I am a self-proclaimed Warped Tour Incarnate. I only went to three Warped Tours, but they were the last three until the event as a whole was cancelled. If it weren't for that, I like to think I would be an annual attendee. Being in the pit, breaking my neck, and getting hit in the head by crowdsurfers are all things I live for.
While it probably isn't necessary to list all the concerts I've attended to achieve professional accreditation, I would like to establish myself as not a poseur:
Saliva, Switchfoot, and Blackstone Cherry: Kentucky State Fair 2007
Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage, Pop Evil, Trivium: Ford Center 2012
Warped Tour 2016
Falling In Reverse, Bullet For My Valentine, Good Charlotte, Sum 41, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! to name a few
Blink-182, A Day To Remember, All-American Rejects: Ruoff Music Center 2016
Warped Tour 2017
Memphis May Fire, Hawthorne Heights, CKY, Neck Deep, Our Last Night and more
Warped Tour 2018
3OH!3, Knuckle Puck, State Champs, Simple Plan, Joan Jett and more
Jimmy Eat World: Bluebird Bar 2019
A Day To Remember, I Prevail, Beartooth: Nashville Municipal Auditorium 2019
Inkcarceration: Ohio State Reformatory 2021
Slipknot, Ice Nine Kills, Wage War, Rob Zombie, Halestorm, Fever 333, Attila and more
Mayday Parade and Real Friends: Newport Music Hall 2022
Grandson, Royal And The Serpent: Newport Music Hall 2022
Beartooth, Silverstein, The Devil Wears Prada, ERRA: KEMBA Live! 2022
Inkcarceration: Ohio State Reformatory 2022
Breaking Benjamin, Evanescence, Jelly Roll, Theory of a Deadman, Seether, Disturbed, Lamb of God, Black Veil Brides, Nothing More and more
Psychostick: The King of Clubs 2022
Attack Attack!, Conquer Divide: The King of Clubs 2022 (Electric Callboy cancelled)
Escape The Fate: Ace of Cups 2023
Inkcarceration 2023 (July 2023, I'm very excited so I wanted to share!)
Limp Bizkit, We Came As Romans, In This Moment, P.O.D., Bush, Flyleaf, Asking Alexandria, Crown The Empire
Hopefully we've established my love for all genres in metal, nu metal, punk, pop punk, hard rock, and all other genres that fall into those realms. With that, October 22, 2022 was maybe the worst day of my entire life.
When We Were Young was announced in January of 2022, tickets quickly to follow the announcement. I was working at THE Ohio State at the time at the Team Shop, and I completely neglected my duties for several hours as I waited in the queue to get tickets. A girl that worked with me, who is now my girlfriend, was able to get tickets for Sunday the 23rd. I was able to get a ticket for the 29th, the third show that was added by popular demand.
I was prepared to go by myself. I was not scared in the fact of going by myself. Every single name for this concert were acts I was interested in seeing. I had to make a precise schedule on what bands I wanted to see, actually having to decide between some acts such as Avril Lavigne and I Prevail as they played at the same time.
Luckily, my girlfriend's brother and his wife were also going and they were able to get four tickets for Saturday the 22nd, the first day. So her and I sold our tickets, and paid them for the Saturday tickets so the four of us could go together. It was the perfect plan, the perfect scenario.
Fast forward to booking our flight. Spirit was the cheapest option, and it was $650 after all the fees were said and done. I have only flown a handful of times in my life, so at the time I had nothing personal against Spirit and was just happy to have a way to get to Las Vegas.
All goes smoothly enough. We stay at my best friend's apartment who was living in Vegas at the time so we didn't have to pay for a hotel room and he was more than happy to take us wherever we needed in his Tesla. We were super excited for the concert, wore our most scandalous outfits to ensure we fit in with the crowd. See below:
Classy bunch, right?
Anyway, Saturday finally comes. The day I have been waiting for for so many months. Every band I could ask for in a concert will be there. This is the culmination of every thing I have worked for in my entire 26 years of life at the time. Nothing else mattered. I was young, wild, and free.
"Oh my god...Logan, is this real?"
My girlfriend hands me her phone as my buddy is dropping us off at the venue. It is a post from the official When We Were Young Instagram account.
Cancelled like Roseanne Barr. Cancelled like Dave Chappelle (sort of). Cancelled like that crazy haired guy from Seinfeld (Kramer?). I have no idea why comedians came to mind, especially since their cancellations were for very different reasons, but I digress.
My life is shattered into pieces. I have never felt a sinking feeling worse than that. We spent so much just to be there. We were refunded for the tickets, but that was a small, symbolic consolation in the grand scheme of things.
Apparently the wind speeds were too high, and a few years earlier the wind actually caused a stage collapse at a fair in Vegas, so it was understandable and out of my control. We decided to make the most of our time in Vegas with my girlfriend's brother and his wife.
We tried catching several pop-up shows the artists played to makeup for the concert being cancelled, but every spot was so packed we weren't able to get into any. I did not budget for spending time in Vegas outside of the venue, so I did not gamble or shop. We did spend $35 at the M&Ms store which was actually an exhilarating experience similar to hitting a jackpot.
The next day, my buddy takes us out to brunch. We're still super down, hallow, empty, but at least we have some great breakfast food. Then my girlfriend gets an email: our flight had been cancelled.
I spent all of brunch on the phone with Spirit, who were incredibly accommodating, but after everything we had to endure this was icing on the proverbial crap cake. Our flight back to Columbus, Ohio was a 7 hour layover in Fort Lauderdale, who had just been devasted by a hurricane, and would come in Monday morning meaning my girlfriend had to immediately go to her classes at Ohio State while I had to work (I worked from home at the time so it wasn't too daunting). Little to no time at all to work through the disastrous weekend mentally.
The inaugural When We Were Young was the event of a lifetime, for me personally. And if we hadn't sold the tickets we originally got, we could've gone since our flight was cancelled that Sunday! Instead, we got to watch everyone enjoy the show on Instagram and TikTok and take pictures below that sick hanging neon sign. Good for those folks, I take comfort in the fact so many people attended a concert that is tailored around a dying (maybe resurging now?) genre.
I vowed that faithful day to never travel by flight for a concert again. Driving distance a max of 6 hours, maybe. While WWWY is now an annual event, I don't think there will ever be a lineup as perfect as the first show was.
Here's to seeing Limp Bizkit this summer! (Weather pending)
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