1 post tagged “my computer sucks”

Well, I'm back from Warped Tour. Man. Where do I even start? This was by far one of the coolest things I've ever done, and I really wasn't looking forward to coming back to the office. Aside from missing my cat and my queen-sized bed, I could have definitely stayed on the road a bit longer. I think that it would be really rad to do the tour for an entire summer, just once. (Which is why I already pitched an idea for next year.)

As far as the tour went, I didn't get to see a whole lot of bands perform during the day. AP has a tent where they sell subscriptions and host signings, so that consumed most of my time. We have two people hired to be in the tent full-time (and street-teamers at select locations), but it's still a decent amount of work, particularly at take-down and set-up (or during any big-name signings--you wouldn't believe some of the crowd control we needed to implement for these bands. What you may believe are the  people I had the most trouble with were parents trying to "get an autograph for their kid, after driving three hours" blah blah blah. I heard it all. People.There's a line for a reason. No shoving.)

Anyway, most of the bands on Warped Tour aren't of the variety that cause me to, shall we say, "geek out." This was probably a good thing since you're around the band peeps fairly constantly. However, it was really cool to feel like part of a community every day. The production and sponsorship people working in the tents and keeping the event running were really great. It was definitely interesting being on a bus with 17 other people from all over the country, waking up in a new city (if not state) every morning. My bus, # 15, happened to have the youngest guy in production. He turned 19 while I was on tour and he grew up in Manhattan. He had never seen a Wal-Mart until this tour. My mind didn't know whether it should be blown or jealous. I guess if you grew up in NYC and started taking the subway alone at 12, you wouldn't really be missing out with Wal-Mart absent from your life. Still. It's a weird concept. Not that I endorse Wal-Mart, but it's just always been there as far as my experience goes.

If you want specific details about my Warped experience, you should check out the AP blog (link is in the previous entry). As far as general observations, I think these were my two biggest:

1. It's really cool to meet our readers
In light of everything that's going on in this world (and my newspaper background), sometimes I have serious doubts about where I'm placing my energies. I mean, how much does a music magazine matter in the grand scheme of things? Very little. Who cares what we think about Band X's album compared to Band Y's?  However, it was really cool to meet so many of our dedicated subscribers and hear about how much AP means to them and how much they love what we do. I think I needed to be exposed to readers in big batches like that, since most of my friends hadn't even heard of the magazine when I got the job. Even if we're not changing politics or improving neighborhoods, we are making a product that brings some people joy. Even if it's on a superficial level, I can still be down with that.

2. I really wish I was a tattoo person
I've never thought I would get one/wouldn't know what to get/am afraid of the needle gun thingy, but. I saw some suh-weet tattoos out on tour, and Oliver Peck (famous tattoo artist and ex-husband of Kat Von D if you watch Miami Ink) is the resident Warped tattooer. He travels around with Warped with his mobile studio and inks the bands and production people. I couldn't bring myself to get one, so I bought a pair of the special edition Vans slip-ons he designed. But in a different life, I'm definitely a girl with a sleeve.

So yeah, here are a few Warped pics: