Buzz Bands looses his inner teenager at the

Vans Warped Tour, where the principal mission seems to be to move bodies and move

merchandise. Under the scorching sun at the Fairplex in Pomona on Friday, "punk

rock summer camp" kicked off, seeming more like a carnival with a punk-rock

soundtrack. You can look at this two ways, it seems: This is either where suburban teen

angst goes to simmer under the summer sun, or this is where true punk goes to die, lost

in sea of the crass commercialism doing bustling business under the scores of tents

hawking energy drinks, mall fashions and those absolutely necessary sunglasses.

Vitamin Water is only 3 bucks, though.

Things move fast here, so there won’t be a lot of typing today. Bands play 30-minute

sets, and it’s really heaven for the ADD-addled masses. Without taxing your legs too

much, you can see three bands in an hour.

Like we did.

One of my

L.A. favorites, the Briggs got a moshpit going in front of one of the mainstages in the

noonday sun — and crammed nine songs into a 30-minute set. Nice job, lads. The sweat

and choruses were flying, and none rang truer than "Somehwere in this city /

Walkin’ the streets / Waiting in the shadows."

A bit later, the Adolescents blasted through a set on the other main stage, even

though their veteran humor was lost a little bit on the young admirers: "Some bands

work their whole lives to get on this stage. Not me. I worked my whole life to sit over

there (pointing at the Fairplex grandstand) and watch the horses."

Then

it was on to the Vincent Black Shadow, a Vancouver, B.C., five-piece that’s doing its

best to make ska-punk interesting again. They were impressive, with vocalist Cassandra

Ford’s detached cool (and how hard is that today?) working much better than any bubbly

manufactured optimism.

Back to the Pomona infield …