Warped Tour SLC 2009

So as any and most of you know I went to Salt Lake City Warped Tour 2009 yesterday. May I just say what an amazing experience. To spend a whole day with people who love music just like you do. Spend a whole day absorbing the music? Now that is true bliss. So I went with my sister Jessica who I just ADORE! We made custom Bayside shirts, let me just say I worked on those stencils for HOURS and they turned out AMAZING! Here is Jess in her shirt. Man I love her!

We got to the fair grounds and got through security and met up with my old college roommate Paola. We checked the band line up and headed for the first stage. First we went and saw Scary Kids Scaring Kids. Jessica lost an earring. HAHAHAH! First band and she loses an earring. Then again we didn't notice it till like 4 hours later. Hehehehe. They were pretty good, more Jessica's band than mine. She went in the pit and I got scared she was going to DIE, but she survived and lived to enter an even larger pit that night. After SKSK we wandered a bit and checked out the booths and tents. Then I mentioned to Jessica that Anthony Raneri was at the Bayside tent. She screamed and ran for the tent. It was quite humorous. So we waited in line to meet and we got to meet him and took pictures with him. Here is me and him:We saw a lot of bands and I don't really remember all of them in order, it was a long day! But we did see Sense Fail, Chiodos, Drop Dead Julio, Less than Jake, Single File, etc etc. I would just like to get the word out about Single File. I bought their cd on a whim and a shirt in the same manner, but after listening to them pretty much for 3 days straight I think I am in love. They're not spectacular, but they are VERY delicious! Plus, after having met them, their great guys. Plus they have awesome artwork and interesting ideas. This is not your generic pop band. They've got something. Their songs are incredibly catchy. I find myself humming and whistling them even when I don't want to. So go give them a listen, they are worth it.
Of course we saw Bayside. How could we not?!? This was my 2nd time seeing them at warped tour and they were just as amazing! There is nothing better than shouting words that mean something to you and hearing 1000s of people join in right beside you. (I will expound on this idea in a later blog). Bayside has helped me and Jessica through some tough times. Singing those words they way they were meant to be sung is an amazing experience. I would have be fine if the only band we had seen was Bayside. Well worth the trip. Here is Anthony singing his little heart out! We tried to get backstage passes, but to no avail, so later in the day when we were watching some of the bands play soccer beyond the fence we were aching to get over there. Jessica said something odd: "I'm famous, you're famous, lets go play soccer". We came up with some crazy ideas on how to get over there: rolling in trash cans, helping bands push in equipment, just try and walk in, climb the fence....You know, crazy Amanda ideas. Well Paola decided to just go talk to the guard. She gave him some "sob" story about how she broke her arm and wanted some band (generic) to sign the cast blah blah blah. Well to our GREAT surprise it worked! hahahah YES! So Paola just waved us through. WE WERE ON THE INSIDE! We walked around, Jessica ran and got the soccer ball when it went out of the field. We saw Bayside just chilling eating dinner. We saw the singer from SKSK teaching a little kid how to shoot an air soft gun. (Enter numerous common activities we saw famous people doing).

Jessica was clenching her water bottle the whole time, and I was sipping mine every 5 seconds...it's one of my nervous habits ok!?! Well it was approaching time(8:15) to see A Day to Remember. That's right folks, it was 8...latest I've stayed at Warped yet. Well we were walking out of the backstage area and got confronted by a beautiful man! He wanted us to buy the Valencia cd(I already own it) for $2. Well we only had $1! OH DEAR! But then the Singer From Sing it Loud came up and was talking to us about it. I asked if he was from Sing it Loud and he said "That's not important right now! What is important is that you guys buy this cd!" He then asked us if we had another dollar if we would buy it. We said yes, and so he told us to stay right where we were and he would go procure another dollar. So we sat there and talked to Brendan for a bit. We discussed how we live near a town called Valencia and how he looks like Chuck Bartowskey from the show "Chuck". He's never seen the show, but now he's going to. Well by that time the guy came back and we bought the cd. He decided we needed a picture of the momentous moment we had bought a $10 cd for just $2. hahahah so we were just gonna take a picture of Brendan and Paola but it was decided all 5 of us had to be in the picture. So here we are! (Note, both guys were touching my shoulder, so if it looks like i am lonely in the middle, I am not)

After that episode we went to go see A Day to Remember. Man, what a show! 100's of kids and all of them devoted! I am not a huge ADTR fan, I like them, but not LOVE so I was kind of towards the back. The pit kept opening up right in front of me. I saw the HUGEST PIT I HAVE EVER SEEN! It was at least 30 ft by 30 ft and it kept getting bigger! This is a picture of it in it's early stages, but you can see that it is large to start with. (don't worry I will blog more about pits soon. I had a few ideas just standing there watching it)

Overall it was a great day. Now that it's taken me days to post this blog I really can't express how much it affects you every time you go. It's like being refilled with what you love most. I will go again and again. Here is a picture that sums up the day. I was so tired and I love my sister. I got her sweat on my eye....yeah icky. Well see you soon!