Warped tour went back to its roots (for one day)

Harvest Invitational Punk Rock Classic V
Parc Olympique, Montreal
September 7, 2013

With the Vans Warped Tour now consisting mainly of metallic hardcore and fluorescent-attired mall-pop acts, it seemed fitting for the Warped Tour organizers to produce a one-off salute to their skate-punk roots in Montreal, which was historically always one of the largest draws of the festival. While dwindling acceptance here of the new Warped Tour format has resulted in the festival skipping Montreal for the first time in nearly 20 years, the newly-resurrected Harvest Invitational Punk Rock Classic series did an admirable job of showcasing a lineup that would not have been out of place in skate-punk’s mid-90’s heyday.

Set amidst the dreary outdoor concrete landscape of the Olympic Stadium, the festival truly did it’s best to capture the initial Warped-tour spirit, with skating demonstrations and a varied lineup of new and now-classic punk rock bands.

Long-standing Massachusetts hardcore vets Bane were the odd-men out on the bill, but still amassed a small crowd primed to finger-point their way through a late-afternoon set that touched on all eras of the band’s decade-plus existence. Their set was a strange hybrid of honest, emotional hardcore, being played by a loopy band where some members may have been dipping too deeply into the backstage refreshments. I’ve seen Bane put on stellar shows over the years, but this was definitely the sloppiest / goofiest I’ve ever seen them.

Seemingly embracing the old-school spirit of the event, Alkaline Trio’s set leaned heavily on old favourites, opening with “Private Eye” and closing with the cathartic sing-along of “Radio”. Having eschewed their onstage dramatic-goth overtones of the past few years, it was refreshing to see the band cherry pick their way through their long back catalog and actually look relatively happy while doing so.

Pennywise drew the largest crowd of the day, unsurprising given the band’s huge following in this city. Making their Montreal-debut with the return of original singer Jim Lindberg, the band were, by their own admission, three sheets to the wind, which resulted in a pretty lackluster set, yet some highly entertaining crowd-baiting.  An inexplicable cover of the Beastie Boys’ “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)” signaled that things could in fact get worse, but the band managed to get it together enough to plow through their requisite closer “Bro Hymn” before things totally fell apart.

Out of all their 90’s contemporaries, Face to Face’s music has arguably held up the best. There is really nothing dated about the California band’s speedy, emotional brand of melodic punk rock, and their set was easily the highlight of the day. The crowd had thinned somewhat by this point, which was strange considering how popular Face to Face has always been here. The band have a true affinity for Montreal as well, with frontman Trever Keith mentioning that their set opening for NOFX back at the Spectrum in 1995 remains one of his favourite memories of playing music.

The band wisely mostly steered-clear of their recent Social Distortion-sounding “Three Chords and a Half Truth” album, and instead flew through mainstay tracks like “Ordinary” and “Don’t Turn Away” at breakneck speed. A mini-encore featuring their cover of the anthemic Descendents classic “Bikeage” was the perfect cap to an event that served to honor punk rock’s 90’s era, while continuing to look forward.