Concerts

Hey what’s up everyone. This past summer I had the chance of a lifetime! I was chosen by MuchMusic to be their correspondent at the Montreal Warped tour stop. I interviewed some bands and reviewed the bands I saw.

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My Warped Tour journey started in Toronto catching some of the bands that would play montreal on Saturday. I would leave my house at 10pm on Friday Night to gain some ground until I got tired. I stopped in Cornwall around 4am and grabbed a pillow from the trunk and put my seat back to sleep for a few hours. Once I had stopped I had a hard time falling asleep. It was like it was my first warped tour all over again.

I had covered and interviewed bands at warped tour, but nothing on a scale of this importance! Having already interviewed Set Your Goals [they won the 2009 album of the year on my radioshow Rock The Walls and we had a hour special on them!], Bring Me The Horizon, and Every Time I Die I was feeling pretty comfortable. I was also so stoked to interview the guys in Parkway Drive. In my mind, they just released what will be one of the Metalcore albums of 2010. Go pick it up, it’s called Deep Blue! The entire day lived up to and exceeded expectations for this guy.

After waking up in Cornwall and eating some breakfast, it was off to Montre-al! We got into Montreal and i must say, you freakin’ frenchman have confusing signs. Just sayin’. Guess I should have taken more french classes in high school. Oh well.

Getting a extra ticket/pass into Warped Tour, it was another unique experience for me. Making the trip with me was my Dad. While it is generally considered “pretty lame!” to bring your parents alot with you, I thought this was something that would be rad for a father-son experience I would never forget. As my number one support in everything I do and it’s no different when it comes to my radioshow and interviewing bands. It wasn’t like he was going into it TOO blindly…he decided to check out one of the stops on Gig Life 2009 Tour that featured Four Year Strong and Set Your Goals last year. Needless to say, he had a idea of what to expect musically from each of the bands. I could have invited anyone of my friends but instead brought him. Don’t know if there are any dads out there that would be up to do that with their 20 year son. You are the best Dad!

Arriving in MTL at around 10 am, and having never been to Parc Jean Drapeau before, I had no idea it was in the middle of where the Formula 1 track was. Pretty cool to see!

One thing that I always dread/am excited for at Warped Tour is getting Inside and seeing the schedule. With so many great bands playing this year, I was expecting at least 3-4 conflicts between bands I wanted to catch. Thankfully, only two really came up. Every Time I Die started 20minutes before their buddies in Four Year Strong [check those guys out if you have not. They are on the cusp of exploding. New record is called Enemy Of The World! and Post-Hardcore band Enter Shikari with Motion City Soundtrack.

Upon figuring out my schedule, I decided to walk around with my dad to figure out where all the stages were. Cristopher Drew a.k.a NevershoutNever! Was playing on the Alternative Press Stage. As you would expect, all the 13-15year old girls were there in full force and losing their minds! Having heard a few songs off his record released in January, the expectations for his live performance were pretty low. Someone once said “He’s the poor man’s Justin Bieber”. Can’t say I disagree. I decided to watch for a song or two and I will be honest. The music came across alot better live in my opinion.

11:40 AM - The Snips

Straight from the Rose City of Welland, Ontario locals to my college town were on for the Toronto and Montreal Warped Tour dates. They played mostly songs off their Blackouts E.P including my personal favourite and the title track; Blackouts. If these dudes are in your neck of the woods, go catch them! Lead Singer Ricky Pridmore has a rad ‘stache too. Ricky, don’t shave that off dude.

11:55 PM – The Dillinger Escape Plan

Having been into D.E.P since the 10th grade of high school, I was excited to catch some of their set. On the back of the Warped Tour Stage Monitors it says “$100 dollar fine for any bands that jump off or climb on Monitors”. If they actually applied this to the dudes in Dillinger, those guys probably don’t have any money left for beer at this point in the tour. Vocalist Greg Puciato was the craziest of the bunch, climbing 25-30feet above ground on to the top of the amps at the left side of the stage near the end of their set. As it ended, they completely trashed their set up rockstar style. Badass!

12:50 PM – Every Time I Die

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