st. louis: warped tour 2010

warped tour. to be honest, i'm not the biggest fan of the types of bands that are on this tour anymore. but strangely enough, of the many years that i have attended, this one was by far my favorite. getting in for free was great; working always has its perks. but i learned so much, from so many talented people, and received enough inspiration to last me a lifetime.

sarah saturday is one of the most talented women in the music industry and to this day it baffles me how she is dirt poor and without a home. she founded and runs earnityourself.com, which is a great DIY website for unsigned bands looking to network, fronts a rad indie electronic band called gardening, not architecture, and does artist and website development. not to mention that she has mad connections in the industry that would make any music nerd (read: me) jealous. we met about a year ago, when i attended one of her g,na shows and offered her a floor to sleep on, and we've have kept in touch ever since. sarah is currently putting together an EIY handbook with Q&As involving the industry's best people. honest questions with honest answers - isn't that what everyone is searching for? the handbook isn't quite done yet, but sarah had the bright idea to put together an EIY workshop each day on warped tour, on top of playing a daily set as gardening, not architecture. concert attendees can sign up at the beginning of the day at the kevin says tent in order to receive a wristband to get backstage and have a conversation with some of warped's best people. (sarah herself, kevin lyman, lisa brownlee, and martin atkins to name the few that were at the st. louis date.) so when sarah mentioned she needed volunteers to help her out on the tour, i jumped on the chance to get in on all the the musical goodness. st. louis, chicago, and bonner springs, oh my!

i had a couple friends in town who were also working the tour, so we all carpooled it over to verizon wireless pretty early. we got our "vendor" wristbands and were immediately put to work. sarah found me maybe an hour later, and we (after a coffee run) set up her tent, merch, and the like. i pretty much sat under said tent, promoted the gardening, not architecture set time and EIY meet-up, and sewed handmade cloth CD cases all day. not a bad job at all. another plus: my friend tiffany who works with building rome, was selling merch for martin atkins, who shared our tent. (full circle!) so we chatted it up and the day flew by. five o clock came all too quickly, and before i knew it, sarah had a bunch of kids wrangled up and we marched backstage together for the EIY meet up. we sat outside for a while, but we were right behind one of the stages and it was really loud, so we eventually moved inside. and let me tell you. we sat there and talked for about an hour and a half, and i could have sat there for about a week longer. being amongst people like myself, talking to people who used to be like myself and finally "made it" was incredible. i was telling sarah later on that at one point, i had tears in my eyes because it was great to look around and see all the passion in the room. these are the people i aspire to be like. these are the people who put in SO MUCH hard work, and it has finally (at least somewhat, but not nearly enough) paid off. kevin founded warped tour and has worked on countless other festivals (stagecoach, coachella, lollapalooza, mayhem). lisa brownlee manages warped and has had tour managing experience with tons and tons of other HUGE names that would put your jaw on the floor. martin atkins wrote the best damn book about the music business period (tour smart, check it out). and sarah, well, that whole paragraph up there was about her. these people are amazing. that's all i can really say. i don't have the words to describe the feeling that being able to ask questions of these people gave me.

the fire in me has once again been stirred after being burnt out for a good while. my circle of "local band friends" has seen better days. i know change is bound to happen, but change scares me. i can't say i'm happy about any of these changes, but being among like-minded people and seeing the passion literally ooze out of all the people in that room, gave me so much hope, and reinstilled a clarity and a happiness in me that i only rarely feel.

so after the group meeting, we headed back and i got to watch sarah's set, as well as motion city soundtrack (which was so great, hadn't seen them in a good two years) and helped sarah tear down and pack up her things. we ended up on her bus just talking, and once again - so inspiring. i feel like a goober gushing like a fangirl about someone who i actually know, but she's so so great. i don't know sarah all that well, but i see a lot of myself in her, and whatever topic i seem to bring up, she knows exactly how i feel and has answers for it all, which gives me hope for my future. she's not nearly as successful as she should be, but she does what she loves and she's making a difference for things that matter. and above all, she has so much passion. that's what i love about the real people in the music world. so much passion, you can see it in their eyes. and sarah's eyes just glitter with it. we sat there and talked for a good forty five minutes and once again, i could have sat there and just listened for hours on end. who knows yet, as it's only july, but hopefully something works out involving a g,na tour and me. i don't want to jinx anything, and i don't want to make too drastic of assumptions or decisions yet, but let's just say i'm excited about opportunities that may present themselves in my future. wee!

so if you're going to take anything from this lengthy post (thanks for reading all of it, by the way), try and take the passion and apply it to your own life. it doesn't have to be music like it is for me, but find what truly drives you and lights that spark into a fire in your heart, and go after it with all you've got. eventually, it'll pay off. trust me.

if you're reading this and warped tour has yet to come through your city, by all means attend the EIY local scene meet up and watch gardening, not architecture. discuss warped tour, earn it yourself and the philosophy behind it, talk about the industry of music in general, and most of all: ask questions and learn as much as you can.

it. will. be. worth. it.

learn about/follow g,na here: http://www.gardeningnotarchitecture.com/ and www.twitter.com/GNAtweets
learn about/follow earn it yourself here: http://www.earnityourself.com/ and www.twitter.com/earnityourself
learn about/follow sarah saturday here: http://www.sarahsaturday.com/ and www.twitter.com/sarahsaturday