Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!
The French five piece are bursting with energy all the way through their set and it really rubs off on the crowd. It’s always a great experience to see a band connect with their fans in such a way, really feeding off each other. There are plenty of audience members up the front singing most of the words along with vocalist Bertrand ‘Bert’ Poncet, and it doesn’t take much encouragement to open up a pit.
The highlight of the set however, is the cover of Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’. No matter who is performing, this is a track guaranteed to rile up a crowd and get them singing along, add the already high energy and Bert’s appearance right on the barrier, and you have yourself one of the rowdier crowds the day sees, including plenty of crowdsurfing and high fives.
Metro Station
Trace Cyrus seems very keen today to remind everyone that his band broke up, and hadn’t played the UK for 6 years. He feigned amazement that so many people were still interested in seeing the electro-rock band, but, let’s face it, the only people who are interested in Metro Station are the ex-MySpace scene kids who want a bit of nostalgia and a chance to bust a move or two to ‘Shake It’.
Musically, it’s not a great performance, with a lot of electronic music and Trace’s off-point vocals, but the atmosphere is a great one. People really do seem to be enjoying the set, even if they are only doing it ironically, and there is plenty of dancing. It’s a shame Mason Musso, the ‘other singer’, doesn’t start a new project though, because he is definitely the most talented musician up on the stage.
Reel Big Fish
Reel Big Fish were possibly the most out of place act there today, their ska sound being very different to everything the other bands had to offer. But that’s the beauty of Warped Tour; variety. And, of course, the fact that they stand out isn’t a bad thing. They bring a fantastic sense of humour to proceedings, with plenty of cheerful upbeat songs laced with angry lyrics that you can’t help but dance to.
The highlight of the set has to be the moment the band plays the same song 5 times in a row, with different styles and encouraging various dancing from the crowd. They cover everything from square dancing to ferocious headbanging. It really is, overall, a great fun set with laughs built in.
