Vans Warped Tour @ Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

For eight out of the past eleven years I have photographed Warped Tour. I have been to 12 Warped tours with the first one I went to was in 1998. Even though the bands have changed the core of what makes Warped tour keep going strong is still there. This year was the 22nd installment of the tour.

Every year I look at the line up and find a few bands that I really want to see and then spend the rest of the time looking at what kind of stage presence the rest of the bands on the tour have. Sometimes if I have some downtime I will see if any bands are about to start and snap a few pics. This year, unlike most years, I had only two bands overlap with other bands that I wanted to shoot and had some down time to fit in a few bands that I had not planned on covering.

Andy Biersack aka Andy Black is founder and lead vocalist for Black Veil Brides. In 2014 he decided to work on a solo album that was in a different direction of Black Veil Brides. whether he is fronting Black Veil Brides or going solo Biersack knows how to control the stage and crowd. He brought his grandpa and cousin who live in the St. Louis area on stage to watch from the side of the stage. He also talked about how last time he played here he had on a St. Louis Rams jersey on and passed out from heat exhaustion.

Save Farris was at the very first Warped tour that I went to in 1998. They were one of the mid-’90s, Orange County ska punk third-wave ska bands that took the scene and made it main stream. I missed their set as they had played early that day and it would take me 19 years to see them live. Monique Powell is the only original member left and had a bit of legal trouble when she decided to start the band back up using their original name. Powell and company did not disappoint. The band played a mix of old songs and songs off of their new EP ‘Checkered Past’, but it was their cover of Dexys Midnight Runners ‘Come on Eileen’ that had the biggest reaction from fans.

While waiting for Watsky to take the stage I was talking to a few of the security guards and one of them had a type of ‘scavenger hunt’ list of things to watch for throughout the day. All of the things on the list were things that have been seen over the years at Warped Tour. Some things on the list were spiked heels, suspenders, passed out in the lawn, school girl outfit, people in clothing two sizes too small, etc. Seemed like even they were having some fun while trying to avoid the heat.

The last band that I covered for the night was GWAR. The band is known for its outrageous costumes and by spraying their audiences with fluids. Most of the fluids are made of water and powdered food coloring which, for the most part, flakes off or washes out easily. GWAR is the hardest band I have ever shot, mostly due to the fact that I wanted to keep my camera out of harm’s way by being covered in ‘blood’. The photo pit looked like a slaughterhouse by the end of the third song when we were ushered out of the pit. Around the fourth or fifth song Blöthar said that he had heard that St. Louis and the surrounding area was having issues between blacks and whites so he would fix that and turn us all blue with their new weapon. They are a band that I really want to try and cover again as they were a lot of fun but will make sure I bring a camera and lens that I really don’t care about.

All in all another fun filled day At Warped Tour and looking forward to seeing what next years installment brings.

Full list of bands covered:

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