Now that the post-Warped depression is wearing off, it’s time for real talk.

One of the best parts about going to Warped Tour in Phoenix is that the next day you actually realize you’ve accomplished something: you, through all adversity, kicked the heat’s ass. Even Kevin Lyman tweeted, “Nothing beats a Phoenix sunset… you know you have survived.”

The desert weather has been a cruel mistress lately in Arizona — dust storms and winds topping 100mph have been happening on the regular, and she wasn’t tender to any of the countless fans that showed up to Warped Tour 2011 with her sweltering heat. I had gotten to the venue around 10am, but many eager fans had been there since 8am waiting for doors to open at 11:30. My weather app said it was 96 degrees outside, and it felt like 107.

Our faces were melting and we werent even in the freakin’ doors yet. I had my gallon of water about 1/3 destroyed already and the kids around me were losing patience quickly. Then, everyone cheered as the doors finally opened, and we all poured willingly into the belly of the pavilion.

I had a lot of stuff to do and not a lot of time to do it (so I thought). First things first, I got my map and made my way to the Kevin Says Stage. The band I was scouting on, Moovalya, was going to be playing at noon. I found their tent and talked to the band’s drummer, Mitch and introduced myself. He helped me find the Shut Up & Deal tent, where I checked in for the time of our Scene Meet Up.

This was all fine and good, because Moovalya jumped onboard the stage right at noon. Their dedicated friends, family and fans had come out to support them, and like they did in Phoenix for the Spring Into Action Tour, these guys brought the circle pit right off the bat — with beach balls! It was really awesome being able to see them on a massive stage instead of the Underground that they had played in for Earn It Yourself, and they brought the same positive, contagious energy that they had that night in May. And the fans were awesome — I even got a picture of them before the show as they watched their buddies in Moovalya soundcheck.

Little did I know that the warmth and support from the crowd, combined with those good, positive vibes from Moovalya would be the same materials that composed the backbone supporting the entire lineup for Warped this year.

Our Scene Meet Up didn’t start until later that afternoon. Selena Rox, Christian Wagner ( Absolute Punk, Give Blood Management), and Dakotah Cole (D.R.U.G.S Tour Manager) were leading the discussion.

There were actually only three of us in the meeting that were from Arizona, which is a testament of how badly our music scene needs supporters — the other three in the meeting were from Seattle (Rora, who was helping out Shut Up & Deal’s merch tent) and Tennessee (Kenny and Lee from a band called Farewell Fighter, that will be playing at the venue I work at in Mesa on August 30th!).

Most of the discussion that took place was about animosity between different scenes. Lauren and Amelia, the two other girls from Arizona, expressed their concern with the way that scenes were disrespectful and hostile toward one another. Having worked at a music venue for a year now, I can definitely attest to this. It’s hard to have one genre of music in one room without having trash talk in another. Selena shared some stories about going to hardcore shows on the east coast and how brutal kids could be.

Selena, Christian, and Dakotah encouraged us to just be that person in a crowded room willing to cross the social barrier and “be cool” with fans of that other genre. We found out that from last year’s Warped Tour, Kevin Lyman almost decided to call it quits after the way that fans and bands treated one another while on tour last summer. After he was swayed to keep it, Lyman picked each band for 2011 very meticulously in order to create a positive, awesome atmosphere for music.

And it definitely showed. Everywhere, all over the pavilion, you could see band members wearing a different band’s shirt from a totally different genre. After every single set, you could hear “thank you for coming out!” and “check out ________’s set, they are great guys!” It was awesome. Every band wasn’t just out there for themselves or their genre — they were actually trying to foster growth and support for the music scene in general.
Christian suggested that we create a message board or website in order to foster growth for our local music scene — which all of us agreed was a great idea.

Arizona has such an interesting problem: we have so many talented, amazing musicians and bands that have come out of our state, yet, the fans remain hidden until a show comes around. I always have a problem finding dedicated street teamers for our venue that will flyer to get into free shows — yet whenever The Maine, This Century, Fun., Jimmy Eat World, etc. come through town, you always see a MILLION supporters. If Arizonans love their musicians, then why don’t they want to help the venues, promoters, and local musicians grow? This is a problem. If we want more local bands to be successful (because I can think of a couple that deserve national attention) we HAVE to get out there and go to shows, flyer, street team and connect with other music lovers in order to make magic happen.

One of the best parts about my Warped Tour experience was meeting someone very special. No, it wasn’t a musician, a tour manager, or anyone on the tour (though, those people were really awesome, too). It was meeting the other girls from Arizona in that Scene Meet Up: Lauren and Amelia.

Lauren (14) and her friend Amelia (15) live in the north side of the valley, and Lauren’s favorite band is a local band from the east valley in Chandler, AZ. Both girls were wearing the band’s bracelets, and even had a song by them written on their hands. They’re not your run-of-the-mill fan girls though, either — they’re genuinely concerned about their music scene and want to not only see their favorite band do amazing things.

Lauren was one of Earn It Yourself’s top street teamers — which basically meant that she was getting the word out about EIY like a boss and Sarah Saturday took notice. She’s also one of the most mature young girls I have ever met — and after the Scene Meet Up, we hung out for the rest of the day and talked about ourselves, the music scene, and what goals we have within it. I wish I had been more like Lauren when I was 14 (I’m 24 now)— she’s level-headed and determined — she knows that she wants to go on tour, she wants to do photography, and honestly, I can see her doing it in a few years.

I have never met anyone like her. She’s probably been the biggest inspiration for me besides Earn It Yourself as I’ve been chasing my own dreams for music journalism. We’re friends on Facebook, and I think we’re actually going to make some great things happen for Arizona.

Anyway, from everything that I learned at Warped Tour, I believe that the best thing you can do for your music scene is to stop looking at borders between genres, age-groups, what side of town you’re from, what people are wearing, etc. and instead look at the things you have in common with one another — you love music and that should be the power that binds.

Lauren had said that Warped Tour was her church while we were sipping our “communion” of Coke and Powerade and we kinda laughed about it — because it’s true. Here we were with a ten-year age difference and we loved all kinds of music. We both could tune into the positive vibes from The Wonder Years and both got chills listening to A Day To Remember. We were all going to church that day to pay homage to something that we all believe in, no matter what denomination (genre) we listen to — music.

Just because I wasn’t wearing all black doesn’t mean I didn’t stop to enjoy a few minutes of Black Veil Brides. I even caught pieces of Against Me!, Lucero, Go Radio, Bad Rabbits, Gym Class Heroes, Neo Geo, The Wonder Years, Less Than Jake, Every Avenue, A Day To Remember, and more.

In fact, even though Arizona was probably one of the hottest places on the Warped Tour, A Day To Remember mentioned on stage that they always have the biggest, best crowds out here. They played two days in a row on their last tour here in April and sold out BOTH days. And The Wonder Years praised all our Arizona girls that were moshing and dancing in their pit. We have so many things to be proud of — I can’t count the numerous times that bands have come through my music venue and have said the EXACT same things about Arizona music fans. We just have to get them out of hiding.

So this is the most important lesson I learned for my Day In The Life at Warped: If you go to Warped Tour this year, and when you go to shows in your hometown in the future, don’t ever limit yourself to what’s out there. Don’t be afraid to try something new, to make new friends, to get involved with volunteering at a venue or helping out a local band’s street team. Don’t trash talk. And most of all, don’t limit yourself, because you’re only hurting your ability to grow and your scene’s ability to flourish.

We’ve got a scene out here on life-support. And we have to do everything we can to save it.

More than anywhere else, we know we can take the heat, so we don’t have any excuses.

Then, we can say we’ve really accomplished something.