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As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday we hit up Warped Tour in Minnesota and, while it was an amazing show, I was a little disappointed that Say Anything was unable to perform. Max was sick. Max was also sick for the Chicago show, but they got a little something we didn’t. Like Justin from Motion City Soundtrack singing Alive with the Glory of Love. Check out the video below and look around on youtube for other guest appearances from singers from Reliant K, Norma Jean, Every Time I Die & more.

So hear this please
And watch as your heart speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breathe that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything’s magic

Late Sunday night/early Monday morning we finally got back from the Shakopee, Minnesota Warped Tour show and I’m not sure it’s completely sunk in.

Warped is an amazing place not just because you have the oppertunity to see so many up and coming bands, as well as more mainstream bands, but because of the awesome people there. Whether it’s just the random people you see walking by in their strange attire or the people trying to get people interested in a cause. I don’t like pushy people, but they don’t come across as that and it’s always nice to see people movitated for something they believe in.

Oddly enough, the guys from Adventures of Brad and Jordan spotted me prior to the Anberlin set. It’s always nice to actually meet the people behind the writing you enjoy - if you’re reading this, sorry I disappeared. I had to get some air. Catch you at another show sometime maybe?

This year’s Minnesota date was somewhat different from the last time I went in that the sun was practically non-existent for the majority of the day. It wasn’t cold though and the breeze made everything just about perfect.

When we first got their we almost immediately headed towards the Van’s merchandise tent so one of us could get some actual shoes (flip flops are the worst thing you can wear to something like this) and while over there someone affiliated with Motion City Soundtrack asked me if we’d like to get some stuff signed. I think my response was pretty much “Uh yeah, are you kidding?”. I grabbed passes for the three of us so we could head back to the merch tent later for the signings. Three hundred total passes were handed out so I think we were pretty lucky.

At somepoint between waiting for bands we ended up walking by the ModLife bus when none other than Tom DeLonge walks out of it and starts hugging kids by the fence. Unfortunately we missed out on hugs/hand shakes as we were just a bit late but Tom was nice enough to give us some nice photo ops from the top of the bus and . . . well, we were just feet away from Tom DeLonge. What else can be said?

I wasn’t sure how Angels and Airwaves would be received at Warped. I guess these days that some of the bands at Warped are considerably softer than they would have been ten years ago, but AvA is in a whole new realm, vastly different from the likes of blink-182. Any hesitations I had about the energy of the crowd vanished as I saw the people filling in the area in front of both mainstages.

AvA put on an awesome thirty-minute set and the crowd was very, very into it. The atmosphere was amazing even without the lightshow from the last Angels concert I went to and the energy was intense.

And the last big set for me? Motion City Soundtrack in their home state. Things had drastically changed since 2005 when they played one of the smaller stages. Nope, that wasn’t happening this year. Mainstage Left in all it’s glory. Again, a ton of people swarmed in front of both stages to get as close as they could. MCS played a nice variety of stuff from all three of their full lengths and had people singing back the lyrics. It was an amazing show and I can’t wait to see them on one of their tours sometime.

Overall it was an excellent show this year and I’m looking forward to next year’s stop. Now I’ve gotta go finish catching up on sleep. G’night.

I’ve really been wanting to get back to Warped since going in ‘05 and it sounds like this might be the year to hit it up. My friends over at The Adventures of Brad & Jordan have posted about this year’s artists (Angels & Airwaves at Warped? Could be interesting.) and I’m sure there’s many more to come. Motion City Soundtrack is enough incentive to get me there, only would be topped off if The Matches got tied on there. Decent list thus far, you can check it out on the Warped website. Jack’s Mannequin playing new material? Might have to hit more than one stop this year if at all possible - California road trip? I wish.