THE ALMOST, K-OS, MEG AND DIA, PEPPER, FISHBONE CELEBRATE 13TH WARPED TOUR

The Warped Tour held their annual Kick Off Party on Friday the 13th of April at The Key Club in Hollywood, California and Tour founder Kevin Lyman once again brings his traveling punk rock summer camp filled with a diverse lineup to a town near you. For the kick off party, Lyman featured sets from Bleed the Dream, The Briggs, Meg & Dia, K-OS and The Almost in what was a preview of whats to come in the tours 13th successful year. Over the past thirteen summers The Warped Tour has become known as one of the most grueling summer tours for any band to be a part of, with sets beginning before noon, shows often in triple digit temperatures as stages are usually set up in parking lots and shows often running six nights per week.

We caught up with Aaron Gillespie of The Almost, who are currently touring in support of the debut release ‘Southern Weather’, to discuss their thoughts on being part of the traveling rock and roll summer camp for the fourth year and the notoriously grueling schedule with few days off.

“This is my fourth year on The Warped Tour in some incarnation, so I’m used to it. It’s my vacation if you will. A traveling musical rock and roll summer camp. Last year we had 16 in a row, this year it’s pretty mild actually. When it’s four or five (days a week) I can deal. So, I’m pretty stoked about it. For me I get bored on a day off. Days off are nice and stuff but any musician that tells you they need a day off doesn’t remember. Clown Shoes! Doesn’t remember what it’s like to work at a pizza place, like I used to. Any day on the job here is better than a day on the job at Subway.”

We also caught up with Yesod and Kaleo of Pepper to talk about the band coming full circle by performing on the 2007 Warped Tour, which will be quite different for the band rather than setting up The Volcom Stage, which they did in the past.

“Yeah, greuling but last time we did it, and we’re probably going to say this fifty times tonight, we we’re setting up and tearing down the Volcom Stage. So this year it’s going to be a bit of a cake walk. We did earn the right to say it fifty times today. Yeah, thank you. So there you go. Come down to Warped Tour It’s the summer time affair. Yeah, come on down.”

Also on hand at The Warped Tour Kick Off Party was Fishbone, who are currently touring in support of the bands latest release ‘Stuck Inside Your Throat. We talked with original Fishbone members Angelo and Norwood to find out the bands thoughts on performing on The West Coast Leg of the 2007 Warped Tour.

“Man, I think being on The Warped Tour this year it’s going to be a really good platform and format for Fishbone to be exposed to the masses and to remind everybody that Fishbone is still stuck in your throat. Right when you thought that little Fishbone was out of your throat it’s still stuck in there man. That’s why you got that little tickling in your throat. Because that’s Fishbone still stuck in there man. The heimlich manouver did not work.”

The Warped Tour will be kicking off June 29th in Pamona, Ca and extend until August 25th in Los Angeles, Ca. Bands tapped to perform on this years tour include Underoath, Cute is What We Aim For, Bad Religon, Anberlin, Coheed and Cambria, Killswitch Engage, K-OS, Pennywise, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Sum 41, The Used, The Vandals, New Found Glory and among many others. You can check out individual lineup for each tour date at www.warpedtour.com