Playlist

OK, it's only 7:30 ... but Warped Tour ends in about an hour, so this'll be my last entry today. Got a formal review to file (be sure to check that out here), though I do plan to stay for the start of Relient K, which has the choice final main-stage slot tonight. (A note, though: the last time slot is actually not a good one, since many of the tents are being disassembled and about half the crowd's gone by that time)

However, those tents are being broken down slower than usual today. Warped has a two-day break after today for the July 4 holiday, so time isn't a factor in terms of getting to another city by the morning. Amd that's nice because both artists and fans are hanging out longer.

Heck, 10 minutes ago, Katy Perry was STILL signing stuff - and sitting on the table in front of her tent instead of behind it. Granted, she had a bodyguard beside her ... but she was still smiling.

This Warped was ultra-smooth and really uneventful. I saw one person in distress because of the heat. I saw one gurney (and it was unoccupied). I saw no fights. I saw an amazing amount of collective rocking out, and nowhere near the levels of rudeness and discourtesy that I've noted in past years at Warped. All of that's despite both the heat and the most diverse crowd I've ever seen at a Warped Tour event.

Granted, 'diverse' means little in this case; the vast majority of attendees were, as usual, school-age kids. But this throng seemed to have kinder, gentler and more considerate kids in it.

See? Punk IS good.

See you next year!

That's being unleashed now by Buffalo, N.Y.'s Every Time I Die, which is absolutely killing folks with its larded-up-and-flash-fried brand of hardcore metal.

Telling moment: someone threw up a blow-up doll as a sacrifice, which proceded to body-surf its way up to the stage. Singer Keith Buckley proceded to grab it and give it a ride on his shoulders during several verses of "Ebolarama." All the while, his vocals are basically summoning the souls of the crowd members that the band had already slayed with its unbelievably intense and taut disrhythmic rhythms.

Wow. This, folks, is the future of post-hard-core. Even members of Paramore and Norma Jean are transfixed behind the stage. Yeeeaaah!

... for Ms. Perry: that she has to do a signing soundtracked by the horrendous racket that Greeley Estates is belching up (or, um, hurling?) on the Hurley Stage. Her tent is right across from it.

Arrggh! Get me out of here!

... OK. Katy Perry may have underwhelmed me, but some folks - oh, I'd say about 125 right now - liked her enough to line up at her artist booth. Not to buy fresh T-shirts or crushed-velvet pink gym shorts with her name arching across the buttocks, but to meet her.

Yep: this week's reigning queen of pop is signing stuff. Fifteen minutes after her set. With a smile on her face, and with what appears to be a great attitude. And with a pair of tight peach shorts on that look more like a 1950s-era girdle than fashion wear.

Mad, mod respect, Ms. Perry.

Ummm ... no.

I caught the last two songs of Katy Perry's set on the Hurley.com Stage, which is in the amphitheater. That would be where the Hurley Stage isn't (whew! on that near flub-up!). Where do they come up with these names? I wasn't the only one confused up by that, either ...

... anyway: Plenty showed up to see the newly minted, Cali-cute goof-pop star. Plenty grumbled on the way out, too. She looked almost sheepish, and sang "I Kissed a Girl" about as well as a sheep, too.

Now I'm listening to a better irony-dependent female act: Charlotte Sometimes on the Ernie Ball Stage. It's the smallest of all save for the Kevin Says Stage (upon which TAT, yet another gal-headed outfit, was tearing it up. Dang, did all of the female-led acts play at once today or something?).

Aaah, that's better. Even though it's still ironic rock, which I tend to abhor ... see, CS is from Joisey, and all Joisey rockers are good. :::ironic smirk:::

Man, oh man I love this band. As much as Paramore has been touring since "Riot!" shattered the ceiling for it in 2007, Hayley Williams is actually singing better than she did mid-year last year.

One niggle: the set lacks Paramore's usual seamlessness this go-round. Breaks between songs are a little awkward, almost as if it has to take a collective deeeep breath that lasts 15 seconds or so. Is it getting a little picky about itself, or is that a symptom of the heat? My bet is it's the latter.

She's supposed to take the Hurley Stage in about 10 minutes (ain't it humorous that she was scheduled to play such a small platform, even though she's got the No. 1 pop song in the country? Ha!). And the setting sun is approaching the horizon right behind the stage ... so unless you've got some hellacious sunglasses or the ability to squint hard for half an hour, she might not be visible to all that many.

Than again ... are all that many here to see her? Hmmm ... maybe that's why Family Force 5 have that big throng in front of 'em ...

Wooow. Christian funk rockers Family Force 5 has just about as many gathered around the Hurley Stage - a smaller stage set in a corner waaay across the tent concourses from the side-by-side Main Stages - as Story of the Year does in front of the south Main Stage.

SotY is performing its usual strong turn. So I'm taking in Family Force 5, and it's impressing me. "Supersonic" ripped: this unidentified song is equally frenzied and charismatic. These Atlanta-area guys are a little over-energized, and from screamo to electronica and funk punk, it's not above using just about every trick in the youth-rock textbook.

But it's got one of the intangibles that can't be taught: stage presence. Another: finesse. Slick, slick, slick. Hallelujah, eh?

Luis Dubuc is a metalhead.

You'd never know it from the synth-fried beats of his band, the Secret Handshake. It's the latest in a string of electro-emo major-label success stories out of the Dallas area - Mr. Dubuc's lived in Coppell since he was 14 - and his music has elements of most of those others (the Rocket Summer, PlayRadioPlay!, Forever the Sickest Kids, Metro Station (uh, sort of), etc.). His particular touch is to harden it up a bit and add a dash of trance and sludge.

Both his debut EP (Summer of '98) and full length (One Full Year) came out last year. Judging from the 1,200 or so that are clapping their hands in unison in front of him now - many of whom, he says, claim that they didn't realize he was from the area until they were already fans - he's chipped out a cool niche for himself.

Oh yeah, that metalhead point that I made? He lived in Venezuela until he was 9, and in Venezuela in the early 1990, metal topped the pop heap. Also: he was drummer for area metalcore act Thirty Called Arson before Drowning Pool caused the bottom to fall out of the metal scene in Dallas for a while. Hmph!.

Despite being around for only six years, Aggrolites are already pretty legendary for its party-ready ska-reggae music. It's kind of as if James Brown, Squirrel Nut Zippers, the Wailers and Slightly Stoopid were rolled into a giant sleeping bag. On Baja. With some, ah, "party favors" appropriate for the locale.

Anyway ... only once in my life have I seen a black man in a kilt (and that guy lives in Dallas!). Make that twice now, since a member of urban funk-metal act Fishbone is sitting in on saxophone for Aggrolites here, and he's sporting a Scottish skirt with no shirt Niiice.

That's part and parcel for the band's incessant crowd imploration, as well as its awareness that it's a party band and little more. "Oh, we can go all night," singer Jesse Wagner lamented after the crowd didn't please him during a sonic brake-check in the middle of "Don't Let Me Down." Um, wrong, dude: two minutes later, your set's over. Too bad ... so sad ... now shut that godawful tremolo organ down and head for the bus. Next!

Oh, they're here ... whichever two are the angels in Angels & Airwaves. But the band's a little flat, because the guitarist's axe was flat all throughout "It Hurts."

Otherwise, the spunk is there, even though front man Tom DeLonge revealed that he learned that a friend of his has been diagnosed with terminal cancer 20 minutes before showtime.

His effort is normally respectable (if not contrived), but today he's singing his lungs out. He had the crowd shake their arms in unison before launching into 'I-Empire" just now as a way to send "positive energy" to his pal in Cali. As disingenuine as AVA's music can feel at times, that's a seriously kickin' gesture ...

... too bad the band followed that with a profanity-caked hyperspeed old-school punk rollick. There goes that nice moment ...

Consider this: this is the last of back-to-back-to-back daily Warped stops. Yesterday it arrived overnight from near Kansas City: the day before that, it was the St. Louis area.

Also consider this: the front side of the east parking lot is stuffed with at least 30 aged RVs, mini-buses, van-trailer combos or worse. Half these bands aren't even in buses. That means the band drives itself from date to date.

Finally, consider this: though each act averages 30 minutes on stage, most of them have individual merchandise tents in the concourse areas. The smaller bands staff them with either themselves or maybe a close buddy or girlfriend; If their lucky, they might have a roadie or record rep there ... and if they're even luckier, they have press interest, a signing or two, an acoustic something-or-other -- or, in the case of Street Dogs, the Secret Handshake, Forever the Sickest Kids and Paige Wood, family in town to visit.

What a whirlwind.

Caught about 10 minutes of Jack's Mannequin, which is leukemia survivor and former Something Corporate singer Andrew McMahon's present deal. Not shabby - Mr. McMahon's on-stage A.D.D. mimicry is back in force, and he sang admirably, if not without a care about the occasional flattened note. This guy's piano rock should be much bigger than it is now in five years, if there's any justice in music ...

... and then there was As I Lay Dying just afterward on the left Main Stage. Bullocks about the heat: that band purged its post-hard-core demons out with brute force today (and that's fitting, since its a Christian act). Best set yet ... and for a band like that with limited appeal because of the music it performs, that's an achievement.

Set between the two main stages is a giant inflatable panel with the band schedules on it. Each band (well, the ones on most of the tour, anyway) has a vinyl-coated cloth sign with its name on it, and the panel is lined with hook-and-loop strips so that each band sign can be moved. Why? Because the order that acts play in is different at each Warped stop.

Angels & Airwaves' sign has a typo: 'Angels and Airways,' it says. Considering that it's one of the three biggest draws here (and considering how much of a control freak Tom DeLonge reportedly is), that's ironic as heck.

So by the time that those two stage schedules had been sent to my phone (by the way, they've arrived just after the gates opened the past two years), I missed these bands that were mentioned in my preview in today's GuideLive:

Anberlin, Horrorpops, Cobra Starship, From First to Last, the Briggs, Piotta and Norma Jean. I'd have barely caught a couple of others on side stages.

Sheesh! That's the last time I rely on that!

I caught the last part of Against Me!'s set on the right Main Stage. It was as expected; Tight, tense and swirling with electricity. Note: the singer sounds an awful lot like Ian Astbury of the Cult at times ...

Now, Gym Class Heroes are wooing and cooing on the left Main Stage. Singer Travis McCoy "messed up" his knee about a week ago, and that's taking away from what would normally be a much bouncier set. It's still fine, especially sonically, and Mr. McCoy is a tireless cheerleader, even when hobbled. But, unfortunately, bands need to be much more active to capture new fans at Warped, and without the sealed focus of an indoor venue, it loses a lot of its ability to entice the casual.

... sort of.

Canada's Protest the Hero is by far the most technical band at Warped this year. It's not disappointing in that regard: time changes, scale runs, vocal-style changes on a dime - heck, even the bassist is fingertapping rhythm runs.

The problem is that such bands often have to concentrate so much on not messing up, their general energy level suffers. The heat isn't helping: these guys are from Toronto, after all, not Tempe.

But dang. Considering the conditions, Protest the Hero is holding together admirably. You might even describe it as heroic.

OK: scratch what I just wrote about Gym Class Heroes, because it just hurled a curve ball that made even my knees buckle ...

... it just played a shortened cover of Lamb of God's "Laid to Rest." Never heard of Lamb of God? Oh, it's only one of the three most intense and original extreme metal bands in America right now ... few peeps in this crowd are likely going to know what the heck that band's about!

... and it worked. Now the band's got a lot more people's attention. Those barriers between music genres, they are a-bucklin' ...

The folks at Warped have made a few layout changes that seem mostly to be positive. For instance: there's a VIP platform between both main stages now: pay a premium, and it won't matter how short you are!

More non-profit and band booths are around this year, too, so the layout's been altered behind the main stages. Most concourses now run perpindicular to the big stages, which is killing flow to them. This is nice, though: a halfpipe for skating is to the right of those stages, which definitely enhances the essence of Warped: alternative youth activities.

I still have yet to get a performance sked, though they're apparently being handed out here and there. Or: they're being sold for $2 near the entrance. C'mon, that's just wrong.

You'd think, as this is the third year that Warped's offered to send stage schedules to your mobile phone via text messages, that it'd have the system virtually bug-proof.

Nope. I've received skeds for just two of the seven stages here. And they arrived on my phone at about 1:45 p.m., more than two hours after the bands started performing.

Not acceptable.

Yep: it's warm. Hot to some, I'm sure. But not that bad. There a light breeze, and clouds are forming to help out the keep-cool cause.

Something else that's cool: Beat Union, a punk-reggae band from the UK. Nice and plucky, those boys are ... though its set just now was a bit short on crackle and snap.

I have yet to get a handle on the band schedules, but one of the maddening aspects of Warped - that you don't know when bands are playing until the morning of - bit me on several levels. I wanted to see Anberlin, but it played a first-up slot before noon!

Jeez ... who else did I miss because I was two hours late? And who decided the start the fest at 11:20 instead of noon, as indicated?

Remember Bruce Springsteen's 1973 song, "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle? The "Madame Marie" mentioned at the end was an actual New Jersey boardwalk fortuneteller. Who knew. She passed away June 27 at the age of 93. Click below to see how the Boss knew her.

Photo: Springsteen at a show in Duesseldorf, Germany, last month (Getty)

... and I plan on posting a few blogs this afternoon and evening via my phone on what's hot, what's not, what rocks and what ... eh, use your own descriptor here.

Eight hours in nearly cloudless 95-degree heat. Dangit, the bands had better be decent this year. Unlike most teenagers, I'm very aware of my physical limits ...

On my way to the office for a pit stop of deadlines before heading out to the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, I ran into traffic james galore heading into downtown. LOTS of it. On south-bound North Central Expressway, on south-bound Stemmons Freeway (backed up well past American Airlines Center), on northeast-bound Woodall Rogers Freeway.

Warped started about 10 minutes ago, and I'm betting that those backups will be around for the next hour or two. So plan ahead if you're about to head on.

Also: usually, Warped Tour sends major-stage schedules by phone text about 30 minutes before the event starts. I haven't received mine yet. Uh-oh ...

I guess Rozanda "Chilli" Thomas is feeling really gassed up after she and Tionne "T-Boz" Watkins appeared on the BET Awards with Alicia Keys last week, cuz' she's letting the world know that she wants some Rock in her life.

"I haven't met him yet. I want to. If you ever reach out to him, tell him that Chilli has the biggest crush on him," The former Usher companion gushed to a gossip site. "Don't think I don't know he's divorced now too. I wouldn't say all of this if he was married. I know that relationship is over."

She's really smelling what you're cooking Rock---care to mosey into her kitchen and break some bread? Inquiring minds want to know....