Comparing three rock tours

By Brian Campbell

Compared with individual concerts, festivals are great since they bring a wide variety of bands I want to see live and have many other activities going on. This August, I’m lucky enough to have three festival tours rolling through my home town of Buffalo NY over the course of three weeks: Family Values, Warped Tour, and Projekt Revolution. A metal show, a punk show and a rock show. Well, Warped Tour isn’t really a punk show anymore; it is pretty much an emo show nowadays.

So far, I've been to Family Values, with the other two festivals coming up this week and next. Family Values was last Friday, and it was a great show. It reminded me more of an Ozzfest type show, with a lot of different games and sideshows acts, along with an autograph booth and a wide variety of vendors, including clothing, jewelry and accessories. Unlike an Ozzfest though, Family Values was interesting with their set times. They had the chance seemingly to alternate bands on either stage, but instead after the main stage opened, the bands on that stage played at the same time as acts on the second stage.

Ozzfest in its younger years used to do this until they smartened up and stopped. I really didn’t like how Family Values was doing that because I was conflicted, since Through You played the same time Trivium did, and more importantly Hellyeah played the same time as Five Finger Death Punch. Well, luckily I was able to split my time among them all. I think it goes without saying that Family Values has come a long way since its inception, what with adding another stage and bigger venues. I mean, there was a time when FV wasn’t even headlined by Korn. Meh, either way, it was a cool experience.

I'll have much more to say about the Family Values event in another post. But fast forward seven days, and now I sit here waiting to attend Warped Tour. Now, I haven’t been to Warped in like three of four years, but I pretty much know what to expect from it, since it never really changes. It’s pretty much a melting pot of bands, and then they are all given set times and then thrown onto the stage. There will be about a million bands and even more kids there to see them, so it remains interesting.

My fondest memory of Warped was a few years back when I worked the Alternative Press booth, and not only did I get to hang out with Simple Plan, Thrice and All-American Rejects, I got a year of AP for $5. You cannot go wrong with that. Regardless, unlike the other festivals I am going to, Warped remains the outcast since there are more than two stages and more than 10 or 11 bands. Warped Tour is pretty much quasi-controlled chaos, unlike a Family Values or Projekt Revolution, since it is anarchy with people everywhere, and the music never stops. There is always a band playing on every stage.

Warped Tour is also above the other two in the aspect that there is always way more stuff to do. Besides the standard food and drink concessions, there are games, information booths and such as well. I always like going to the record label and music magazine booths since you are normally in for free stuff, and usually lots of it. Not to mention you are pretty much guaranteed to run into bands hanging out all over the place. I remember the last time I hit up a Warped Tour show, I was walking to my car and ended up getting stopped and talking to Vendetta Red, Flashlight Brown and Bowling for Soup along the way.

It is more of a family atmosphere, and less produced than the other two festivals. Like I said, it is quasi-controlled chaos, but there is always something going on. At PR or FV, you are pretty much guaranteed to be bored between sets, since you are walking around looking at stuff you have done and seen already. At Warped, it is a big production with stuff all over the place. The only hard thing at Warped is finding out when the bands are playing and what stages they are playing on, not to mention finding the stages themselves. Another good thing about Warped is that all of the bands normally have their own booth and they are usually there hanging out. So, it is real personal in that aspect.

My final festival stop is Projekt Revolution. This is the show I’m most looking forward to, since Linkin Park haven’t done this tour in like three years. It will be the same deal as last time out though, with a bunch of bands on two stages, and I’m assuming the normal fare of what Family Values brought to the table. You know, there will be some type of games and vendor booths and such for all to see, and I’m pretty much assuming that the set up will be exactly the same as it was for Family Values. PR is a lighter atmosphere than FV however; I don’t know quite how to explain it but it definitely is.

Overall PR is more like FV than Warped. At Warped you feel more like part of a community of sorts, and you feel welcomed. I mean, I had fun at FV, and I am definitely looking forward to Warped and then to cap it all off with PR. I cannot wait, but come to think of it, Ill be pretty bummed after all of the shows are over, because at that point I think the next festival is Taste of Chaos, but that’s not even really a festival. I think Ill get over it though.