Ballyhoo! Show Review : Vans Warped Tour

With 6 major stages, and nearly 100 bands playing at Warped Tour Orlando, wandering the fairgrounds with unbiased ears leads to a sensory overload of talent and energy. I was entertained for a while, but it didn’t take me long to get bored of heavy breakdowns and hearing bands scream “What the f*** is up Orlando?!”. Eventually though, I came across something different…

I wandered to a less crowded corner of the park to find a band called “Ballyhoo!” rocking out, smiling ear to ear, and jumping up and down with their modestly-sized crowd. They had a fun punk pop rock reggae style, it almost sounded as if Bob Marley had joined Less Than Jake. Their songs displayed many wonderful grooves and clever synth tricks, all of which were accompanied by a superior sense of melodic awareness throughout their set.

They definitely had a good sound, different from most of the bands I had heard that day. But beyond the music, they represented something more significant: The straight up passion for good rockin’ music. They didn’t seem overly focused on having to make a name for themselves (like some of the other bands did), and by no means did they seem to be phased by their seemingly insignificant spot on the smaller “House Of Marley” stage at Warped. They just looked like they were happy to be there playing music and enjoying their summer with all the sweaty people watching them.

Be sure to check out Ballyhoo! on Facebook and Twitter.