Van's Warped Tour 2003
Written By: Maureen Benedict * August 7, 2003 * Darien Lake in Buffalo, NY
The Warped Tour for 2003 had a great line-up that included bands like Simple Plan, Rancid, The Used, The Ataris,
Bowling For Soup and The Starting Line to name a few. This year the Warped Tour was held at Darien Lake instead
of LaSalle Park where it had been for so long. Kids had been lining up to get in to Darien Lake since really early that
morning to see their favorite bands. Around noon they opened the gates to let the kids in. The Starting Line was one
of the first bands to go on that day. They played songs from their new EP titled Make Yourself At Home as well as
some older songs like "Leaving" and "The Best of Me". Frontman Kenny stopped in the middle of one of the songs
because a crowd surfer got dropped and the band waited until security got the kid out of there before resuming the song.
A few bands later Simple Plan went on stage. They played their newest single "Perfect" as well as "Addicted", "I'd Do
Anything" and other favorites from their debut album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls. Simple Plan played an
amazing set and really go the crowd going. After their set fans headed over to check out Bowling For Soup on the
Ernie Ball Stage. Rancid went on about mid-day and they put on a great set and got the entire crowd pogoing and
moshing throughout their 30 minute set. They played old favorites like "Ruby Soho" and "Time Bomb" as well as
stuff from their newest release Indestructable like "Fall Back Down" and "Red Hot Moon". Rancid's set had to be one
of the highlights of the day. Throughout the day bands like Less Than Jake, Dropkick Murphys, Pennywise, Tsunami
Bomb and Vendetta Red. I actually did not get to check out any of those bands sets except a bit of Tsunami Bomb's
set. I wish I had heard the bands whole set because they sounded pretty good. Around 5:45pm The Used hit the stage
Lead singer Bert McCracken came on on stage wearing a ton of make-up and the band went right into their first song.
They played almost all the songs off their self-titled debut including their newest single "Blue & Yellow". During the set
Bert mooned the crowd and yelled things like "my ass and pussy are wet". Towards the end of the set he climbed up on
top of one of the speakers, gave the crowd and evil grin then jumped into the crowd just missing the barricade. After The
Used were done I went over to check out the last band of the day, The Ataris. I got over to the stage in the middle of the
song "I Won't Spend Another Night Alone" and lead singer Kris Roe had changed the chorus to "the things you make me
wanna do, I would shoot the president for you". They played their singles like "In This Diary" and their cover of "The
Boys Of Summer" as well as old favorites like "Teenage Riot". This years Warped Tour was awesome and all the bands
totally rocked! Definately a great line up this year!
Simple Plan, Diffuser, Gob & Madcap
Written By: Maureen Benedict * March 28 & 30, 2003 * Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY and the Sphere in Buffalo, NY
Simple Plan's first headlining tour with three other awesome bands, Diffuser, Gob and Madcap, seemed to be their best tour ever.
Both shows were completely sold-out. Madcap took the stage first and played a great set. Gob went on after them playing songs
like "I Hear You Calling", "Give Up The Grudge", "Ming Tran" and other songs from their cd Foot In Mouth Disease. Diffuser
was next tearing up the stage with songs like "Karma", "Leaving With A California Tilt" and songs off their fourth-coming album
Making The Grade such as "I Wonder" and "Get It On" and an amazing cover of Bon Jovi's hit song "You Give Love A Bad
Name". I had never heard of Diffuser before this tour and I thought they were an amazing live band. And both nights it was
drummer Dan Leo's birthday just like every night of the tour was and Tomas asked fans to buy Dan some shots. Simple Plan
finally took the stage playing every song off their debut album No Pads, No Helmets...Just Balls including the bonus track from
the re-release of their album called "Grow Up" as well as covers of Bad Religion's "American Jesus", Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", 50
Cent's "In Da Club" and Eminem's "Lose Yourself". At both shows a bunch of funny stuff happened like fans making condom
balloons and throwing them on to the stage and Simple Plan bringing out a purple blow up alien. At the Buffalo show which was
the final show of the tour, Diffuser gave Simple Plan a squirt gun that looked like a penis and Tomas Costanza (Diffuser's
frontman) and Dan Leo (Diffuser's drummer) came out in their boxers and danced around on stage during Simple Plan's set.
After both shows all the bands came out and hung out with the fans for hours, signing autographs and taking pictures.
Finch, Letter Kills & Snapcase
Written By: Maureen Benedict * May 28, 2003 * Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY
Letter Kills opened up the show and played the songs "Don't Believe", "Clock Is Down", "Radio Up" and
others. Their set was awesome and full of engergy. Definately a band worth checking out. Snapcase
went on after them and played a pretty good set. Finch took the stage around 9:30pm. Their set was full
of energy and the fans really got into the music. The band played almost all the songs off their album,
What It Is To Burn including their hit singles "What It Is To Burn" and "Letters To You". They also played
crowd favorites "Untited" and "Stay With Me" plus their newest song "Worms Of The Earth", from the Underworld
soundtrack and a cover of Hum's "Stars". They did a great job covering the song and the crowd really seemed
to enjoy it.