Music Review; Warped: Straight, not narrow Boston Herald; Boston, Mass.; Aug 16, 2002; JOHN RUCH; Copyright Boston Herald Library Aug 16, 2002 Warped Tour, with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and many more, at Suffolk Downs, yesterday. Women-fronted bands magically appeared on stage at yesterday's Warped Tour stop at Suffolk Downs, just one of several improvements that made it the best installment of the boy-band punk festival in recent memory. Though better than many boy bands on the main stages, girl bands like the Eyeliners and the Halo Friendlies were nonetheless ghettoized on a tiny secondary stage. The Halos were quartered in a tent called the Ladies Lounge. It's progress - though Warped is still far less diverse than the punk scene it represents. Or its own audience, which runs about 60- 40 male and female. Or even its own management, a good portion of which is female, according to a credits booklet. Can no one find Le Tigre's phone number? Is Sleater-Kinney such a threat to the frat-party atmosphere? Another improvement: old bands. Instead of just seeing a wan Circle Jerks imitator like Goldfinger, you could also see the real Circle Jerks. Bad Religion, the older-than-its-fans band that invented modern pop-punk, showed the younguns how it's done: truly inventive melodies and intelligent lyrics. Boston's own Mighty Mighty Bosstones were the homecoming kings, pounding out the day's loudest set and one of its best. Such things made it easy to ignore the fact that the day was still dominated by formula punk by the likes of frat-punkers Reel Big Fish. The weather was harder to overlook: Mohawk-melting heat combined with a choking cloud of dust and bits of dead grass. It was as if the Ramones had been written into "The Grapes of Wrath." Suitably for this 25th anniversary of the Sex Pistols Summer of Hate, first-generation British punkers the Damned stole the show. Singer Dave Vanian roared through classics like "Smash It Up" while clad in leather gloves, a puffy black Renaissance-fair shirt, and Goth make-up. Guitarist Captain Sensible was also, amazingly, the only rocker to make a political statement - an obscure dig at George W. Bush. In previous times of war-mongering and civil liberties infringement, punk fests have been epicenters of action (or at least argument). This commercialized fest seemed content to power-chord while Rome burns. Indeed, it featured a Marines recruiting booth. For all of this year's progress, the Warped Tour could stand some more warping. Back to Articles