Allow me to explain the title. "Vans Warped Tour Boy" was a term I coined while I was chatting with one of my best friends Ria. Warped Tour Boy is the term that epitomizes the type of guy that I tend to fall head over heels for. Warped Tour Boy is a boy of the post hardcore music persuasion. He has sexy facial piercings. He skates and rips like a crazy motherfucker. He's a walking endorser for skate brands such as Element, DC, Adio, etc. (though needless to say, the caricature isn't pogi and I like them boys pogi).
Warped Tour Boy has to have gorgeous ink. He plays in a post-hardcore band as well; if he plays the bass, I'd be all over him like a fat kid on a cupcake. He drinks, he smokes. He gets plus points if he has not-so severe, not-so long spiked hair. He can rock classic black Chucks. He can wear a white short-sleeved button down with a skinny black tie and look like my personal savior. He has an impressive collection of band shirts, pins, and posters. He has a stash of studded belts.
This imagery has kept my heart in a flutter for years.
I guess I remembered my old friend, Warped Tour Boy when I found myself at the rock stage at Davao Festival last year. I try to make the annual pilgrimage because I love my music, I love the festival communion, and I love being around like-minded people.
Granted that I do find it annoying that Lolita-circus-Emo arrived to the masses 8 years too late (then again, herd mentality in any form is annoying), that really wasn't it. I have been in mosh pits with unsavory characters and I have found myself in sketchy, hole-in-the-wall bars many, many times. It takes a lot a to faze me.
I guess the tipping point happened while I was sitting on the gravel in the parking lot holding my cup of Red Horse. "I don't belong here anymore," my head seemed to say. I compare it to watching a movie you loved as a kid years later then finally seeing all the tacky special effects. It doesn't change the fact that you still love the movie, but it's like having a myth shattered.
I couldn't find a single band I enjoyed at the rock stage (maybe except for Cog, because... it's Cog, biases aside). I liked hearing the Ambassadors' old songs, but I found myself not being able to relate to the new ones. The other bands, to me they just sounded like ripoffs of my favorite bands with the vocalists not quite nailing what I wanted to hear. Maybe simply put, I really don't resonate with this generation's rock sound now. It sounds too rehashed, too formulaic... to the point that you can see the strings holding up the flying heroes. It was like emerging out of Plato's cave, or realizing Falkor from the Neverending Story was just a mechanical puppet. Ouch.
I've been feeling this way about the rock scene for quite some time, hence my absence from a lot of gigs for years now. When it all comes down to it, I'm really there for the music. If friends really wanted to see me, they know where to find me. When I graduated from Ateneo a couple of years back, I found myself unconsciously hanging up my studded belts. My standard uniform of a tank top with my black bra straps sticking out, the baggy flared jeans, the Chucks, and the stud belt is now a fleeting memory. I stopped listening to Thrice after Vheissu. Thursday disappointed me heavily with A City By the Light Divided. Taking Back Sunday's albums get weaker as the years go by (in the same note, I have to give credit to Brand New accomplishing the total opposite). I'm actually also dreading Alexisonfire's Young Cardinals. If I can't like it, then it's over. It's really the end of an era.
I remember Warped Tour Boy because I realized that I'm not Warped Tour Girl anymore. I can't go on creating my projections out of my subculture affiliations because I know that I should stop creating projections period. Come to think of it, my Warped Tour Boy doesn't exist anymore. No, thank you. I don't like hanging onto the past. My dream boy would have the better sense to grow up.
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