×
×
homepage logo

Concert attendees get inspiration, mosh-induced rush from Warped Tour

By Melissa Treolo - | Jul 7, 2011

Melissa Treolo

Andrew Feierabend, left, Matt Robbins, middle, and Will Seabaugh, right, pose for the camera. The three attended Vans Warped Tour Wednesday at Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone and had a "magnificently extravagant" time.

For three young Vans Warped Tour 2011 attendees, the day-long music festival was a chance to hear some favorite bands, spend time together and feel that unmistakable rush that can only be found in a mosh pit.

Will Seabaugh, Pairie Village, Andrew Feierabend, Kansas City, Mo., and Matt Robbins, Kansas City, Mo., were three of thousands of people who descended July 6 on Capitol Federal Park at Sandstone for the Warped Tour’s Bonner Springs stop. During the festival, seven stages were taken over by more than 70 bands.

The three, who will all be entering their senior year of high school in the fall, said they had been planning the visit for months, ever since the concert lineup was released.

“I was just hoping A Day To Remember was going to come on board this year,” Feierabend said in the early hours of the festival, “because I missed a lot of their concerts and I finally gotten to come and see them. So I’m pretty stoked for that.”

Other bands on Seabaugh, Feierabend and Robbins’ to-see list included Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack! and The Expendables.

But they didn’t just plan to passively listen to the music all day. For them, going to concerts is about getting involved by jumping into a mosh pit, getting their adrenaline flowing and, possibly, even getting a little bit hurt in the process. Here’s the skinny on a mosh pit:

“(It’s) basically just a giant group of people shoving each other around,” Feierabend said. “Sometimes (people get hurt). They get messy sometimes. People start throwing punches.”

To those who prefer to avoid situations that might produce a pavement tumble or a punch to the face, this may not sound like a barrel of laughs. But Seabaugh, Feierabend and Robbins say the mosh pit intensifies the music; it makes the experience of listening to it that much better.

There are some ways to avoid coming out of a mosh pit looking like someone’s punching bag, Feierabend and Robbins said.

“Keep your eyes open and push back,” Feierabend said, to which Robbins added, “I stay on the rim, the outer layer of the rim, and just push people. Don’t get right in the middle, but when they come to you, just push more.”

Seabaugh, Feierabend and Robbins’ first concert of the day was Asking Alexandria about 1 p.m. There Seabaugh found at least one downside to moshing: A lack of respect for anyone’s personal property. He said someone had ripped open his backpack during the mosh, emptying its contents. The upside: He said he was able to retrieve everything later — everything, that is, except for his keys.

Next was The Devil Wears Prada about 2 p.m. Upon their arrival, Feierabend and Robbins made a beeline (or as much of a beeline as they could make in the tightly packed crowd) to the growing mosh pit at the foot of the stage. Seabaugh hung back, though. He said losing his keys had made him less inclined to join, adding that, while he enjoyed a good mosh pit on occasion, it wasn’t as much fun for him as his two friends.

“I like to head bang a little bit, but I also like to mosh. It’s more their deal,” Seabaugh said. “When you move around it (intensifies the music). I don’t need to push, like, I don’t need to physically like … mess someone up. I just like to have the energy going. I try to stay out of the heavy mosh circles.”

In between bands, the three spent the time walking around the park, grabbing something to eat from one of the on-site vendors and meeting and greeting acquaintances who also were attending.

Robbins said he enjoyed the people-watching aspect of large festivals like Warped Tour.

“Like seeing what people can come up with, like, what they’re wearing, how they do their hair … what is that guy doing? Like, that’s what I’m thinking the whole time,” he said with a laugh. “It’s just interesting.”

The three say coming to concerts also gives them inspiration. They are in a four-member alternative punk band, themselves, called Four Part Trilogy, and playing at a show like Vans Warped Tour is a long-hoped for dream.

“We like music. We like coming out to concerts. It helps us as a band, we get ideas,” Seabaugh said.

Seabaugh, Feierabend and Robbins say they have their sights set on a few other concerts this summer, as well, like the Avenged Sevenfold show Sept. 24 at Sandstone and maybe Kanrocksas Aug. 5 and 6 at the Kansas Speedway.

Feierabend said he thought the Kanrocksas tickets were probably more than he would be willing to pay, but Robbins said he expected it to be a legendary concert.

“I just feel like it’s going to be the next Woodstock,” he said.

While all three were in agreement that Vans Warped Tour was no Woodstock, they characterized their experience as “exciting,” “dope” and, as Seabaugh enthusiastically put it, “magnificently extravagant.”