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Summer is such a great time of year. The days are longer and shows are more plentiful. Warped Tour is in full swing. The traveling mini-mall of tents mixed with the mile of musicians makes for quite a show - even if you don't listen to one note coming from any of the stages, it's still a spectacle! My favorite tent is the one for all the parents. I think that's the best part, although I could not picture my parents sitting in there. One of the very smart ideas the tour has, though.
I sit down to write something about the tour for our annual Warped issue. What do I have to say that would do justice to everyone's efforts - the bands, vendors, the kids involved - or else give any kind of information that's not already known? I will say that I have seen the tour take some heat for being Òtoo corporateÓ or having too much business involvement. Hogwash! Something this large could not be thrown together in a few weeks with a piggy-bank-change budget. Some painstaking planning has to be involved. I know there's some sort of punk-rock ethos that dictates business is a bad thing and DIY is a good thing. I think each has its place, and I am not just trying to ride both sides of the fence. Each can be a boon to music as a whole.
The Warped Tour delivers music in such a way that people in some parts of the country would never otherwise be able to experience. It also affords (probably through corporate sponsorship) various musicians the ability to live and thrive off of their art, thus allowing them to continually make good music. We as fans listen, enjoy, and in many cases get inspired. Would Dropkick Murphys have been able to attend Sgt. Andrew Farrar's funeral to play a song he'd requested if they were all busy being less-than-corporate? I don't really know. I do know that someone was so touched by the band's music that he requested a song to be played at his own funeral. Or would Walter Schreifels of Gorilla Biscuits/Quicksand/Walking Concert fame have been able to write and perform a song about an old music-scene friend who passed away a decade ago had he not succumbed to the fact that music is indeed a business? I'm not really sure about that, either. Still, he wrote it and played it and some people were able to fondly remember our old friend.
To me, this is what it's all about. This is what music does. It touches people. It inspires people. It motivates people. It's important to protect that for anyone who might be discovering it today. Music and business have a symbiotic relationship and need to coexist. I am sure 20 years ago there was some old punk saying that punk music and corporate business should not mix! However, one allows the other to exist. This is how art has always been. And in another 20 years, some punk rocker will again complain about business being too involved in music. At this point, it's part of the mix.
In these pages are interviews with some bands on this year's Warped Tour. They all love music. They have great spirits for it. They give it their all. It shows in their stories (and music). Hopefully through these interviews someone will find some inspiration and become a future leader or future punk rocker.
Turn it up!
Gus
gus@chordmagazine.com
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