Tuesday the Vans Warped tour made its annual appearance at Gexa Energy Pavilion. Bands spanning all corners of the Punk Rock Genre performed all day long on multiple stages. Crowd favorites like Yellowcard and New Found Glory took the stage later in the day, but there were many lesser known acts to get there early for. Up and coming band “We Are the In Crowd” were the first to take the Tilly stage. Unfortunately originality at this tour is a hard thing to come by and many would call them a carbon copy of Paramore. Even with that comparison it doesn’t make their songs less catchy.

Another fun band on the Tilly stage was I Fight Dragons. Using guitar hero guitars, super Nintendo controllers, and other video game related items to make music. Their tunes were upbeat and fun, and the whole nerd thing is all the rage right now. They would be fun to see in a non festival, non opening act, environment.

For every fun act at warped tour, there’s quite a few that are throw away unfortunately. With a ever increasing ticket price, this year it was close to 50 dollars, I can’t help but wonder why someone would pay that. Especially in 100 degree heat. Then again, I’m older than the demographic they are shooting for. But it still begs the question, do kids have that kind of money to spend on a ticket? It’s sad really. For that kind of money you need to be giving kids some real quality acts in addition to the up and comers. It’s bizarre to think a few years ago you could catch acts like Cobra Starship, Paramore, and Katy Perry all at the same show.  Comparatively this year seemed mediocre. I hope this trend doesn’t continue in the future.