Interesting report from Warped Tour 2003

[AWD]

Just got back from the Warped Tour (yes, it was awesome), and needed to report this.

There is some MAJOR hatred of Bush coming from the punk rock crowd....REALLY hate this man. The bands, the fans, the road crew....EVERYWHERE there were anti-Bush shirts, signs, comments.

The lead singer of Suicide Machines made an in-between sonds comment about being a registered voter, to which he got mild applause. he then made a comment about getting Bush out of office and the crowd went NUTS. He called upon every registered voter to go vote him out of office, and then challenged the non-registered voters to get off their asses before it's too late.

The lead singer of Bowling For Soup had a guitar with the letters "TX" on it. He later told the crowd that he was proud to come from the same state as Natalie Maines.

Me First And The Gimme Gimmes sold "Not My President" shirts with Bush on them.

Vendetta Red sold Bush shirts with the slogan "The Face Of Terror"

A.F.I. sold shirts that said "why isn't it called terrorism when the United States does it?"

Booths were EVERYWHERE that sold anti-Bush buttons, anti-Bush bumper stickers, anti-Bush hats, etc. More booths were dedicated to anti-war causes than there were beer tents.

"International Terrorist" shirts were on sale in at least two places.

This is a crowd we need to reach out to in a big way next summer. I propose Democratic Underground sets up a booth at the tour next year.

And before any of you say it, the average age was NOT 13...this place was at least 80% people of voting age and above.

It felt VERY good to see all this all day.

Oh, and Rancid kicked ass.