Katy Perry, Gym Class Heroes' Big Warped Tour Adventure

Amid the sea of identical-looking tour buses parked outside Atlanta's Lakewood Amphitheater, Katy Perry's stands out: It's the one with a huge photo of the "I Kissed a Girl" singer on it. The decorations make it easy for fans to spot Perry when the bus pulls into rest stops. "All I wanna do is take a shit, and girls are out with their camera phones," Perry says. "My assistant has to stand outside the door of the bathroom."

With a Top 10 debut (the new One of the Boys), Perry is the most buzzed-about artist on the 14th annual Vans Warped Tour. She may also be the busiest: Earlier today, Perry spent nearly 90 minutes fielding questions from overseas press. Later, after a 30-minute set and a lukewarm response from the crowd, she briefly left the tour to fly to L.A. for two television tapings. During her rare free time, Perry blogs or hangs out with her longtime boyfriend, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, who are also performing. Although Perry's spunky arena pop is more lip gloss than lip ring, she's happy to be on the Warped Tour. "I wanna conquer the world," she says. "People hear me on Warped that would otherwise never hear me."

Though Perry's presence may seem strange, much about this Warped Tour is business as usual: It still attracts hordes of advertisers, vendors and sunburned teenagers. (Attendance is nearly on pace with 2007, when the tour sold 630,000 tickets.) With 65 bands spread across eight stages in both the parking lots and the amphitheater, kids have options ranging from hardcore punk (the Bronx) to poppier emo punk (the Academy Is . . .) to several not-exactly-punk acts — including Matisyahu and Gym Class Heroes, who guested during each others' sets.

The Heroes have gotten attention for both their vibrant, hip-hop-powered sound and for the incident in St. Louis when McCoy clocked a fan who threw the n word at him. "I wanted to bring him onstage and clown the fuck out of him," says the usually mild-mannered MC, who was charged with assault and may face a court date. "But when he grabbed my [injured knee], the pain went to my head, and whatever happened happened."

This is the Heroes' fourth year on Warped, which means they have experience preserving their sanity while dealing with a lack of showers and long catering lines. Offstage, the band keeps it mellow, watching The Boondocks on DVD or lounging on a makeshift patio outside the bus. For other bands, video games are a mainstay — members of Say Anything and the Academy Is . . . are replaying this year's NBA finals on NBA 2K8 — as are slightly wilder pursuits: Boozing is common, and Warped Tour rookies We the Kings brought along two four-wheelers and a bow and arrow, which they shoot into cardboard boxes.

The good times belie a problem: With gas prices soaring, many groups are struggling to break even. "Friends of ours had to go home because they were losing too much money," says Gabe Saporta of Cobra Starship. "For us, we'll have to sell lots of merchandise to break even on this tour." But despite economic difficulties, for a lot of bands the tour's communal experience is the real reward. "Last summer we toured Europe," says McCoy. "All I thought about was how much more fun Warped was."

[From Issue 1058 — August 7, 2008]

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