Hey guys, time for another obvious break from the story. Hoss and I made it down to Cleveland for this year's Warped Tour. Why Cleveland? Because NOFX wasn't playing Detroit, that's why. As much as People complain about Warped, I stick by my guns and say it's a fun time. I think you just need to have an interest in like three bands and take some good friends. We went with Hoss's friend Burlew and Burlew's friend Heather. Nice people who we barely saw all day because they have completely different tastes in music from us.

Our day started almost perfectly by completely missing Anti-Flag who were first on the main stage. We actually got in three minutes before Less Than Jake took the stage. This is the best and worst way to start the day. Best because it's Less Than Jake. Worst because we spent all our engergy in the pit. we're old, get over it. Then we wandered and found Fake Problems playing the Kevin Says stage. This was a great surprise for me because I've been wanting to see them. Hoss liked them enough that he didn't wander off. After them it was time for the old peoples show so we went back to the main stage and caught most of Bad Religions set. I enjoy Bad Religion but I don't think I will ever see them headline. It gets stale for me. (Hoss ed. "They're old!") So then we had lots of time to kill before the next act we wanted to see. We wandered around the place just checking things out. I have to say that the people at the informational booths don't care about anything at all. I tried asking questions about their causes and was rewarded with blank stares and the informative "Uh, yeah, check out the website." Bravo person who got into the show for free for pretending to care about something! Eventually we found the LTJ merch tent and stocked up. Then Hoss decided that we should get our LTJ stuff autographed. I don't know why seeing as most of his room is autgographed LTJ crap but whatever. We went to wait in line... the horrors of waiting in line... Less Than Jake was signing at the AT&T trailor thing conviently located between the main stage which had The Devil Wears Prada on it and the Skull Candy stage which had Attack Attack! on it. This felt like the longest wait of our lives. Even Attack Attack fancy choreography could not save us. Adding to our misery, the stupid lady with the mic who was supposed to "entertain" us with "witty" banter. Eventually we made our way to the front and Hoss got our LTJ bag signed. I didn't have anything for them to sign so I had them sign the Reel Big Fish/English Beat poster I'd gotten. It weirds me out to no end that Vinnie knows who I am. He doesn't know me as a fan that follows him around the country yelling "Scott Farcas" at him but rather as the girl that does an online comic that sometimes makes fun of his band. Weird.

Our new acquaintance Heather is friends with Monty Are I (You might remember them as the ska band Monty's Fan Club? Anyone?) and we wandered over to where they were playing. Then we wandered away. Up next was Big D and the Kids Table. They had a pretty big crowd for playing a side stage. I like the new songs but it bums me out to no end that we'll never hear "5 Kids Down" again. After they were done, the crowd chanted "LAX" but the band just smiled as they packed up their gear. We wandered some more until Streetlight Manifesto was on. Every time we see them, Tomas's stage banter gets better and better. I loved how he kept saying Cincinnati trying to get a rise out of the crowd. Unfortunately the crowd was so in love with their idol, they didn't care. Hoss says we didn't we stick around til the end of their set because we went to the main stage. The "special guest" was getting ready to play. It was Paramore and we wanted to see what all the fuss was about. After three songs we went and sat down on a bench and read a book. This is not a lie. I had bought the Warped Tour book and Hoss began flipping through it. Paramore is ok. Their singer has a really great voice and she's like a pixie. That's all I can really say about them. We sat their until the next band on the main stage which was NOFX, the entire reason for coming to Cleveland. Gas money well spent. NOFX were easily the best act of the day. Fat Mike, El Hefe, and Melvin could've just talked for 45 minutes and we would've gotten our money's worth. Sadly, Smelly wanted to play music. Seriously, best band of the day. Can't say that enough. We're still quoting them in our everyday conversation.

We headed over to catch the last couple of songs from Westbound Train and bumped into Nicole from Tip The Van. We'd talked to Simone earlier. The girls were on the tour with Big D doing back up vocals. Nice kids. Check out their band, Tip The Van and look for them to be touring in the fall. To end our day, we went back to the main stage and watched Flogging Molly. They played the same set they play every time we see them but we're still enjoyable. Burlew and Heather found us and we left before we had to endure any of UnderOath. On the way back to the car as we all told stories of NOFX, the Red Bull car literally pulled in front of us and offered us free Red Bull! It was as if the gods of Warped were looking out for us! Huzzah!

Thank you Cleveland for the sunburn.