On your mark, set, go and get warped!
Warped Tour '95, an all-day festival featuring a variety of board-sporting exhibitions and a two-stage concert with a lineup of bands associated with the skating/surfing/snowboarding culture, kicks off the first of its 25 stops Friday, Aug. 4, at the Saltair Pavilion.The brainchild of Transworld Publications, which publishes Skateboarding, Snowboarding and Warp magazines, and the CAA booking agency, the Warped Tour will include professional in-line skating, a skateboarding half-pipe and a simulated interactive surfing machine, as well as BMX racing and mountain climbing in some cities. Musical acts will be playing on two separate stages, a la the touring Lollapalooza festival.
Tour organizers say they have planned the event to be a direct contrast to larger music festivals, like Lollapalooza and the HORDE tour, with smaller-name musical acts headlining the bill. Bands expected to play the Saltair date include co-headliners Sublime and L7, Quicksand, Orange 9mm, fluf, No Use for a Name, Seaweed, Dimestore Hoods, Wizo and CIV. The playing order and times for the musical acts have not been established.
Sublime bass guitarist Eric Wilson said that since he and his bandmates have always participated in board sports themselves and since the band has contributed some of its songs to skating, surfing and snowboarding videos, they and the tour are a perfect match.
But for CIV guitarist Charlie - band members are going by just their first names - the Warped Tour provides a huge opportunity to a young band that's already making a big splash in the "underground" punk-rock scene.
"This whole thing is really cool," he said. "I don't know how hyped-up it's going to get, but if this had happened when I was into skating I would have been stoked. The bands that are playing aren't these huge popular ones, but bands that still care what their core crowd thinks of their music."
And because of that, Charlie said the tour is more likely to attract rabid skating and music fans that are more likely to be there for a good time and not there to bash each others' brains out.
"There should be some great moshing at the shows," he said. "This isn't `Lollapaloser,' where some frustrated jocks are there just to hurt people. This is a really cool idea, getting some great bands together with the skating exhibitions. I'm really excited."
The group, which takes its name from frontman Anthony "Civ" Civarelli, features former members of the New York hard-core punk-rock band Gorilla Biscuits.
Tickets for the festival, which starts at noon are $18.80 - in advance from all Smith'sTix outlets. The event is a United Concerts production.