Finally some new territory for me, Warped days four and five were the two dates in California I’ve been most excited about! I’ve never been farther north in California than Santa Barbara before, so I was super excited to get up to San Francisco and see what NorCal was all about! Ventura was a stop we were playing right on the ocean, which I thought would be a super super cool venue, so I couldn’t wait for these two stops to come already!
We left Pomona about 8:00pm that night, and began our drive north. Since we were driving at night, I didn’t really get much of a chance to watch the scenery change, but when we arrived at the hotel that night around 3am, I could already feel a huge difference in the climate. The next morning when I left the hotel in pants, I was prepared to kick myself: it had been days upon days of 80/90 degree heat, and I was having a really hard time that the weather in the city could be that much different...boy was I in for a surprise. That day was by far the coldest day of the entire tour, and it was very welcome change in climate in retrospect. That day we were playing in one of the parking lots at AT&T Park, the huge MLB Baseball stadium in town, which is right on the bay! It was a gorgeous venue, and gave me a good way to be able to see a little bit of the city. We were set up right in a parking lot alongside the bay, it was BEAUTIFUL - but also freezing because of the breeze! Even in my thickest, fluffiest hoodie, I was shivering in my tent all day long. What a crazy change to experience, I was floored!
a view of the baseball field across the water
a slightly blurry view of SanFran from the freeway
The architecture and landscape of San Francisco is something I could have never imagined, it was truly gorgeous! Danny is going there in October for the Audio Engineering Convention for a week, and I have a free plane ticket to use, we talked on the phone that night and I think I’m going to go with him and we’re gonna go explore the city on a mini-vacation! I can’t wait to go back and see more of the city than just the parking lot and the view from the highway. I’ve always been a fan or SoCal, I never thought I’d love San Francisco the way I do! I’m really excited to start exploring California more :)
a little chunk of the massive, sold out SanFran crowd.
The San Fran date felt like a fairly small venue compared to what we’re used to, but the crazy thing was that our day in San Fran was SOLD OUT! 21,000 people were lined up that morning to come in and watch bands play - I had no idea how they’d all fit! The line for the gates went out and around the show in the rest of the parking lot, across a bridge over the water, and down and around the WHOLE baseball field! It was insane! I tried to take some photos for reference, but I don’t know if anything will do it justice to the sheer mass of people there were waiting to get into the show that day. Even though there were tons and tons and tons of people, it was a really fun day. The band played a great set, and much to all of our surprise, we had a HUGE crowd, and a surprisingly large fanbase! The kids really loved the music, and Packy played one of the craziest guitar solos I think I’ve ever seen live, it was a super fun, great day all around, and I have to admit I was a little sad to leave that night, but not too much, since we were headed for our beachside day in Ventura!
When we got to Ventura that night around 2am, we arrived at a super rickety little motel in the middle of nowhere. Packy wrote a great poem (soon to be song?) about our experience, and you can read it on his blog here. After our short and hilarious stay, we headed towards our venue which was, like I said, right on the ocean! I was super excited to be playing such a beautiful spot, and wasn’t let down once we arrived. Parking literally across the street from the beach, the venue was a big parking lot/field, one of our bigger spots we’ve played so far. The guys were on a stage right by the front gates, and directly in front of the one open “shade” tent for the public, so we played to a fairly big crowd! It was a fun day, and when all was said and done, we packed down, and got ready for the barbecue!
The Warped Tour does a big barbecue almost every night after the show is done for all the bands and their guests, it’s incredible. It’s another production all it’s own, it almost feels like it takes as much planning as the show itself! Set up behind our stage that night, we got in line to grab grub as friends and other bands started piling in as well. That night was the night before our two days off in San Diego, so we had nowhere to be and no time schedule to meet that night, so we were finally able to stay - it was our first of the whole tour! The group was airing small clips of the new TV show Warped Roadies that will be airing on Fuse this fall, and that was fun to watch. It’ll be interesting to finally get home and off the road, and have the opportunity to watch it all over again on TV! I think I signed waivers saying they could film me, so I might be in the background of some shots on and off throughout the season - how funny!
Overall, our two days oceanside were tons and tons of fun. They will probably be two of my favorites this whole trip to be honest. Between our close proximity to the water, and the gorgeous venues, I think they were great stops for the bands and the public. Our next two days were glorious, long days off in San Diego where I did absolutely nothing important (except laundry!) but it was definitely nice to take a big, long break where we didn’t change cities each day. Our next tour day is San Diego, followed by some HOT dates in Phoenix and Las Cruces, so be sure to stay tuned!
Xoxo
-M