Warped Tour 2012: Best Moments from the Kickoff

The Florida pop-punks—who bring the rare violinist to Warped—played the first single from their upcoming album 'Southern Air' live for the first time ever. Frontman Ryan Key told Warped Day 1 it was the new single's concert debut, but I still saw a few devoted Yellowcard fans singing along to every lyric.

Before killing the crowd with their heavy-as-hell metalcore, the Steinbeck-named band demonstrated their familiarity with another 20th century classic—"Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace." They had the epic choral music from the lightsaber battle in that film, " Duel of the Fates," blaring while they walked onstage. Which totally makes sense: If anyone in the Star Wars universe is a hardcore punk, it's Darth Maul.

Since most of the bands at Warped this year are all-dude outfits, it was awesome to see a girl dominating at least one stage. We Are the In Crowd's Tay Jardine has an incredible onstage magnetism and a powerful voice for someone who looks like she might weigh under a hundred pounds. With their male-female harmonies, catchy choruses and heavy riffs, We Are the In Crowd are one of the fest's must-see acts.

The Used—who hail from Utah—naturally drew the biggest crowd of Warped's Salt Lake City kickoff. To show their hometown love, the alt-rockers treated fans to an excellent surprise. "It's my pleasure to bring out the King of Salt Lake: The original drummer for the Used," Bert McCracken told the audience as Branden Steineckert sat down for one song. Steineckert, who left the band in 2006 to drum with Rancid, looked like he was having a total blast to be back in the fold for a minute. "It feels like it's ten years ago," McCracken mused, "Except now we have a sh*tload of fans." He also had some interesting advice for the Used fans: "If you don't have our new album ['Vulnerable'] yet, go steal one from Walmart."

Bayside singer Anthony Raneri is pulling double duty this year at Warped. Not only did the Queens punks play a regular show, but Raneri performed a solo acoustic set on Warped's newest stage, the Acoustic Basement. Although it's not so much a "basement" as it is a "tent," the addition of stripped down music to Warped is definitely something to check out—how often do you get to see a punk band tear it up and then check out an intimate acoustic set from the lead singer that same day?

The Ohio metalcore band's thrash-tastic set turned the crowd into a headbanging ocean. So many people were crowd surfing that at one point, seven people were tumbling over the stage barrier at the same time. There had to be forty legs in the air when Miss May I rocked Salt Lake, so let that be a challenge to the upcoming cities Warped is traveling to.

As per their usual fiery rhetoric, the political punks told it to the crowd straight. "F**k racism, f**k homophobia, f**k sexism and f**k police brutality," frontman Justin Sane said (they played at Occupy Wall Street last year). Then they ripped into a new song, "Broken Bones," but made sure that no one actually suffered such an injury while moshing. "If someone falls [in the circle pit]," Sane said, "You pick them up. You. Pick. Them. Up." And when someone did fall, that's exactly what happened.

Given that this year's Warped Tour kicked off in Salt Lake City, it was totally fitting that the guy who starred in "SLC Punk!" would be there. But the "SLC Punk!" connection wasn't actually the reason Lillard is at Warped this year. He recently directed the movie adaptation of the young adult novel "Fat Kid Rules the World," which has a sponsored tent that's traveling with Warped this year. So if you want to meet Stevo and get your picture with him, he'll be at plenty of the upcoming festival dates. And if you want to see the Lillard's feature directorial debut, head to fatkidrulesthemovie.com to request your local theater screen it.

Today it's a banana eating a snow cone, but tomorrow, it may be a banana eating YOU. Do the right thing and eat them before they devour you and every one you love.

Someone from the crowd chucked something at Kyle Even, and he looked stymied until he realized it was actually a baseball hat and therefore probably not thrown with malice. To show his appreciation, he put it on top of the cap already on his head and rocked a double brim for one song.

My favorite set at Warped was from the New York metalcore outfit Every Time I Die, but their crushingly loud, headbanging set was nearly upstaged by the audience itself. Of course you’ve seen a girl on someone's shoulders at a concert, but have you seen a girl on top of a guy on top of another guy's shoulders at a festival? Three Warped daredevils pulled it off, and frontman Keith Buckley was so impressed he told them to come to the merch tent afterward for free tees. He then added, probably jokingly, "Now the onus is on the rest of you to get four people up." Not even five minutes later, four magnificent festival-goers actually pulled it off, stacking four people on each other's shoulders like a punk rock totem pole. They kept it up for thirty seconds before toppling. The whole thing was a testament to the rambunctious spirit of Warped, the joyful recklessness of teenagers and the broad shoulders of the guy at the bottom.

Adam Lazzara was loose and playful during the alt-rockers' solid set, but he laid down the law for a moment when someone in the crowd whipped a 5-hour energy bottle at him. "First off, anything that gives you the energy of four cups of coffee in this size is probably not good for you," Lazzara scolded. "Also, I know you're used to a lot of these one trick ponies with their microphone twirls and everything, but if you throw this at me again, I'll pop you in the face." The crowd roared their approval after that statement, and the bottle launcher ceased fire immediately.

Jordan Pundik—frontman for the pop-punk band that's now one of the veteran acts at Warped—told the crowd about his experience attending the very first Warped Tour as a fan. "Whether it's punk, metal, hardcore… We didn't fit in at the normal f**king fests so we started our own. I met some of my best friends there, so seriously, go out and make a friend today." He also succinctly shared what it was like seeing Green Day the first time: "They changed my life, and this is one of their songs." At that point, the band ripped into the opening riff of Green Day's "Basket Case" and the crowd went crazy with a raucous sing-along of the pop-punk evergreen.

As technically tight and energetic as All Time Low's set was, the true highlight was their absolutely hilarious and totally un-PC stage banter. "If you go to our merch tent later, Johnny Depp will be there masturbating," frontman Alex Gaskarth told the crowd. "As Captain Jack Sparrow." The guitarist, Jack Barakat, talked about horny lactating men and what he wanted to see from the crowd that day. "I want to see a circle pit for this next song," he said. "Or a circle jerk. Just one big circle jerk." But the crowning moment had to be when the band started faux-threatening the crowd to ensure Gaskarth got the most out of Utah. "If Alex doesn't get a blow job today, we're never coming back to Salt Lake City." At the very least, they weren't too picky: "It could be a guy, a girl or a dog."

Need a new guitar pick? Then head to Warped Tour, because Pierce the Veil has your back about thirty times over. The band kept flicking a seemingly endless supply of picks into the eager crowd, so you should try to get close to the stage if you check the post-hardcore band out. Also, playing the "some men just want to watch the world burn" quote from Michael Caine in "The Dark Knight" was a pretty slick addition to their set.

Falling In Reverse's rhythm guitarist, Derek Jones, took a wrong step and accidentally fell offstage during their first song. But like a true hardcore pro, he got back up and finished the entire set. Bloody head and swollen foot be damned—this guy still delivered for the fans. PS: We hope you’re feeling better now, Derek!