This summer packs in the packaged tours

By Brian Spiegel
On-line Forty-Niner

So many package tours, so little money. This summer is littered with lots of big name tours. Some feature more than 40 bands in a nine-hour orgy of music and sunstroke. Others are more traditional with one big-named band rocking out an arena. Here's a list of some of the biggest shows of the summer that you can spend your hard-earned money on (if you have any left over after Coachella).

 

THE VANS WARPED TOUR

WHO: Alkaline Trio, Bad Religion, Flogging Molly, NOFX, New Found Glory, The Bouncing Souls and Yellowcard.

WHEN: 7/01 and 7/02 at Cal State Fullerton.

BE IN YOUR SEAT FOR: The Guinness-soaked fun of Flogging Molly. The only band that could possibly create a slam pit during a fiddle solo.

USE THE RESTROOM DURING: Taking Back Sunday.

SHOULD YOU GO?: Yes, if only because the Warped Tour is consistently the best time you'll have at any of the summer package tours (which isn't really saying much if you've ever suffered through the hell of Ozzfest)

OVERALL HIPNESS RATING: 9. Punks secretly like to be hip so it's a perfect match.

 

OZZFEST

WHO: Ozzy (maybe), Judas Priest, Slayer, and the sunny tunes of Dimmu Borgir on the main stage, with Slipknot and Hatebreed headlining the second stage
WHEN: 7/31 at the Hyundai Pavilion in Hell... I mean Devore.

BE IN YOUR SEAT FOR: The return of the Slipknot and overall talent of Lacuna Coil, really the only two reasons to go to the show in the first place.

USE THE RESTROOM DURING: Get a beat on the traffic and just skip the main stage all together.

SHOULD YOU GO?: With a line-up consisting of Ozzy, Judas Priest and Slayer it's completely possible to have slipped in to a coma in 1984, woken up a day before the show and still feel completely at home at this show.

OVERALL HIPNESS RATING: 1984 rating: 10; 2004 rating: 5

 

LOLLAPALOOZA

WHO: Morrisey, The Polyphonic Spree, The Flaming Lips, Sonic Youth, Gomez, BRMC.

WHEN: No word yet, but it's a two day event. If I had to guess I would say late July at Verizon.

BE IN YOUR SEAT FOR: The Flaming Lips: it's like H.R. Puff n' Stuff on acid with a damn good soundtrack.

USE THE RESTROOM DURING: Feel free to miss one of The String Cheese Incident's seven- minute songs.

SHOULD YOU GO?: Yes, but I'm worried that because it's a two day event it might be pretty expensive. You might just want to pick your favorite band and go that day.

OVERALL HIPNESS RATING: 8. It might just be too hip for it's own good.

 

PROJEKT REVOLUTION TOUR

WHO: Linkin Park, Korn, Snoop Dogg, The Used, Less Than Jake

WHEN: Saturday Sept. 4, 2005 @ Hyundai Pavilion in Hell... I mean in Devore. That joke will never get old.

BE IN YOUR SEAT FOR: Snoop Dogg. This is a great, rather rare, opportunity to see Mr. Dogg in action. And this time he's bringing a live rock band with him.

Also get there early for Less Than Jake.

USE THE RESTROOM DURING: Really, this is a pretty solid tour. But the traffic should be pretty killer at the end of the show, so you might want to skip out on the last few Linkin Park songs.

SHOULD YOU GO?: Yes, but it's pretty expensive and, oi, the drive.

OVERALL HIPNESS RATING:7.