Warped Tour 2008: Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

Not pictured: Gil Mantera. I didn’t think I would see a gold lamé cape at the Warped Tour. Apparently I thought wrong. Gil Mantera and  bandmate Ultimate Donny (shown here in metallic finery) sure know how to put on a show. I ended up liking their set more than any of the others I saw, primarily because there was stripping involved, but their music’s okay, too. You should check out our interview; I think they were just jacking me around most of the time, but at least they were jacking me around with style.

Warped Tour 2008: Brave Citizens

I’m always skeptical of “hometown hero” acts.  They might be cool, they might be lame, their set list usually consists of psychedelic jams, Eighties covers, and one original song. But nobody really thinks about any of that, because the guys are nice and they play the bar down the street and, just like everyone else in Berkeley, they really like Zachary’s Pizza. This was actually my main concern while interviewing Brave Citizens-how could I be objective if I knew they appreciated a good slice of California deep dish?

Then I saw their set on the Kevin Says Stage (tangent: the stage appellation seemed a little incongruous to me, but then I realized the tour founder, Kevin Lyman, named it after himself. He refers to it as the “Kevin Says Stage” in interviews, too, which seems a little bit… Milton Acevedo-y. Then again, what else would he call it? The “I Say Stage”? Linguistic complexities, man). Anyway, I watched them play and I realized we were a long way from Blake’s on Telegraph. Obviously, the songs were all original and no one was drunk. Less obviously, they were actually good.

Surprisingly, they were also nice. I might transcribe and post the interview text eventually, but for now, visit their myspace and check them out on July 13th at (where else?) Blake’s on Telegraph.