SoundProof - Event: Vans Warped '07

If there were no kids in the world, there would be no Christmas. Conversely, if there were no angst-ridden teenagers in the world, there would be no Warped Tour. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, as most of us have undoubtedly spent a portion of our lives as an angst-ridden teenager, Hell, some of us probably went to Warped too, and it's more than likely that if we did, we enjoyed it … thoroughly. The thousands of "ARTs" that made the trip to Barrie for this year's installment, not only enjoyed it they enjoyed it to the max.

Despite an extended lounge in the blazing hot Saturday sun, your SoundProof heroes made their way onto the pitch for the festival, and after a trip around the world to locate the press tent, everything was set. The mass of different colours of hair and multitude of tattoos and t-shirts bearing the names of bands the old folks have never heard of was staggering, and the music emanating from the 10-plus stages was loud and proud. Big draws came in the form of Bad Religion and K-OS, complimented by big niche market draws like The Planet Smashers, Killswitch Engage, Flogging Molly, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Ill Scarlet, Coheed & Cambria and a host of others. The result was a very diverse and somewhat surprising crowd. Setup-wise, the Vans Warped Tour was fairly easy to navigate through once you got to the center of it all, with a plethora of vendors, skateboarders and free stuff to keep you busy. The bands played like clockwork and went on exactly when they were supposed to, which made things even easier.

On the performance side, Montreal-based third wave Ska band The Planet Smashers, delivered a solid set — tapping into all periods of their over 10 year career — to a diverse, but familiar crowd, which boasted a pleasantly varied age group. The Smashers ripped through their half-an-hour playing classics like "Super Orgy Porno Party," which everyone seemed to know the words to. With an always-solid horn section, consistent vocals and an all-round fantastic attitude on stage, The Smashers undoubtedly provided this year's festival with a truly inspiring show.

The Whitby, Ontario-born K-OS brought something a little more eclectic to the table, with his truly suburban brand of Canadian hip-hop, and whatever it was, it seemed to work just fine. Between being a fantastically talented breakdancer, a DJ that could scratch like woah and a K-OS that rhymed his heart out, the very receptive group of people certainly got their money's worth. A great set is a great set, no matter the form it comes in, and Kevin certainly illustrated that on Saturday. Selecting songs from across his discography, he was able to blend the tracks while maintaining a steady flow. All in all: great show.

After music, interviewing, walking and sweating buckets for the duration of the day, the evening came to a symbolic head, with Bad Religion and their distinctive, consistent and important sound taking the stage.

Amidst dark clouds of dust and an exhausted, sweltering crowd, Bad Religion put on a show that pleased, but didn't dazzle. The show was nothing less than what you'd expect from the band, but also nothing more. Greg Gaffin cruised through familiar songs with familiar vocals and Brett Gurewitz providing familiar guitar music to reinforce them. Songs like "New Dark Ages," and "Infected" came off without a hitch and sounded like they should — but that was exactly the problem. Bad Religion could have done so much more, but they didn't; they played it safe. During the course of the show, one could identify the highs and lows, and easily follow along with the progression of the set; lack of a true dynamic made the set approachable and easy to read. The grand finale of "Sorrow" did sound good, though, and undoubtedly left the fans with a sweet taste in their mouths.

On the whole, BR's set mirrored the rest of the day; it had its moments. The fact of the matter is that things have changed and will continue to do so. The Vans Warped Tour zeros in on a demographic that is in constant change — thusly, the show will keep changing and render itself appropriate for the current group. For this group, what was going on was more than appreciated and will be a day to remember for many people. According to Denver, Colorado-based "hard" band Animo, the Canadian dates on the tour "are the best dates to play," and the crowd, on the whole, evidently proved that. If that's the case, maybe Warped should go back to its roots.