AUGUST 2nd 1996
ACTION PARK
VERNON, NJ
Banda Macho Tour:
Warped Tour
- Setlist is not known at this time
From: New York Times - Playing Loud and Fast, For Seven Hours Straight
Published: Aug. 5, 1996
"VERNON, N.J., Aug. 2— Punk-rock is perfect for package tours. With songs clocking in at less than three minutes, a band can pack 10 or more into a half-hour set. And fans are loyal to the genre as well as to individual bands; as long as they get breakneck guitar chords and revved-up drums, they're eager to mosh.
For the Warped Tour, which took over part of Action Park here for seven hours of music on Friday, 14 high-impact bands played alternating sets on two adjacent stages in a field, while 5 more performed in a pavilion just over a hill. It was a concert for a subculture that looks beyond mass-marketed rock; only a few of the bands, like Civ, have had any exposure on MTV. The core fans are skateboarders, who must appreciate the music's speed, noise and sudden jolts; Vans, the shoe company that sponsors the Warped Tour, provided skateboarding ramps and demonstrations.
The audience showed up with Mohawk haircuts pointing aloft, and while there was only one rap group on the bill (Tha Alkaholiks), plenty of male concertgoers arrived in hip-hop dress, with baggy jeans drooping to expose boxer shorts. Body decoration was also rife. ''Wow, she's got a lot of piercings!'' Fat Mike of NOFX marveled as he looked at one fan near the stage.
Loud and fast music was required, with punk-rock and hardcore commanding most of the day; guitars were ubiquitous, keyboards absent. Still, there was some variety: updated 1960's garage-rock by Rocket From the Crypt, ska and funk hybrids by Fishbone, ska-driven girl-group pop by the Dancehall Crashers, hard rock by Sexpod, grunge-bottomed rock by Fluf and moody alternative rock by Far and Sense Field. Lo Presher added wooden drums and didjeridoo to basic hard-rock and punk; the Figgs harked back to the early, rowdy Beatles and to late-1970's Elvis Costello.
There's a paradox at the center of the current punk-rock resurgence. Again and again, songwriters proclaim their individuality and insubordination, yet they follow musical rules that were codified 20 years ago by the Ramones. The music has survived because it hasn't lost its whiz-bang exhilaration. From its beginnings, punk-rock found a direct analogue for the adolescent combination of frenzy and frustration, and it channeled its power into time-tested pop-tune structures.
Young punk-rockers no longer insist on acting deadpan or angry; they might be sardonic (like NOFX and Blink 182) or smiling but earnest, like the hardcore bands Civ, Down by Law, the X-Members and Shelter. But they are so loyal to punk's basic formulas that even a slight variation, like the rockabilly two-beat in Civ's MTV hit, ''Can't Wait One Minute More,'' or the trumpet that El Hefe sometimes picked up during NOFX's set, becomes a major shift.
Through the afternoon, the bands preached to the converted about self-reliance, honesty, ignoring received opinions and standing by friends. Despite punk's rebellious image, its inheritors can be as relentlessly positive as gospel singers. The audience also knows its role; Angelo Moore, Fishbone's lead singer, at one point requested a mosh circle as if he were a post-punk square-dance caller.
Despite the musical formulas, the Warped Tour provided nearly nonstop adrenaline. The Dancehall Crashers and the punk-pop band Red Five placed precise, catchy two-woman vocal harmonies amid the guitars, while their lyrics took apart relationships. Rocket From the Crypt, dressed in silver lame shirts and including a horn section, harked back to the growling insistence of Mitch Ryder or Steppenwolf, but with blunt contemporary lyrics. Sense Field and Far mixed questions and self-doubt with aggression; Sense Field showed a glimmer of folk-rock, while Far's songs were volatile and slow-building, sometimes brooding, sometimes stomping.
NOFX devoted the middle of its set to a cheerful inquiry into ethnicity: a reggae parody urged, ''Kill all the white man,'' followed by the punky ''Don't Call Me White,'' in which the band sets itself apart from white stereotypes, and ''The Brews,'' a declaration of punk Jewish identity: ''We can't lose a fight, as we are the chosen ones.''
A thunderstorm moved in for the last set, turning Fishbone's manic rock into a messy roar. The remaining audience started a mud fight, aiming at one another rather than the band; like the music, they were exuberant within accepted limits.
- JON PARELES
Warped Tour
- Setlist is not known at this time
From: New York Times - Playing Loud and Fast, For Seven Hours Straight
Published: Aug. 5, 1996
"VERNON, N.J., Aug. 2— Punk-rock is perfect for package tours. With songs clocking in at less than three minutes, a band can pack 10 or more into a half-hour set. And fans are loyal to the genre as well as to individual bands; as long as they get breakneck guitar chords and revved-up drums, they're eager to mosh.
For the Warped Tour, which took over part of Action Park here for seven hours of music on Friday, 14 high-impact bands played alternating sets on two adjacent stages in a field, while 5 more performed in a pavilion just over a hill. It was a concert for a subculture that looks beyond mass-marketed rock; only a few of the bands, like Civ, have had any exposure on MTV. The core fans are skateboarders, who must appreciate the music's speed, noise and sudden jolts; Vans, the shoe company that sponsors the Warped Tour, provided skateboarding ramps and demonstrations.
The audience showed up with Mohawk haircuts pointing aloft, and while there was only one rap group on the bill (Tha Alkaholiks), plenty of male concertgoers arrived in hip-hop dress, with baggy jeans drooping to expose boxer shorts. Body decoration was also rife. ''Wow, she's got a lot of piercings!'' Fat Mike of NOFX marveled as he looked at one fan near the stage.
Loud and fast music was required, with punk-rock and hardcore commanding most of the day; guitars were ubiquitous, keyboards absent. Still, there was some variety: updated 1960's garage-rock by Rocket From the Crypt, ska and funk hybrids by Fishbone, ska-driven girl-group pop by the Dancehall Crashers, hard rock by Sexpod, grunge-bottomed rock by Fluf and moody alternative rock by Far and Sense Field. Lo Presher added wooden drums and didjeridoo to basic hard-rock and punk; the Figgs harked back to the early, rowdy Beatles and to late-1970's Elvis Costello.
There's a paradox at the center of the current punk-rock resurgence. Again and again, songwriters proclaim their individuality and insubordination, yet they follow musical rules that were codified 20 years ago by the Ramones. The music has survived because it hasn't lost its whiz-bang exhilaration. From its beginnings, punk-rock found a direct analogue for the adolescent combination of frenzy and frustration, and it channeled its power into time-tested pop-tune structures.
Young punk-rockers no longer insist on acting deadpan or angry; they might be sardonic (like NOFX and Blink 182) or smiling but earnest, like the hardcore bands Civ, Down by Law, the X-Members and Shelter. But they are so loyal to punk's basic formulas that even a slight variation, like the rockabilly two-beat in Civ's MTV hit, ''Can't Wait One Minute More,'' or the trumpet that El Hefe sometimes picked up during NOFX's set, becomes a major shift.
Through the afternoon, the bands preached to the converted about self-reliance, honesty, ignoring received opinions and standing by friends. Despite punk's rebellious image, its inheritors can be as relentlessly positive as gospel singers. The audience also knows its role; Angelo Moore, Fishbone's lead singer, at one point requested a mosh circle as if he were a post-punk square-dance caller.
Despite the musical formulas, the Warped Tour provided nearly nonstop adrenaline. The Dancehall Crashers and the punk-pop band Red Five placed precise, catchy two-woman vocal harmonies amid the guitars, while their lyrics took apart relationships. Rocket From the Crypt, dressed in silver lame shirts and including a horn section, harked back to the growling insistence of Mitch Ryder or Steppenwolf, but with blunt contemporary lyrics. Sense Field and Far mixed questions and self-doubt with aggression; Sense Field showed a glimmer of folk-rock, while Far's songs were volatile and slow-building, sometimes brooding, sometimes stomping.
NOFX devoted the middle of its set to a cheerful inquiry into ethnicity: a reggae parody urged, ''Kill all the white man,'' followed by the punky ''Don't Call Me White,'' in which the band sets itself apart from white stereotypes, and ''The Brews,'' a declaration of punk Jewish identity: ''We can't lose a fight, as we are the chosen ones.''
A thunderstorm moved in for the last set, turning Fishbone's manic rock into a messy roar. The remaining audience started a mud fight, aiming at one another rather than the band; like the music, they were exuberant within accepted limits.
- JON PARELES