The summer festival circuit usually means one thing to concertgoers — extreme weather. Whether that means being caught in flash floods or sweltering, unbearable heat, it never makes for an easy concert experience. This summer, fans of some of the grimier, harder screamo and metal bands known to Vans Warped Tour can take refuge from the elements indoors with a satisfying alternative.
Appropriately dubbed for more than just the obvious, The Cool Tour features a stacked hardcore lineup including headliners As I Lay Dying and Underoath, as well as Between the Buried And Me, Blessthefall, The Acacia Strain, Architects, Cancer Bats and War of Ages. The tour kicked off on July 12 in Orlando, Fla., and will end Aug. 1 in San Francisco with a stop at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. on July 22.
Beau Bokan, vocalist of Blessthefall, in a phone interview in early July said he’s looking forward to the respite from the heat for a few weeks.
“I know there’s like a heat wave across like the entire U.S. right now, so I’m excited to actually be inside,” he said, just as the band was packing up its van and leaving Phoenix on the way to the first Cool Tour stop. After a few chaotic minutes of directions being shouted from the back seat and Bokan cursing out the traffic, he continued, “and it’s more intimate than an outdoor festival, too.”
The intimacy of smaller venues like the Electric Factory is an added bonus to the Cool Tour as opposed to the Vans Warped Tour, which several of the bands have also played, that makes use of multiple stages at expansive outdoor venues. The comparative intimacy of having just eight bands as opposed to Warped’s upwards of 20-band lineup allows for the band members themselves to get to know each other, too.
“Someone we definitely want to play with is Underoath; obviously they’ve been a huge inspiration for us,” said Eric Lambert, guitarist of Blessthefall. He said that it would be a special opportunity to share a bill with the pioneers of his band’s genre. The band has toured with As I Lay Dying before, “so of course we’re looking forward to hanging out with those guys again,” he said.
Both Bokan and Lambert mentioned excitement about meeting and playing with foreigners Architects, who hail from the U.K. “Pretty stoked about Architects, I mean, they’re frickin’ good,” an enthused Lambert emphasized. The other bands won’t be the only ones excited to see the Brits stateside — Architects fans look forward to this being the band’s first U.S. tour.
Liam Cormier, lead singer of Cancer Bats, shared that sentiment about Architects via e-mail in early July as well. “We’re homies with the Architects guys, so it’ll be cool to hang with them,” he wrote. “And the fact that we won’t be the only foreigners on the tour.” Cancer Bats, described as having “birthed a grimy hardcore giant” with their 2010 release “Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones,” hail from Ontario. Cormier also looks forward to hanging with the members of Between the Buried And Me. He wrote, “I’ve heard nothing but good things about those guys.”
While the bands more or less fall on a hardcore spectrum, they are all unquestionably heavy bands that draw similar crowds.
“Yeah, there might be the diehard Acacia fans that might have a problem” with the mix of crowds, as Lambert explained, since The Acacia Strain falls on the really heavy end of the spectrum. “But I listen to Acacia, and I like Taylor Swift at the same time, so there’s probably a lot of people like that, and hopefully people get along.”
Without the option of choosing a stage like at Warped, how crowds meld could make or break the experience in tighter venues.
On the other hand, Cormier looks forward to CB not being the odd band out this time.
“Sometimes we’re the only heavy one on a bill,” he said. “So it’ll be nice to have all the kids coming out … and wanting to head bang all day.”
With the mixed crowds, there are sure to be some kids swayed by bands for which they didn’t necessarily buy the ticket.
“The whole point of going out on tour is gaining new fans and … with so many different bands and bringing this variety of people together, hopefully we win some kids over,” said Lambert.
The tour unleashed a download pack at the end of June that featured five mp3s from various bands on the tour, as well as track lists for sampler packs from Fearless Records and the “2010 Cool Tour New Artist Sampler,” which included an additional track from Cancer Bats. The download pack offered a total of 45 tracks from a variety of bands, as well as coupons for band merchandise and products from the tour’s sponsors. w
| Tweet | Follow @wkdr |
|
|
