Paramore – Ignorance (Hayley Williams Breaks Up Fight)
KEEPING IT TOGETHER
Since its last visit to Australia the tour has been subject to many controversies. The increasing commercialisation of the Warped Tour has raised ire from fans, critics and bands. Brendan Kelly, bassist for Chicago punk band The Lawrence Arms has been quoted as saying that the Warped Tour is “destroying the economy of DIY”. In an interview with ThePunkSite.com, Kelly went on to say:
“[The] summer touring season used to involve a bunch of bands, like Alkaline Trio for example, jumping on buses and taking smaller bands, like us…on tour. There would be all these bands that would do that, so all these support bands would have great tours to go on.
“Kids in every town would have a bunch of different shows to go see…Small clubs would have big, good shows at least once a week if not twice a week, three times a week; and kids would have stuff to do. Now, all those big bands go on the Warped Tour.
“When they come to town, it’s for one day. It’s in a band shell, small clubs all across the US are closing down, they can’t offered to be open. Bands like us have to tour against the Warped Tour, which sucks; or tour on the Warped Tour, which sucks even more.
“…Now people talk about the Warped Tour like it’s the greatest thing to ever happen to punk rock, it’s not the greatest thing to ever happen to punk rock – it’s single handedly dismantling the whole thing we’ve been fucking building for all this time and nobody gives a fuck.”
The tour has also served as a battle ground for fighting between bands. One incident involved The Vandals being kicked off the tour for insulting big-draw Good Charlotte, resulting in a fist fight. The band Guttermouth were similarly removed from the tour for insulting My Chemical Romance, though later said that they decided to leave on their own after receiving threats of violence from other bands.
