Yesterday Vans Warped Tour was in Hartford, CT. I was able to get free tickets as part of my “Ultimate Access Pass” and while normally this was not a show I would go to, my little brother wanted to go so I took him. There were really only 2 bands I was interested in seeing – The Pretty Reckless which is fronted by Taylor Momsen, aka Little J from Gossip Girl. The other band was Sum 41 who I have liked for several years now but generally stay away from their types of shows as it’s probably not the safest place for me to be.
I was reading up on Warped Tour online and knew that if you brought 3 food items you could get a wristband to get let in 15 minutes early. So we got there at 10 (doors were at 11) picked up tickets from Will Call, dropped off our food and then waited in line. Except we were let in one gate early, but not let in from the other until the main gates were open as well, which was pointless. The first 200 people got free items if they went to the Vans tent with the secret word and one item was a ‘rock hand’ foam finger and it was ORANGE so of course I wanted it. Unfortunately by the time we got to the table the fingers and lanyards were gone so we ended up with a key chain.
We wandered around a bit more and grabbed a program. Then I decided I needed to sit and eat something and so my brother wandered around a bit to find more info. I really was not into the style of music that was going on at the stage near me, so we found the Glamour Kills and AP Advent stage. Pretty Reckless would be on the AP stage at 5:15 and the stages were in the pavilion at the venue so I could sit back and observe everything else that was going on. I ended up there all night while my brother went off to see and meet other bands and met up with me after the sets he wanted to see were done.
The bands I ended up seeing were:
Die Another Day
Anarbor
Sparks the Rescue
Rev Peytons Big Damn Band
I See Stars
The Casualties
Versa Emerge
Polar Bear Club
Enter Shikari
The Cab
Ace Enders / I Can Make A Mess
Never Shout Never
Artist Vs Poet
The Pretty Reckless
The Summer Set
Mike Posner
Sum 41
My only regret would be that I didn’t go meet The Pretty Reckless because I had heard that The Summer Set was good – but they didn’t really impress me. I was, however, very impressed with the Cab, their set was probably my favorite of the day. (Coming in a close second was Sum 41 who I was pretty excited for all day because at first I thought we weren’t going to stay long enough to see them)