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If Out's guide to which bands at the Vans Warped Tour will rock your world -- and the estimated 600,000 tattooed, pierced and gloriously sweaty fans who will show up for the tour's 40-plus summer stops -- still isn't enough to convince you to give punk a chance, here's one unexpected queer connection I discovered while putting the package together.
Kevin Lyman, a longtime rock promoter and the tour's founder, used to book the bands for Christopher Street West (LA's pride festival) and the West Hollywood Halloween celebration. "People think I'm gay," he said with a shrug, while bluntly debunking the fear I've heard many 'mos express -- a school-yard assumption that Warped-type dudes would probably want to kick your gay ass. "There's more violence at a Jimmy Buffett concert than at a Warped Tour," Lyman told me last week. "You can be who you want to out there. I've seen kids come out and be openly bi or gay, and I've never seen a situation where someone's had a hard time."
He also gave me his personal recommendations for the gays: The Pinker Tones, who he called "very dance-centric," plus Gil Mantera's Party Dream. "The dudes end up in underwear," he said, laughing knowingly. "That's cool, right?"
> Out @ Vans Warped Tour: The best bands who have been there from the beginning, the kids coming up in the scene, the refugees from legendary groups who have reformed and rebounded, and a whole mess of boys (and a few girls) on Pete Wentz's payroll.
> Don't Punk Out: Two Warped vets school you on how to survive a day in the sweaty, tattooed crowd. Sounds hot, right? But there's a method to managing the madness...
> Plus, next week we'll tell you which queer(ish) bands we think could more than hold their own at Warped -- and Lucas Silveira, lead singer of The Cliks, explains to Out exactly why they're not there.
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