Articles

Tess Blogs From Warped Tour!

By Jacklyn | July 28, 2013

So Warped Tour was two weeks ago, and let me tell you – it did not disappoint. At all. Not even a TINY bit.

I woke up bright and early at 7:30 in the morning with four hours of sleep under my belt. It doesn’t sound like much for a full day, but last year, I ran on only one hour, so four was definitely a step up. How I managed to wear a tank top and shorts and flip flops when it was frigid outside is beyond me, but I think adrenaline kicked in and took over as we began the 45 minute drive to the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, my mother, Sasha, and Keith in tow.

My band, crew, and I met up in the parking lot. Despite the lady there telling us there was no parking [tour buses and trailers take up a lot of space, so I’ve learned], we all parked in the lot anyway. This is where I must hash tag: #rebels #werepunkrock

We found out my time in the Acoustic Basement, filled out postcards to hand out and posters to tape around, and began the journey to shamelessly self-promote. At one point, Sasha and I had to push through all the people waiting to get in, and, I kid you not, some people actually yelled out “Tess!!!!” as I passed by. HOLY. CRAP. Can I just say that my day was made before people even began filing in. To whoever yelled: THANK YOU!

On a side note, apparently an attractive guy giving out postcards while talking in a British accent suggesting you check out the chick he plays guitar for’s set works better than talking in an American accent. Who would have known?

My set was awesome! There were plenty of people there, and I wasn’t one bit nervous. I squeezed in four songs, due to some technical difficulties, and it was an awesome show. A huge thanks to the amazing Brian Marquis for hosting me once again [I played in the Acoustic Basement last year as well] and letting me dig into your set time so I could get in an extra song. You played a killer set as well!

I managed to catch some awesome bands, including Tonight Alive, Echosmith, Young London, and Action Item, along with plenty of others. Each band we saw rocked it, and it was a total inspiration as per usual to see so many different performers in such a short period of time.

I also took over the ZingRevolution instagram for an hour to showcase a bit of my day at Warped. The workers were extremely sweet, and their hair rocked. A shout-out to Victoria for getting me the gig and giving me a bunch of iPhone skins! I’m rocking one right now. Oh, and hopefully I didn’t cause too large of a loss of followers ;]

I had two significant highlights, aside from absolutely everything [a contradiction, I know]. Firstly, the gorgeous Julie Grant, who takes care of me every year, gave me an all-access pass. I couldn’t stop playing with it and feeling a sense of pride – I joined the Warped family!!! It was a dream come true!!! Even though I didn’t truly use it to my advantage, it was still amazing to have it.

The other highlight: after five years, I finally met Kevin Lyman – the founder of Warped Tour and creator of the best day of my life every year.

I was shaking and near tears, I was so nervous. But he was the coolest, nicest guy. I showed off my tattoo, and he said he hoped that it would continue around my body and up to my head – can you say holy eff? And then he graciously took a few pictures with me.

I have so much respect for him – he puts on a great tour, works 24/7, is extremely hands on with the tour, and remains kind and humble. You can’t say that about many people in his position. It was an honor to finally thank him for everything he’s done.

At around 6:30 [meaning I’d already been up for 11 hours], my group split up, said goodbye, and went its separate ways, exhausted and ecstatic. I hope my band and crew had a great time, because I certainly did!

Here’s to another year of Warped Tour, and [crossing my fingers] many, many more to come.

Thanks for getting me where I am. I’m beyond lucky.

Tess