SPIN

The 17th annual Warped Tour -- one of SPIN's must-see summer fests -- kicked off Friday at Dallas, TX's 19,000-person Gexa Energy Pavilion, and SPIN shutterbug Andrew Williams was in the pit and onstage shooting exclusive photos of all the action. "People were going wild," Williams says. "It was all positive energy and the pit was intense."

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The Floridian punk vets seemed right at home onstage in Dallas. "Frontman Tom Gabel (above left) was laughing and having a good time," Williams says "They were all really comfortable, just like pros. Their new drummer Jay Weinberg (right) was going nuts -- he should make his dad, E Street and Conan drummer Max Weinberg, very proud."

"It feels like Warped Tour 2051," joked bassist-singer Roger Manganelli (above). After all, the band are Warped vets, playing numerous times since the tour's creation in 1994. "Their set was super high energy," says Williams. "It was nice to have an original Warped band on the bill to show the young kids what it's all about."

A lot has changed since the Colorado electro-pop duo first playing Warped in 2008. "I saw them live then and no one knew who they were," says Williams. "They were even handing out free CDs." In Dallas, the duo -- who've recorded with Ke$ha and Katy Perry -- were one of the most popular acts. "Their music and set was all about partying. And everyone at Warped can related to that!"

Vincent Bennett, singer for this Massachussettes metal band, told the crowd, "Everyone bring your dark outside" and "We're the darkest band on the tour." He might be right. "They were brutal," says Williams. "He told everyone to get crazy in the pit and they did. Everyone was moshing. It was probably the biggest pit I saw all day."

Nathan Leone, the lead singer for this Chicago post-hardcore outfit, gave it his all. "He was singing really hard," says Williams. "His face was purple half the time."

The Dayton, Ohio, metalcore group played their brutal riffs to the crowd with a showman's touch, says Williams. "Singer Mike Hranica came bouncing out onstage and even banged his head on the microphone a few times for effect. He was definitely in the mood for gore."

He adds, "Hranica really likes the camera. He would come up four or five inches away from the edge of the stage and get down and look right in the camera like he was possessed."

Team work at Warped can pay off. "During their set Less Than Jake told the crowd to form a human bridge," explains Williams. "Hundreds of people linked arms. Then band told that guy with the Mohawk to walk across the bridge. It was long and he had a tough time standing up, but he made it."

You might not guess it from hearing their plutonium-heavy, prog-tinged music, but it turns out the guys in this experimental emo-metal band, especially frontman Matt Mehana, are really funny: "They talked about pussy and cock a lot. They tried to be gross," Williams says of the Miami band's set. "People were cracking up."

Emo rapper Grieves and his longtime pal and producer Budo dropped the bangers on Dallas, including their jam "On the Rocks." The crowd was thin but dedicated: "It was the wildest small party at Warped," says Williams. "It was early and they were hidden over on a small stage. But some people were more into them any other act on the lineup."

The Memphis alt-country band are a sonic outlier on Warped lineup -- but their set was a natural fit for the Texan landscape. Says Williams: "It was chill and dusty. It was definitely Southern. And it rocked. A lot of the crowd had never heard of them. But if they like the Gaslight Anthem, they'll love Lucero."

The Berkley, CA, self-proclaimed originator of "post-punk laptop rap" got concertgoers jumping with his pop culture-referencing (Hot Topic? Internet dating?) hip-hop jams. The packed crowd got riled up by "Download This Song," a track that decried record labels and their sorry state. "They relate to that," Williams says of the crowd, who sang along. "He's living proof of the changing music business."

The venue was packed with young kids pushing up against the stage. Some even took buses eight hours from Mexico just to see the show. "Warped has changed a lot," says Williams, "but it's ideal is still the same: Which is a bunch of kids getting together to listen to good music."

The English post-hardcore band, fronted by Roughton "Rou" Reynolds, put on one of the wildest, most intense shows of Warped's kickoff show, blasting a packed crowd with their genre-blending mix of dub, metal, hardcore punk, and electronic sounds. "It was hands down the best set of the weekend," says Williams. "People were going nuts. It was most riotous crowd of Warped." It was so intense, lin fact, that members of the band had to take a brief break and lay down onstage for a few minutes. "They needed a rest -- they deserved it."