Boston Warped Tour Bands Dish It Out: Touring, Parents, and Zombies

The sky was as angry as the hardcore kids at the Breathe Carolina set, forced as they were to endure synthesizers and happy melodies for the sake of temporary indoor relief from the rain. July 21, 2009, found Guerrilla Radio tromping through ankle deep mud amidst a sea of hormones wearing neon tshirts (and occasionally tshirts that said things like “F**k you and your neon shirt!”), as the Boston, MA, Warped Tour kicked off with a downpour. It was everything a Warped Tour should be: sweat, mud, head wounds, screaming, overpriced Gatorade, and fake blue hair dye leaking onto the faces of the kids who’d never been to Warped Tour before. Guerrilla Radio managed to catch up with a few of the bands backstage, including Antiflag, Bayside, Innerpartysystem, Attack Attack, and Less Than Jake:

GR: What’s different about Warped Tour than a regular tour?

Nick (Bayside): There’s more people every day. You sell more tshirts and get to meet a ton of new bands. A lot of times you meet people in bands on Warped Tour that you end up touring with later because you find out they’re cool guys.

GR: What do your parents think of what you do?

Nick (Bayside): All of our parents are extremely supportive. They all came to Warped Tour this year actually.

Nick (Attack Attack): My mom supports it. She let me drop out of school and everything.

Kris (Innerpartysystem): The first year I actually had a decent job in Florida and I quit it so I could be in the band with these guys, and for that first year my mom was like “What are you doing?” But once it started picking up and my parents saw that it was a pretty big deal they support it now.

Jared (Innerpartysystem): I don’t think they get the extent of it. Like my dad came to Warped Tour the other day and his eyes got all wide and he was like “This is for real, J-rod!” He was like freaking out when he saw that we had a tour bus and there’s actually fans here, so he was pretty stoked

Vinny (Less than Jake): All our parents are super supportive. I don’t know that they listen to all our music but they’re proud of us.

GR: If you were to give advice to a band that was starting out, what would it be?

Nick (Attack Attack): Just do it for fun. Once you’re in it for the money and the fame and stuff it all goes downhill. Just do what you love.

Pat (Antiflag): Just work your ass off. That’s what it takes is a lot of work.

GR: What’s the longest you’ve gone without showering on Warped Tour?

Vinny (Less than Jake): I actually just showered yesterday after 2 weeks. I know that’s gross but we’ve been touring for so long now that I don’t even care. The lines for the showers are so long at Warped Tour that I’m just like whatever. Is that sick?

GR: What’s your guilty pleasure band?

Nick (Bayside): I strictly listen to cool music. Even if it’s something that’d be a guilty pleasure to someone else I’m proud to listen to it.

Kris (Innerpartysystem): Disney showtunes. You know, like A Whole New World? It’s a good song, right? But it’s not exactly cool.

Jared (Innerpartysystem): The Fray. I love The Fray. That’s like some mediocre, Berkenstock rock, man.

Vinny (Less than Jake): Neil Diamond!

GR: If you weren’t touring in a band right now, what do you think you’d be doing right now?

Nick (Bayside): I’d be going to beauty school to learn to cut hair. I’d also like to own a business or two. If I could have an entire strip mall of all things that I’d want I think that would be pretty awesome. I’d have a tattoo shop, a salon, a bar, a laundromat.

GR: A laundromat huh?

Nick (Bayside): A laundromat that is like…. cool. That maybe has wifi and a coffee place in it. You don’t have to feel like a cretin for going and doing laundry. When I do laundry at home I feel like an idiot.

Kris (Innerpartysystem): It’s different now that I’ve been on tour for a while. I’d DJ because it’s easily the most overpaid job in the world.

Jared (Innerpartysystem): I’ve gotten so far removed from the 9-5 lifestyle that I don’t think I could go back to a regular job. I’d probably still do something with music, like be in a tribute band or something, hahaha.

GR: What would you say is the best and worst thing about Warped Tour?

Kris (Innerpartysystem): I think the worst thing is like, dealing with the weather.

Jared (Innerpartysystem): There’s no escape. When we’re on our own tour we can go outside. Here we’re on a bus with 15 people. The other night it was raining and we had twenty pair of wet shoes in the door and it was like all sticky and musty inside. But really, we’re on one of the coolest tours of the summer, so bitching about a bus is like bitching cuz you got free chocolate cake when you wanted vanilla.

Chris (Innerpartysystem): Yeah we’re seriously lucky to be here.

Nick (Attack Attack): The best thing are all the kids you get to meet. The worst is the weather, like the rain today.

Vinny (Less than Jake): No matter what I’m super stoked for every part of it.

GR: If you were being surrounded by zombies, and you had a shotgun with two shots left, how many zombies do you think you could take out?

Nick (Bayside): I’m too much of a quitter… I’d probably shoot two and then dive right into them.

Nick (Attack Attack): I could take seven zombies.

Pat (Antiflag): Two shots to the head, my friend. (pointing to his own head)

Kris (Innerpartysystem): I think I would just shoot myself.

Jared (Innerpartysystem): You could probably beat them with the back of your gun or something, but it’s inevitable man. If you’re gonna get eaten alive no matter what you just gotta give up man.

Vinny (Less than Jake): At least a dozen. Anyone who knows zombies knows you gotta go for the head. I could take out more if I had something like a hammer or a weird gigantic ice pick. There’s no f***ing around with zombies.

At the end of the day, we decided to hand out the following awards to the bands who were kind enough to talk to us:

Most Likely to Survive the Zombie Apocolypse: Less than Jake

Guiltiest Guilty Pleasure: Innerpartysystem

Most Awesome Parents: Attack Attack

Most Articulate: Antiflag

Most Likely to Own an Awesome Laundromat: Bayside

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