Mike Bell - The Calgary Sun

Before his Vans Warped Tour arrived in Calgary, Kevin Lyman was wondering what the city had in store for him and the more than 50 acts tagging along with the travelling punk fest.

The event’s history in this city has been marked by severe weather including rain, hail and windstorms that tested the durability of the tents, stages and booths — not to mention the crew and bands themselves.

Well, as I write this, fingers are crossed, because Lyman and his beloved Warped — now in its 11th year — couldn’t have asked for a better day than July 14. Nor could the almost 14,500 fans who packed Race City for the summer ritual and Stampede respite.

As always, the plethora of stages and the overwhelming number of bands can be a bit daunting. In fact, to best illustrate it, perhaps Warped should be described in snapshots — a 15-minute block of time where what you see and what you hear can change so drastically from minute-to-minute.

Let’s take 12:30 for example.

On one of the side stages, Strike Anywhere is putting on an excellent high-energy set, with its dreadlocked frontman inciting the modest crowd into fits of pogo-ing. Not 50 metres away, One Eyed Jacks are banging something out, and attracting a smaller group of kids, probably only because of the sight of an accordion onstage. Quickly moving along, another stage is hosting Ghost Cried Murder, an unintelligible and quite unlistenable screamo act.

Luckily, over on the mainstage, where we wrap up the snapshots, things are much better for Ohio band Relient K’s 30 minutes — one of the afternoon’s best.

Led by Canadian-born frontman Matthew Thiessen, the group puts on a superb set of power pop, complete with keyboard breaks, great harmonies and fantastic melodies.

They were the second of the mom-friendly bands — the first being Matchbook Romance — and the first of the tour’s God squad. This year there’s actually a healthy group of Christian pop punk acts. But the good thing about all of those bands is they keep their spirituality hidden in their songs and are only here to preach the pop and the punk.

And, come to think of it, there were only a few acts over the course of the day who didn’t stick to that prayer book.

Oddly — or maybe predictably — they provided some of the better and more memorable sets of Warped 05.

The HorrorPops, for example, were unlike anything else going on, with upright bass playing frontwoman Patricia Day, a duo of go-go dancers and a catchy sound that melded rockabilly with pop and punk.

EXPOSING THEMSELVES

On the local side of things, Calgary crew Dragon Fli Empire were one of the few acts in the hip hop tent to draw a crowd.

And deservedly so. They are an impressively tight trio of MCs, who should hopefully soon see national exposure.

Also ready for more exposure is Bedouin Soundclash. Coming off like a cross between The Police, The English Beat and Dashboard Confessional, the three-piece got their modest crowd grooving.

And finally, only 100 or so saw the hands-down highlight of the afternoon, which was the set by Valient Thorr, this year’s Ima Robot. The stoner rock quintet gave ’er like nobody else, guitars blazin’ and their fur-bearing, jiggly bellied frontman holding the audience in the palm of his sweaty, smelly hands.

As for that pair of bigger-name showcase spots, after Relient K, it was hard to find anything too exciting or inspiring for the next few hours. For example, Toronto’s Billy Talent, filling in for The Offspring. Not really a fair trade.

Yes, the preteen girls like Billy Talent, but when you listen instead of look, it’s a lot like a 30-minute toddler tantrum.

Most of the rest — No Use For A Name, Mest, Alexisonfire and honourary Calgarians My Chemical Romance — were hardly the stuff of diary entries.

It wasn’t until The Transplants took the stage late in the afternoon that that really changed. Their set wasn’t as incendiary as many expected, but the supergroup featuring blink 182’s Travis Barker and Rancid’s Tim Armstrong, were a nice change of pace with their hip hop, ska and punk cocktail.

Sadly, that was about it.

Granted, none of the remainder of the acts were terrible, but it was all stuff — with the exception of Avenged Sevenfold — you could have heard throughout the day. And show closers Dropkick Murphys have been on so many Warped lineups of late that it seemed as though it had been only an hour since we’d last seen and heard them. But, once more, that’s only one snapshot of this year’s event.

The rest of the picture, the big picture, is one that was pretty picture perfect.