Warped
Tour '08 Is Coming
As The Warped Tour Treks East, It's
Time To Get Disengaged!
By Phil Rainone, with inspiration from
Stephen Rainone, Melissa Rainone, Tim Norek,
Nicole Norek, & Frank Norek
Learning the magic of disengagement it's
always easy. 'Too much work and not enough
play...' as they say, but as Summer rolls
in, and the first rumblings of the Warped
Tour start as they head East from the Left
Coast (the Tour hits Jersey on July 25 in
Camden, and July 28 in Englishtown), I start
to have those old feelings again from when
I was a teenager... of school letting out,
having three months of freedom ahead, going
down the shore, going to shows, and sometimes
doing absolutely nothing but sitting back
and watching the clouds roll by.
And with the start of Summer on June 21,
those old feelings started to surface again,
even though my friend Frank and I are light
years away from those original feelings. The
kids - yeah, I still call them kids, even
though the rest of our crew (Steve, Melissa,
Tim, & Nikki) are in their early to mid
20's - are part of
the inspiration that makes the Summer and
the Warped Tour so special. Like The Boss,
Jim Testa says, "Christmas is always
more fun when kids are around." And so
too, for Summer and the Warped Tour. The anticipation,
the preparation, the road trip ( Hey Frank,
you're driving this year, buddy!), and seeing
the bands and the people, are all part of
the Warped Tour experience. It's at this point
that we learn to disengage again. We revert
to our teenage years, and re-learn to enjoy
the simple things again, despite all of the
grown up responsibilites we face. We learn
to take a break from the stress daily life
gives us, and to acquire the resources to
better handle it when you return. Sometimes
you get more power when you unplug, and realign
your priorities.
So put on your punk rock pirate eye patches,
stuffed parrot on your shoulder, and break
out your skull & cross bones sneakers,
the Warped Tour is back in town!! (Frank and
I, being two of the elder statesmen, haven't
used the Adult Daycare facilities - yet. As
usual there are a gazillion bands on this
years Warped Tour including some of our favorites
( I usually ask the crew to pick out a band
they haven't heard before to check. You know,
put a new color in your paint box), like Against
Me, Flogging Molly (remind me to tell you
about my Yankee-hat-in-Boston story the time
we went to see them and Catch 22), Beat Union,
The Briggs, Horrorpops, The Matches, Street
Dogs, The Aggrolites, and one of our favs,
Reel Big Fish, whose motto of sorts we've
adopted ("We're not happy 'til you’re
not happy!") I think the one thing that
we're starting to get side-tracked with, especially
covering The Warped Tour, is that it's not
just about the music but also about the things
and attitudes that the music embraces. We
understand that music is glue holding a generation
together. And through music, ideas are being
communicated about personal relationships,
social values, political ethics, and the way
we want to conduct our lives, like looking
at life through the prism of music. We have
to be more passionate and get involved, take
chances, write it well, and be accurate in
the details, don't duplicate what you can
read elsewhere. We have to get out there and
report the hell out of it. Look for the road
less traveled, or a different angle, and in
the end, tell the truth about what you think,
and have fun doing it!
Guest
Editorial 
