Jax is Warped

For those who didn't know, I spent Monday at the Warped Tour. And since i have a few minutes to spare, I'll let you know how the day went.

-begin sarcasm-

well, first off i want to say-- if you have never been to a show at the Jacksonville Raceway, you're in for a real treat. We drove right in, and didn't spend close to an hour sitting in traffic on I-95. There was plenty of parking, we didn't have to park on the street about a mile and a half from the gates. There wasn't a 45 minutes line to get in causing us to miss almost ALL of One Pump Chump's set. There was plenty of shade to be enjoyed by all. There were places to sit other than mud-covered earth. Oh! and the ground was in beautiful shape, grass everywhere and no mud (you know the kind that is a foot thick that people loose shoes and car keys in). I managed to find a map of Jacksonville Raceway to let you know how wonderful the venue was. (be sure you check out that link)

-end sarcasm-

Just to let you know, Florida gets hot in the summertime. Especially around August. The temperature was a balmy 98 degrees yesterday. And when i see people physically PASSING OUT from the heat (three of them in front of me), I can only blame the venue for not supplying adequate places to cool off. I can't stress this enough that there were NO places to get cool. There were no trees, no tents, no overhangs, nothing to break up the suns unrelenting assault on the attendees. I personally bought seven $3 Gatorades, and never once went to the bathroom (that's a lot of sweating).

I did, however, manage to see some pretty cool bands with some pretty cool people. I hung out with some of the guys from Today Doesn't Count and One Pump Chump. I also did a lot of wandering in the heat, bouncing between the 6 stages. The way the Warped tour is set-up is pure genius. 2 main stages, as one band is playing they set up for the next band on the other stage. This equates to 100% rock and 0% downtime. and if you have ever been to a festival type show, you know how much it sucks just standing around waiting 30-45 minutes for the next band to go on.

Some of the bands i managed to catch were: Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Flogging Molly, New Found Glory, Hot Water Music, The Starting Line, One Pump Chump, Bad Religion, and others i just cant remember. Shows were pretty good, and the crowd amazingly stayed in it until the end.

Overall I had a good time, although today I'm a little reddish (even though I got some sunblock from Holly), and a little sore in the legs (from not being able to sit all day long). And if you'd ask me if I'd do it all again… not if it's at the fucking Jax Raceway!