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Vacation in VA Beach!

We hit the road for a few days in Virginia Beach. We left on July 28th and got back on the 31st. It was overcast and rainy sometimes but still fun was had by all (all two of us that is). We hung out, checked out the shops on the boardwalk, and the local malls. Only really got to get in the water on the last day but it was alright. On Wednesday we met up with Lauren's mom and her aunt Janice and had lunch. On Tuesday we went to the Warped Tour all day long.

The 2003 Vans Warped Tour

***The Warped Tour was at the Verizon Wireless VA Beach Amphitheater, on July 29. The day started off slow because for the first couple of hours it was just sucky scream-o bands. We did our shopping early so we wouldn't have to go in between good bands. Food and drinks were outrageously expensive, but there was no re-entry so there wasn't much choice.

***The first good band to play was AFI(A Fire Inside) at 3pm. They were awesome. Kind of out of their element cause they're a darker band and it was broad daylight, but they still rocked. They played a great set of mostly songs from The "Art of Drowning" and their new album, "Sing the Sorrow", with a few older songs mixed in there. The only disappointment was that they didn't play "Fall Children", which is Lauren's favorite (But hey, they can't play everything in a half-hour set).

***The next good band was The Ataris at 5pm. They were really good. They played a bunch of songs from the new album, "So Long Astoria", including "In This Diary" and "The Boys of Summer". We got the strange feeling that we may have been the only one's in the crowd who knew that the latter was a Don Henley song(or even who Don Henley was for that matter:) ). They played a great selection of songs from all over though. They even invited everybody to join them at a bar they were goin to be playing and hanging out at that night. Unfortunately I'm not quite 21 so we couldnt go (nothing better than a good band playing a free show). The only disappointment was that they didn't play "Broken Promise Ring", which is probably my favorite song of their's (But again...can't play everything).

***Next we headed over to the little local stage to see River City High at 6:15pm. We were completely surprised that they were there. They put on a great show though. It was the third time I've seen them and the second for Lauren. Much better show than the last time we saw them, and they played some stuff from their upcoming album. Sounds like it's gonna be better than "Won't Turn Down"(which was still really good, just not as good as "Forgets Their Manners"). A lot of people were crowding around the little stage for their show, and it seemed like a fair amount of people had seen them before.

***When we were walking away from that stage, somebody hijacked a golf cart. They just hopped on and started driving off, with the concert staff guys chasing after them. It was hilarious! The guy jumped off of the cart and it kept going right into this huge crowd of people who were standing there. One girl was seriously injured and she was taken away on a stretcher. Couldn't really tell what was wrong but she was unconcious, she had dirt all over her, and her jeans were torn from about her knee to her ankle. That part was not funny of course, and I don't think they caught the guy who did it, because the ones who were chasing him had to keep chasing the golf cart to stop it.

***Then at 7pm it was time for Andrew W.K. Hahahahaha!!! The most hilarious thing you have ever seen. For starters I would like to put the disclaimer in here that neither Lauren nor I think his music is good. It's just really funny that people do(including AWK himself:) ). Anyways, you got to hand it to him that he does put on quite a show. He brought little kids onstage to help him sing, he repeatedly tried to dance, and he brought so many people onstage that the show culminated in the first onstage mosh pit we have ever seen. Not to mention the fact that he punctuated his songs with deep philosophical statements like "Long live life!"...hehe. A complete laugh riot! Most importantly though, he played our song..."Party Hard" :) (Highlight: When he had this little kid help him sing "She is Beautiful", which at least appears to be a song about statutory rape, with lines like, "the girl's too young she don't know any better, it's all coming back I can feel it...")

***The last good band to play was Rancid at 8pm. They were really good. They played a lot of songs off of "...And Out Come the Wolves". They played a really good set, and even had Rob Aston, who is in the Transplants with Tim Armstong and Travis Barker(of Rancid and Blink 182 respectively) come out and sing on one song. One guy was injured fairly seriously in the pit during the show and Lars stopped the music in the middle of "Roots Radicals" and made everybody clear a path for the cops to get in and help him. It took them a while to get him out, so while they were doing that Lars talked to the crowd and told some jokes, and even played some toned-down versions of songs by himself(just guitar and vocals). Once the injured person was clear, the band finished up the set. It was an awesome show and everyone seemed like they were into it. After that we left because the rest of the bands sucked.