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Rancid, 311, Pennywise Sweat Out 2001 Warped Tour Opener
06/25/2001 10:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Neal Weiss
(6/25/01, 10 a.m. ET) -- Rancid, 311, Pennywise, and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes helped kick off the Vans Warped Tour 2001 Presented By Target on Friday (June 22) amid triple-digit heat at a baseball complex in Peoria, Arizona, just outside Phoenix.
Approximately 40 groups spanning five stages helped usher in this year's version of the venerable punk rock tour with approximately eight hours of music. Also featured were Alien Ant Farm, Less Than Jake, New Found Glory, rapper Kool Keith, and a pair of old-timers, Fear and the Vandals.
Rancid and Pennywise proved to be two of the most durable groups on the bill, and possibly the heart of the tour, each providing 30-minute sets featuring songs that are perhaps the most prototypical of modern-day punk rock. Both, coincidentally, made mention of punk legend Joey Ramone, who succumbed to cancer earlier this year. "The day he died is when rock 'n' roll died, as far as I'm concerned," Rancid guitarist Lars Frederiksen told the overheated crowd during late-afternoon set.
Punk semi-supergroup Me First & the Gimme Gimmes--featuring members of NOFX, Lagwagon, Swingin' Utters, and the Foo Fighters--gave the affair a much-needed jolt of humor with a seemingly semi-rehearsed set of covers that included John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B," and Billy Joel's "Only The Good Die Young." While its performance was slowed technical problems, Me First frontman Spike Slawson continually amused with comments like, "We're the f--king greatest band in the world" and the puzzled query, "What are we doing?" And when introducing "Over The Rainbow," from The Wizard Of Oz, the singer deadpanned, "You guys like Judy Garland?"
Perhaps most anticipated was the return punk/metal/funk/ hip-hop practitioners 311, whose new album, From Chaos, appears to have re-energized the multi-platinum band. The group offered a brief sampling of its latest material to its hungry fans while also featuring old favorites like "Down," "Beautiful Disaster," and "Who's Got The Herb?" Frontman Nick Hexum told LAUNCH that come Friday afternoon, he was raring to go. "As I was standing out there watching I was like, 'This is gonna be one fun, f--king summer.' It's just gonna be a blast. There's so many great bands on the bill and sometimes we'll play earlier in the day so then we can just party after and watch bands. It's really a cool setup."
Meanwhile, events coincided beyond the mainstage. Los Angeles group Bargain Music played its brand of dub rock while Hank 3 & Assjack, featuring Hank Williams III, delivered a bone-crushing set that had little to do with the country music of his famed grandfather and father. And on the other side of the stadium, acts like Ultra Fat Baby and Angry Amputees played multiple sets at the Ladies' Lounge.
The day also featured what is now the standard fare of extreme sports demonstrations and well as a new entry that what appears to have been an instant hit, the Balls Of Steel motorcycle act, in which two young cyclists ride bikes challenge the laws of physics inside what is literally a five-ton, 14-foot tall see-through ball of steel.
The Vans Warped Tour (which is owned by LAUNCH Media) arrives Wednesday (June 27) in Chula Vista, California.
-- Neal Weiss, Phoenix
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