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ELECTRIFIES LONG BEACH
July 31st, 2026 Review by Kevin Gomez & Jimmy Alvarez
The Vans Warped Tour made its long-awaited return to the Shoreline Waterfront in Long Beach on sunny summer weekend, July 25th and July 26th. The weekend would prove to be hot, Africa hot, but not as it was about to get in the grounds. Before the masses made their way to the Warped Tour, festival organizer Kevin Lyman gave us media types a preview of the grounds and said a few words.
Despite the number of years he’s been doing, he has not lost his sense humor and wonder as to what can happened at the Warped Tour. He explained before media even got in the gates, the city of Long Beach had a power outage that had them scrambling. Luckily that emergency was short lived and he could breathe again.
Kevin Lyman | Warped Tour Founder
He went to tell us the history of the event and how much blood, sweat and tears he and his partners and longtime employees put into making this event happen. he was also thankful to media for always coming and telling the stores for the bands that make Warped Tour the event it is. Lyman also introduced us all to Steve Van Doren, son of the Vans co-founder.
Lyman marveled at the success and growth of the festival over the years. Then, after telling us about how important it is to try and make the event as affordable as possible, we then saw a sea of concertgoers entering the grounds. They were held at bay for a few minutes before the inflatable with set times was about to be unveiled; it was an insane rush!
Winona Fighter kicked the festival off on the BeatBox stage Saturday. The band opened with “R U FAMOUS” immediately bringing energy to an early audience.
Frontwoman Coco Kinnon explained that they actually got upgraded to the larger stage and said she needed the fans to bring that same excitement as they nailed a high-energy cover of the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage.” Before the set’s finale, Kinnon jumped down to the barricade and crowdsurfed.
Vana began her set on the main stage with “Pray,” which was a good showcase for her sound – soft, babydoll vocals amongst heavy metal that can easily change to screaming.
She played an untitled, unreleased song that saw a breakdown which had her drop to the floor and release some brutal vocals. It was barely noon and the kids were already moshing to the heavy music. Vana played the seductive “BEG!” and closed with “Clandestine.”
Yelawolf merged hip hop and rock and delivered “Catfish Billy.” With an inflatable trailer home onstage behind him, he asked the crowd, “Where’s the trailer parks in Long Beach? I want to be your neighbor.”
His band started playing a slow country tune that turned into Pantera’s “Walk,” starting a pit before his DJ played “Shimmy Shimmy Ya,” with Yelawolf rapping ODB’s lyrics over Marilyn Manson’s “Beautiful People.”
Back to the main stage where Hot Mulligan started with the hit, “How Do You Know It’s Not Armadillo Shells?” The band brought out one of the largest crowds thus far that afternoon. “And a Big Load” featured nice co-lead vocals from guitarist Chris Freeman. They played the forlorn love song “Featuring Mark Hoppus.” The biggest reaction from the crowd came at the set’s conclusion when they closed with their biggest song, “*Equip Sunglasses.*”
Saturday featured the triumphant return of Reel Big Fish, who had been on hiatus since early 2020. A massive crowd gathered as they opened with their iconic cover of “Take on Me,” immediately opening up a skanking pit.
They played a rarer gem in “She’s Famous Now.” Reel Big Fish surprised fans as Monique Powell joined them for “She Has a Girlfriend Now.”
They played their theme song, “Beer,” and closed with the song that started it all and made them radio sweethearts, “Sell Out,” as Wild Wing, the Anaheim Ducks mascot joined them onstage.
Jimmy Eat World announced that they were celebrating the 25th anniversary of their legendary “Bleed American” album by playing it in its entirety. The band brought it with a fiery opening of the title track followed by the “A Praise Chorus,” followed by the mega-hit, “The Middle.”
They played “Sweetness,” followed by the emotionally charged “Hear You Me” and “If You Don’t, Don’t,” which I’ve been waiting 25 years to hear live. After completing the album, they capped off their set with “Big Casino” and the sweltering “Pain.”
On the main stage fans eagerly sang along in unison with All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth on “Weightless.” The band welcomed LØLØ – who performed earlier in the day – onstage to share a duet for “PMA.”
Flames lit up for the chorus of “Time-Bomb.” Toward the end of their set Gaskarth said, “Take care of each other in this fucking crazy world; in these very troubling and scary times, all we have is each other. Be good neighbors, take care of each other, look out for one another.” And with that they played “Dear Maria, Count Me In.”
The last band on the main stage Saturday, Simple Plan kicked off the end of the night with “I’d Do Anything” bringing the mosh pit to life. LØLØ made her third Warped appearance that day joining Simple Plan on “Jet Lag.”
The band played a medley of 2000s hits including “All Star,” “Sk8er Boi,” and “Mr. Brightside.” They played the “Scooby-Doo” theme as the Mystery Inc. characters joined them onstage. Derek DiScanio of State Champs joined the boys for “Where I Belong” before they ended with the viral “I’m Just a Kid” and “Perfect,” closing out a perfect day indeed.
On Sunday, Codefendants co-lead singer Sam King came out in a suit jacket with no shirt and an orange ski mask as the duo kicked off with “Def Cons,” backed by Venezuela’s Zeta. King dedicated “Suicide by Pigs” to L7’s Jennifer Finch, “a good friend of ours.” (Finch passed away from brain cancer on July 18th.) The band got the crowd and the pit going with the upbeat “Lonely Life,” going into “Abscessed” and closing with “Sell Me Youth.”
Back on the main stage, Haywire immediately jumped into “Hang up the Telephone,” starting carnage in the pit.
Singer Austin Sparkman spoke honestly about his struggles with addiction and announced he recently celebrated a year of sobriety. Sparkman dedicated “ALWAYS BY MY SIDE” to Jennifer Finch and Lou Koller of Sick of It All. (Koller passed away from cancer on July 24th.)
Back on the Off the Wall Stage Bayside came out with, “Sick, Sick, Sick.” The band and energy kept things going with “Duality” creating a singalong with the crowd.
Singer-guitarist Anthony Raneri said they were going to play a song off their latest album, which crowd usually dread, and yet “Go to Hell” was one of the best songs of their set. Overall, Bayside was one of the best sounding bands all day on any stage. They covered “Enter Sandman” before closing with “Devotion and Desire.”
Drain opened their set with singer Sammy Ciaramitaro stating, “For the last six years we’ve begun every show with the same song. Not today – we honor the hardcore legend Lou Koller,” and they played Sick of It All’s “Clobbering Time.” They were not through the first chorus of “Feel the Pressure” before Ciaramitaro was on the railing singing along with fans and eventually crowdsurfing.
For “FTS (KYS)” Ciaramitaro threw his corded mic into the crowd, still plugged in, and fans grabbed it and finished the lyrics. They played “Who’s Having Fun?” and closed with “California Cursed” leading to multiple pits, some of the brutalist of the entire day.
Warped Tour veterans MxPx played the Vans stage coming with “My Life Story” and “Tomorrow’s Another Day.” They played “Middlename,” the opening track from the iconic “Life in General.” Bassist and singer Mike Herrera dedicated “Secret Weapon” to all the fans who have supported them all these years, reminding them that they are in fact “their own secret weapon.”
Herrera’s bassline shined on “Chick Magnet,” a song supposedly about drummer Yuri Ruley. Mosh pits and crowdsurfers continued in full force as MxPx played “Responsibility,” which I distinctly remember seeing them play at my first Warped in 2000. They closed as they always do with “Punk Rawk Show,” this time dedicating it to Lou Koller.
Taking Back Sunday is on a bit of a resurgence lately, having reconnected with original guitarist/ vocalist John Nolan in 2010 and having guitarist/vocalist Fred Mascherino rejoin as a touring member last year. The three-part harmonies lead by vocalist Adam Lazzara really came together on songs like “Liar (It Takes One to Know One).”
They played their hearts out on one of the all-time greatest emo songs, “You’re So Last Summer.” “My Blue Heaven” featured beautiful backing vocals from Nolan and Mascherino.
They made sure to finish out strong with a trio of their most popular, “Timberwolves at New Jersey,” “Cute Without the E (Cut from the Team),” and the singalong “MakeDamnSure.”
One of my favorite sets of the weekend came from Third Eye Blind. They opened with the falsetto-led “Thanks a Lot.” The 60,000 punks in attendance sang in unison to “Never Let You Go,” really demonstrating the universal appeal of Third Eye Blind. They played “The Kids Are Coming,” which out of nowhere transitioned to a scorching rendition of “Wolf Like Me,” into “Graduate.”
Frontman Stephan Jenkins invited Yellowcard’s Ryan Key, who grabbed a guitar and led the band in “Ocean Avenue,” creating one of the best Warped Tour moments of 2026, which saw MGK in front of the stage singing every word. The band finished with one of the anthems of the late ‘90s, “Semi-Charmed Life.”
The Used played a passionate rendition of “Buried Myself Alive,” showcasing Bert McCracken’s screaming vocal range. They played “All That I’ve Got” before welcoming two fans on stage so the man could propose, and thankfully she said “yes.” McCracken introduced “Listening” by saying, “Free Palestine!” The band played “A Box Full of Sharp Objects,” and McCracken then thanked the fans for supporting them for the last 26 years. They played a brief cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as red and white streamers covered the crowd.
Papa Roach closed out the main stage bringing their arena-style show complete with pyro. Lead man Jacoby Shaddix said Kevin Lyman called them back in 2000, offering them the third stage of Warped Tour and it changed the trajectory of their career. They brought out H2O’s Toby Morse to sing with them on “BRAINDEAD,” which Morse dedicated to the memory of Lou Koller.
They played what Shaddix called “the Nu-Metal Time Machine,” of “Between Angels and Insects” and a medley of “Blind,” “My Own Summer (Shove It),” “Break Stuff,” and “Chop Suey” before closing the weekend with their biggest hit, “Last Resort,” sending the crowd into absolute madness.
As Lyman has said repeatedly, the Vans Warped Tour was created not only to showcase established bands, but more importantly to expose fans to new and various genres of music. In that regard, in 2026 the Warped Tour continues to do just that. Creating a platform on one of the biggest festivals to introduce the next big bands to the world.
WARPED TOUR SLIDE SHOW
by Dark Room Rebellion Photography
Green-Eyed Blonde Photography
TO FOLLOW
SID 260733 | TRACI TURNER | EDITOR
