Rock music, tattoos, body paint, and leather bracelets. Vans Warped Tour is a summer long music
festival tour featuring over 80 artists of the alternative rock variety. The festival has nine stages, classifying the
artists by both genre and popularity. This
year’s lineup includes Never Shout Never, Set It Off, Peirce The Veil, and
PVRIS, who really give us something to talk about. PVRIS is an alternative pop band, featuring
Alex Babinski, Brain MacDonald and lead singer Lindsey Gunnulfsen. In response to the fans, PVRIS started the
tour performing on the smaller Journey’s stages, but was transferred to the
larger Unicorn Stage mid tour. The
various merch guys I talked with said, “[Lyndsey] has really been rocking
it.” After watching PVRIS’s performance,
I would have to agree. The band has been
compared to the extremely successful Paramore, who also started out on Warped
Tour 10 years ago. PVRIS is defiantly a
band I will be keeping my eye on. This
is one aspect of music festivals I enjoy the most: discovering new musicians,
and discussing their art with other fans.
There is
something special about connecting with others through music. Trauma, love, and
hurt can be experienced by all, and no matter how severely or minimally we are
impacted by the scars of our pasts, music is there through the pain and the joy. I truly respect alternative rock artists who
write their own material, because it allows their fans to connect with them,
and each other on an intimate level, rarely achieved by Top 40 artists. So, for this reason, Vans Warped Tour is more
than just a festival. Besides
temporarily satisfying my band merch addiction, it was one of the most
liberating experiences I have had in my 21 years of life. As someone who grew up as an only child in a
conservative catholic family, I was already heavily pressured by my
surroundings to fit into the mainstream mold, even if it wasn’t explicitly
stated. Deep down, I was never that kid
who wanted to listen to top 40 radio constantly and shop at Hollister and
Abercrombie for the rest of my life, which is probably why I never really fit
in with my friends. I am also physically
disabled, which didn’t really help the matter.
Anyway, for the first time in a while I felt like I actually had
something in common with the people around me. I think this is what Warped Tour is truly
about: bringing people together, and making them feel like they belong.
No comments:
Post a Comment