Warped Minds

A day at punk rock's biggest summer tour takes more than just stamina

A A A Comments (0) By Michael Alan Goldberg Thursday, Jun 23 2005

6:14 p.m. Pop our heads into the Girlz Garage tent, where Jeremy grabs free samples of Garnier Fructis conditioner to hurl at All-American Rejects during their set.

6:21 p.m. Turn around to see some guy making off with my Dasani bottle, which still has a few precious, expensive drops of water left in it. I tackle him and he turns out to be Garrett the Recycling Guy, one of two "contest winners" spending the summer picking up Warped Tour trash under the blazing sun ten hours a day for $500 a week and all the hot dogs he can eat from Motion City Soundtrack's hibachi.

Mark Poutenis

Details

The Vans Warped Tour hits Houston Saturday, June 25. Fifty billion bands are on the bill. For more information, call 832-667-1400.

Reliant Center, Main Street parking lot.

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6:28 p.m. Jeremy helps me to the first aid tent to treat the ankle I sprained while tackling Garrett. No All-American Rejects today.

7:08 p.m. Tough it out to the North Stage to see Jeremy's favorite band, My Chemical Romance, whose bombastic, gothic melodic hardcore comes off like an emo version of the Smashing Pumpkins.

8:00 p.m. Hang out at the North Stage for the final band, the Transplants, which also features the guy from Rancid whose ex-wife bumps uglies with the Queens of the Stone Age dude now.

8:30 p.m. Hobble back to the car broke, sunburned, dehydrated, tired and deaf. Smile, though, because the rest of the Warped Tour crowd is still at the North Stage waiting for Blink-182 to come out, which means it won't take us three hours to get out of the parking lot. Can't wait to do it again next year!