Warped Tour 2001 closes on Sunday (August 12) in Pontiac, Michigan at the Phoenix Plaza Amphitheater. The tour has been described as a “punk rock summer camp” and this year is no exception. However, there have been a few cases of fighting between the acts on the bill. In fact, D12 and Esham were kicked off the tour a week ago for fighting.
Alien Ant Farm singer Dryden Mitchell said that some bands on the tour have resorted to violence or violent threats.
“It’s sad. You know why it’s sad is because it has nothing to do with music, you know what I mean? It’s like, if there’s going to be this kind of stuff… I, myself, have experienced some rivalry, even on this tour, that had nothing to do with music,” Mitchell. “It makes no sense, because that’s why we’re here. We don’t want… I don’t fight. I like Joni Mitchell and I’m like 150 pounds. Who am I going to fight?”
Nonetheless, Mitchell added that he won’t back away from a challenge. “If you want to fight, let’s trade sets,” he said. “Let’s see if you could play our set, and we’ll play yours. That’s about the extent I want to go to. A lot of bands will think, ‘Oh, he’s talking s-t,’ or whatever, but I’ll gladly if someone wants to say that we’re not a great band or… I’ll gladly play one of their songs and they can play one of ours and we’ll see who can really do it, you know?”
As for the tension between the bands, the Vandals said with tongue-in-cheek, “We had a little beef with Pennywise like after the third show. The big guy was messing with [bassist] Joe [Escalante], but I held him down and made him apologize. Everything’s cool now.” Actually, Pennywise bassist Randy Bradbury filled in for Escalante at the beginning of the tour, because the Vandals’ bassist was out due to personal matters.
Escalante added, “There’s 47 dates and there were only three fights. The rest of the time it’s just a big party.”