Story and Photos By: Chris Martinez(Sacramento Live Performance Columnist)
Warped Tour Week With Chris Martinez - Part 2 - Bayside
“Check. Check, check. Mic, one, two three, check.” The crowd gathers around the Hurley Stage at the 2009 Vans Warped Tour. Up next at 12:25PM is Bayside. The crowd grows by the hundreds as the minutes pass. The sound crew walks off the stage and silence settles over the crowd.
Nick Ghanbarian (Bass) steps out from the side stage and the crowd erupts in excitement. One by one, the band comes out, picking up their instruments. Anthony Raneri grips the microphone, looks out to the crowd with a smirk that can only mean one thing - it’s going to be a good morning!
“We are Bayside and we’re from New York. Lets do this Sacramento!” With that, the band kicked off their set with the title track to their album, "The Walking Wounded."
The crowd recognizes the song at the beginning riff and immediately begins to jump around, bobbing their heads to the tempo of the song. The band kept the crowd up and awake throughout their set. The ferocity of the crowd died down a bit as the band introduced their fourth song, “The Ghost of St. Valentine” off their recent album, "Shudder."
In between songs, Anthony conversed with the crowd in an attempt to get them to wake up and sing along. It’s still early noon and the crowd continues grow and while some stand in the center with their arms crossed. The better half were on their toes bouncing up, down and side-to-side while screaming the lyrics as Anthony pointed the microphone to the crowd.
Two songs before their set came to an end, Anthony bellowed out to the crowd that he expected some enthusiasm for the next song. While Anthony talked to the crowd he played the intro lick to “Duality,” one of their hit singles. The crowd began to bounce up and down in anticipation for the song to begin.
Anthony started.. “Some days, I get crazed…” then backed away from the microphone, allowing the crowd to sing back the beginning of the song; they do a good job. The chorus is sung loud and clear by the fans as the band continues to play and move about. The song came to and end and the crowd got to rest up for a few seconds before Anthony announced, “Well, Sacramento, this is our last song. Sing along if you know it” and began to play “Devotion and Desire,” the band’s biggest song to date. The crowd erupted as fiercely as they did at the beginning of the set. The crowd was awake and showed no sign of resting, singing along, word for word, to the song and gathering in circle pits.The song ended and the crowd found themselves gasping for breath after an intense set. “Thank you Sacramento! See you around” were Anthony’s last words, and just like that, the band walked off the stage. The crowd rushed to the side of the stage for a possible chance to meet and greet the band. In a short 30 minutes, Bayside set the stage ablaze with their passion and intensity, and the crowd reciprocated the emotion through their singing and moshing.
Click here to see all of Chris' Warped Tour photos.
