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This year the Vans Warped tour came steamrolling through Ventura’s Seaside Park on June 21st and proved to be a bombastic way to jump start the Vacation Season as the tour Kevin Lyman started 21 years ago has become as much a Summer time tradition as Baseball, Hot Dogs and Sun Burns. America’s premiere music and lifestyle festival of the summer is now on the road performing to record crowds during the day

 

 

 

www.WarpedTour.com

All Photos: Ray Soto / Central Coast Rocks 

&

Amber Paresa www.AmberParesa.com

 

The 42-date VANS WARPED TOUR®–well established as America’s premier music and lifestyle festival tour of the summer–kicked off June 19 in Pomona, CA and wraps up August 8 in Auburn, WA.at White River Amphitheatre. A music lover’s playground, the VANS WARPED TOUR has been breaking up-and-coming indie talent as well as both creating and showcasing major established artists since 1995. The nationally-renowned touring festival is bringing their 21st Anniversary to fans across the U.S. and Canada.

 

Vans Warped Tour is a platform for music, athletes and lifestyles to co-mingle and thrive in an atmosphere dedicated to music fans of punk, alternative, hip-hop, ska, pop punk, electronica, alternative rock, emo, hardcore and more. Warped is also responsible for introducing music fans to such artists as No Doubt, A Day To Remember, Katy Perry, Blink 182, All Time Low, Sleeping With Sirens, My Chemical Romance, Eminem and Fall Out Boy, among hundreds of others, as well as creating the blueprint for concert tour sponsorship integration that is now used throughout other tours today.  

Now entering its 21st year, the Vans Warped Tour has become America's longest running touring festival concert tour and reaches more than 500,000 fans every summer.

 

Every summer, the VANS WARPED TOUR has consistently offered a wide-range of lifestyle attractions onsite for a traditionally low ticket price.

 

Main Stage highlights included the theatrics of Black Veil Brides, the high octane energy of We Came As Romans, Blessthefall, & Attila, while August Burns Red and Miss May I & Memphis May Fire added scorching sets. Warped Veterans Never Shout Never, Motion City Soundtrack, Metro Station and Pierce The Veil also added standout performances throughout the day.

 

Over at the Journey’s Stages, Pvris and New Years Day put in impressive sets while Bebe Rexha and Night Riots proved there is substance behind the hype attached to their bands as of late. Mod Sun and Matchbook Romance also entertained while over on the Ernie Ball Stage The Relapse Symphony, Night Argent and Karma Killers put in sets that hinted at future appearances on bigger stages at Warped Tour.

 

On the Beatport Stage, MC Lars brought his unique style to Warped fans once again, look for the Northern California rapper, to release his 4th full-length studio album, the Zombie Dinosaur LP, at the end of this coming summer.  

On the Kevin Says Stage, Alive Like Me, Sumo Cyco, Baby Baby & The Kenneths all gave memorable performances.  

Shiragirl continues to make a splash at Warped Tour. The spunky pink-haired Jersey girl has been a fixture on her own Shiragirl Stage in recent years.. Her success at the Warped Tour has earned her an MTV Warpie Award, and a place in Cleveland's Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Warped Tour exhibit and time capsule.  

Over at The Acoustic Basement, American Opera, Tat and Meghann Wright entertained the crowd while Senses Fail, Being As An Ocean and Escape The Fate obliterated the always over the top Monster Energy Stage  

Brand new for 2015 is the Warped Comedy Tent! Hosting the tent all summer long will be Eli Olsberg and Grant Cotter with special appearances from Beth Stelling (6/19-6/26), Chase Bernstein (6/27-7/12), Dave Ross (7/1-7/12), Eric Schwartz (7/26-8/8), Sammy Obeid (6/19-6/30), and Sandy Danto

 

About the Vans Warped Tour: The VANS WARPED TOUR® is well established as America’s premier music and lifestyle festival of the summer, breaking up-and-coming indie talent as well as both creating and showcasing major established artists since 1995. The nationally-renowned festival is the most eclectic traveling tour and features a diverse array of artists–with hotly tipped acts in every genre from punk, metal and indie to rock, hip-hop, rap, EDM, reggae and pop; as well as a variety of lifestyle attractions for its traditionally low ticket price. The tour has cemented its place in history by bringing punk rock/skate/action sports culture from the underground to the forefront of global youth culture, while at the same time helping those in need and being the first tour to consistently use groundbreaking environmental concepts every year on the road. The Warped Eco Initiatives (WEI) focus on making the tour more environmentally friendly whether it is through eco conscious catering for the artists and crew courtesy of Tada Catering or a solar-powered sound system on the Kevin Says Stage. Further, www.vanswarpedtour.com even showcases public transportation options for every tour date and carpool social media apps as well as exotic eco travel contests. For more information on the tour that Alternative Press readers voted the “Best Tour/Festival” of 2009/2010/2011/2012 and Rolling Stone called “America’s most successful festival” (2005) go to: www.vanswarpedtour.com. Now in its 21st year, the 42-date tour commenced June 19 in Pomona, CA and finishes August 8 in Auburn, WA.

 

 

Night Riots

Travis Hawley- Vocals Nick Fotinakes - Guitar

Matt DePauw (Guitar)  Mikel Van Kranenburg (Bass Guitar), and Rico Rodriguez (Drums

 

Hailing from the Central Coast town of Templeton, Calif. Night Riots is riding high on the success of their latest single Contagious off of their recent Howl EP. The band is currently on all dates of this Summer's Warped Tour, we spoke with Travis & Nick after their killer set at Ventura Warped

 

Central Coast Rocks: Tell us about your band and where you are from?

Nick Fotinakes: Our band is Night Riots and we are from San Luis Obispo, more specifically Templeton, which is a tiny town right outside of it, and that’s kind of where the band started. We all grew up in that same small town vibe and didn’t have a lot to do so we always played music on and off as we grew up, and then just a couple years ago I guess you could say we took it more seriously and quit school and started doing this full time. And the rest has snowballed since then.

 

Central Coast Rocks: It’s just the 3rd date of Warped 2015, what do think so far of the tour?

Nick Fotinakes: It’s going really good, it’s been a trip it’s a different experience as far as shows and festivals go. Today was like the first day that I think we’re finally kind of acclimated and adjusted to how everything’s running. So it felt pretty good today, the first two days were like super crazy just because everyone’s figuring stuff out and it’s hectic, there’s so many bands, but it’s been awesome so far, the crowds have been really, really receptive.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Tell us what it means to you personally to be on Warped Tour this year

Travis Hawley: It’s exciting. A lot of bands we grew up to were running on the Warped Tour circuit and I think that it’s a great place for kids to go out and find new bands. I remember being in High School and there’s always that group of kids who were passing music around, and now that I think about it, I think that they were finding a lot of these bands coming here ( Warped Tour ) falling in love with bands.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Did you attend Warped Tour growing up and was it an aspiration of yours to play the tour one day?

Nick Fotinakes: That’s the funny thing is that because Travis and I are actually the only two from the band that haven’t been to a Warped Tour, so this is our first time. But like Travis was saying, since we were kind of away from it a bit, we had a lot of friends that would go out to Warped Tour and they would be the ones bringing us the new music back home. So that’s how we got into bands like Taking Back Sunday, they would come home with all these CD’s and that’s kind of how we kind of got into a lot of the music that influenced us starting out. So that’s why it’s cool, and it means a lot. For us two personally, this is our first experience of Warped Tour ever too, so it’s kind of a trip.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Tell us about your latest CD

Travis Hawley: We just released an EP called Howl on January 20th of this year, so we’ve been pushing that for the last couple of months. We have a Single Contagious that’s been hitting a ton of Radio, in fact New Rock 107.3 in San Luis Obispo is spinning it right now as well as a bunch of different markets throughout the United States. We just hit #1 on Sirius Xm’s Alt Nation which has been huge, so it’s been really exciting and we’re riding that wave right now.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Who influences you musically?

Nick Fotinakes: It’s a lot, it’s across the board. I know a lot of people say that we have some sort of 80’s vibe. We have some of that influence. We like INXS, Billy Idol, The Cure, stuff like that from back in the day as well as modern stuff. We like Hip Hop, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, just anything really, we listen to a lot. So it’s a weird commonality, we like a lot of bands.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Describe your live show

Travis Hawley: It’s exciting. We want to entertain our audience, we want to enthrall them. So there’s a lot of strutting ( Laughs ) and Nick stabbing his guitar towards the audience and moonwalking, spinning…..

Nick Fotinakes: Anything we can do, we’re trying to step it up. If we could get really theatrical with it we would but on Warped Tour it’s a little more difficult

 

Central Coast Rocks: I was thinking during your set I see a little bit of Michael Hutchence ( INXS Frontman ) in Travis

Travis Hawley: I’ll take that compliment

 

Central Coast Rocks: Of all the shows you have played throughout the years, do any one or two stand out for you personally?

Nick Fotinakes: Yeah, there’s been a couple. We just played a festival in Florida, St Pete. With Panic At The Disco, it was right on the beach, a really cool show. It was so hot, there were a ton of kids there and they were super cool. There was a venue we played in San Diego called Humphrey’s By The Bay which is a big open Amphitheatre right on the ocean, yachts come by and watch the set while you’re playing, it’s super beautiful. That one stands out.

Travis Hawley: There was a several thousand capacity venue in Kansas City, Mo. that was incredible. It was like an old Opera Theatre, just really detailed, ornate architecture and that was a sold out show, that was pretty incredible.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Plans for the rest of the year after Warped?

Travis Hawley: We’re working on a full length. So August and September on the full length and then tour out the rest of the year. We’re not sure yet if we’re going out as support or take on a headlining tour.

 

Central Coast Rocks: Final words for your fans?

Nick Fotinakes: Thanks to everyone that supports and listens to us, and everyone back in SLO ( San Luis Obispo ) too. It means a lot to be here and to be doing what we’re doing . So just keep following us www.NightRiots.com and all our Social Media, we’re doing lots of cool stuff.

www.NightRiots.com

www.Facebook.com/NightRiots  

 

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