"I couldn't wait for the summer at the Warped Tour..."
~Blink 182 "The Rock Show"

I didn't actually think I'd end up going to Warped Tour this year...or ANY year for that matter. It just didn't seem like my scene. But, when you can take off work on a Tuesday and there's nothing else to do...yeah. So that's how I ended up there yesterday afternoon. Holy shit. It turned out to be one of the most amazing days of my life. I spent it with Dustin, Krystal and this irritating girl Allison. In 5 hours, we only saw 2 bands play and heard one and a half. We went inside the Ponchartrain Center at around 2:30 and saw some band called the Peppers or something while we waited for Good Charlotte. I wasn't thrilled beyond belief to see them or anything, but I knew the 2 guys that had hosted Sink or Swim, Benji and Joel, were really hott and I liked that song "Little Things." So we decided to stay in and see them especially since they were playing inside. I entered my first mosh pit and was scared to death. As soon as the band came out, it was all good. We were so close we could almost touch them, and we might have if we hadn't been off to the side of their half of the stage. After seeing Benji and Joel up close, I fell in love, and I developed a thing for Billy as well. I didn't know any of the songs, but I vowed to buy the CD and learn them so when they come back, I can see them as a real fan who sings along. Anyway, while standing in front of some huge (literally) asshole who liked to shove crowdsurfers into the air so they landed on their faces on the asphalt, some guy fell on my head. Literally. His ass connected with my head before he fell to the ground. Let's just say I won't be doing that again unless under desperate circumstances (like seeing Good Charlotte again...and again...and maybe again).

After that, we went outside to the launch.com tent to wait for the Good Charlotte autograph signing. We were right up in the front of the line. Meeting them was so awesome because they were such sweet guys. After being told we couldn't take pictures, we walked into the tent. Billy was first, then Joel, Benji, some other guy (I think the one that took Aaron's place), and Paul. Krystal asked why we weren't allowed to take pictures and Joel was like "You can, just don't hold up the line." So we have pictures of Joel and Benji up close but Billy didn't turn his head toward us after that. Once that was done with, we sat on the ground away from the crowd by the main stage. We could hear Alien Ant Farm playing, and we could see the bands walking around behind the fence where the tour buses were. Benji and Billy walked past, and Krystal managed to stop Billy to talk to him and get him to sign her arm. After they were gone for a while, I got up to look arounf the big 18-wheeler that was blocking my view of her and Allison to see her talking to some other guy on the other side of the fence. Dustin wandered over by us as we found out the guy was in some band called MT Minds. They weren't even playing the Warped Tour and I still don't know why they were even there. The guy Chuck talked to us a bit and we asked him to sign our programs in case they ever get famous. His bandmate Justin came out of their RV (they didn't even have a tour bus) and signed the stuff too. We "befriended" them enough to get them to let us into the back area by the buses. He told the security we were extended family or something.

We wandered around for almost an hour and a half, asking everyone that passed if they knew where SUM 41 was. We actually ended up seeing Benji again, and barely even recognizing him. He came walking to ward us and I thought it was him but I wasn't sure because he was wearing a ski hat that covered his mohawk. Krystal called him over to us, but he apologized and said he had to go inside and waved as he left. I think he was my favorite from GC :-). We looked for SUM 41 until 10 minutes before their show time. We went back out to the stage and watched them play. I was freaking out the whole time because that's basically who I'd wanted to see. How we managed to get BACK into the tour bus area, I don't know. It took some convincing of the Ponchartrain Center person, but he finally gave in. We found out from some kids on bikes which tour bus they were in and got them to ride down there and check it out for us. When they came back, they said Deryck was outside signing autographs.

After a brief freak out, we ran to the bus and found him sitting outside without a shirt on and looking all sweaty. I almost died. He signed our stuff and told us the other guys were inside the bus changing, then took a picture with us. We only talked to him for like a second, then he went inside the bus. We parked ourselves in the curb a little ways away from their bus to see if the other guys would come out. After about 5 minutes, we saw Steve, the drummer, and ran over to get his autograph. Once we decided that we had met all the hott ones, we were walking out and saw Cone and the other guy from the band and stopped to get autographs and pictures. Then we left and that almost ended my great day. I went to the mall directly from the Pontchartrain Center and bought the SUM 41 and Good Charlotte albums. I've been listening to GC literally every day...If you're ever in the record store trying to decide what to buy, I'd definitely recommend one of those or both! Those 2 bands are my 2 new obsessions...

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