The Warped Tour has become a reliable outlet for new and upcoming bands of the genre of groups that want to call themselves “punk”. (Which would make Sid Vicious vomit in his grave, if used with this current group of bands). But as pop-rock groups go, these bands weren't all that band.

45 bands converged on as many as seven different stages, with some of the usual Warped Tour suspects, and a few new faces thrown into the mix. No matter if you were headliner The Offspring, or fresh faced bands like The Kinison, every band received the same amount of time on stage: 30 minutes. But most of the fans didn't seem care to, as most of these people whipped through fan approved songs while getting a nasty sunburn in the parking lot of the decaying Silverdome.

Early Warped bands-by-numbers such as MXPX and Saosin gave their core fans something to smile about, while concertgoers piled through the massive lines, waiting to get through the gated area where the shows were going on.

This reviewer didn’t realize that he would be seeing the best performance of the day at the un-rock & roll time of 1:30 in the afternoon, as Orange County (CA) based band Avenged Sevenfold destroyed the audience with 80’s style thrash and wails. A surprisingly decent vocal range has replaced lead singer M.Shadows’ patented screams. The group launched into mostly material from their obvious Iron Maiden-influenced album “City of Evil”, such as “The Beast & The Harlot” and “Bat Country”. The riffs and drumming was almost pure genius, and left most fans in awe.

Sevenfold’s crowd wasn’t nearly as big as Chicago’s Fall Out Boy, whose crowd at the stage on the other side of the venue was estimated to be at 10-12,000 people. The “softcore” (as they dub themselves) band had the young girls singing along, and resonates well with younger fans.

Another Orange County product, Atreyu, put on a strong showing of hardcore/metal stylings that proved that they could be one of the few bands to play OzzFest and Warped, and not be ran out of one or the other. With tracks such as “Bleeding Mascara” and “Right Side of the Bed”, the band has worked on their live show, and developed more melody as their live performances have gone on during the past few years.

The middle parts of the day saw as many people were trying to find shelter from the heat, and waiting in long lines for beer, hot dogs, and pizza. Most of the bands, such as Senses Fail and The Unseen played to smaller crowds, due to the lull in the random selection of bands in the afternoon.

The crowds started to pick back up, when California up and coming band Thrice hit the stage, and played material from their upcoming late August release. The crowd came alive, and sang most of the older material with them. The Welsh band Skindred played the smaller Hurley stage, and got the crowd moving with their thrash/reggae/hip-hop blend of tunes. The band excelled during tracks such as “Nobody” and “Set If Off”.

A pleasant anomaly among the punk-lite groups at Warped was the Canadian group Bedouin Soundclash. The group displayed a reggae-like sound reminiscent of The Police, and would be better suited to be displayed somewhere different than the non-tropical confines of the Silverdome parking lot. The set was good, but a cover of U2’s “New Year’s Day” seemed to go nowhere.

Dilemmas rose as The Transplants and headliner My Chemical Romance were selected to play around the same time. This reviewer is not sure at how many people were at the Transplants set, but My Chemical Romance was playing to the biggest crowds of the day. The New Jersey breakout band launched into their hit “I’m Not Okay”, to ecstatic fans for their set. Lead singer Gerard Way refrained from his typical asking girls if they wanted to have sex with him after the show. Instead, the singer launched into a diatribe on why girls shouldn’t remove their tops at shows. Other than that , MCR did well, and are getting to hone their skills before they start their own headlining small arena tour in the fall.

Most fans headed for the exits once Romance was over, leaving co-headliner The Offspring to a smaller than expected crowd.

The Warped Tour has continued to draw big crowd from their core audience of fans. The creators of the tour definitely follow the credo, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. And once again, most people left the show... satisfied.