What the hell happened to the Warped Tour? It used to be that you could find at least one bona fide punk band on the annual touring festival. But not this year. The only true punk band we saw was Emily’s Army, a group of clean-cut young kids anchored by drummer Joey Armstrong (son of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong). Their pop-punk harmonies were short and sharp, as if they’d been taught by one of the best. They played on one of the many satellite stages set up in the parking lot near the venue’s box office. That only a small crowd was on hand to watch suggested punk rock might not hold the same appeal to a new generation of music fans who seem to want everything louder and faster.
This article appears in Jul 11-17, 2012.
