which they played, but the crowd for this band was absolutely crazy. It almost made me want to listen to them more, but they’re far out of my musical reach when it comes to something I’d be able to wrap my mind around.

Afterwards was another one of Rise Records’ most recent pick ups PVRIS, who has been getting scarily popular just over the one year they have been signed. They also played Warped last year, but on a much smaller stage, and seeing them on the main stage second year absolutely blew my mind. Their songs also hit me pretty hard, being one of their more popular singles, “White Noise”, which is the title track of their debut album, had me feeling some type of way.

After PVRIS, I hung around for a while in hopes to be right up in the front for my favorite band on the tour, Pierce the Veil, who literally wrecks my shit every time I listen to them. While Pierce the Veil always knows how to get a crowd going, I always feel that their performance is lackluster due to a bad sound guy, even at Warped Tour. I’ve seen Pierce the Veil at least 8 times, as per what I can remember, and this was the problem every time, but they must have had a better one, because they were fantastic. Although they only dabbled into their newest song “The Divine Zero” and all of their really popular singles, the set was still one of the best of the day.

For lol purposes I wanted to catch the estranged Riff Raff all day, and it was finally time for his set, but he didn’t even play. All that hype to see TiP TOE WiNG iN MY JAWWDiNZ, as he stylizes it, and he didn’t even play. I guess it’s kind of good that this is what happened though. On a positive note, Kosha Dillz played his set so I got to see him again!

The fangirling continued on with the third set I was skidding my way to see that day, which was the set of We Came as Romans. Flashback to 2008: The scene-iest of the days featured We Came As Romans’ music on my iPod when they still had Chris Moore (also from I See Stars’ very early days) in the band. I loved them back then and I love them even now. Their set covered songs new and old, featuring To Plant and Seed and Broken Statues to songs off of their two newest albums. It was easily the best set of the day.

The last set I stopped at for the day was Asking Alexandria, an old favorite from my scene days. Recently, Denis Shaforostov of Make Me Famous permanently replaced former frontman Danny Worsnop, so there has been a ton of controversy toward whether they’d be the same or not, but with this lineup, they sound far more like their older scene days. Denis definitely adds some spice to the band and from the way they played singles “The Final Episode” and “Not The American Average”, I see a great future ahead for them.

After that, it was finally the end of my 2015 Warped Tour experience. After blood from pits, sweat from the boiling sun, and tears from Pierce the Veil, I was finally on track back to my car, where I skidded directly out of Camden, since it’s now ranked as one of the most dangerous cities in the United States. Regardless, I wouldn’t have missed Warped for the world, and I’m super excited to have another one down in the books.