The traveling punk-rock gypsy caravan that is the Vans Warped Tour rolled through Darien Lake on Thursday, and by the time it rolled out I had latched on. I spent the following two days in Camden, New Jersey, and Uniondale, New York, digging the bands, the behind-the-scenes routine, and the ever-shifting face of youth-driven music.

The line-up changes daily, with time slots being assigned by a sort of lottery. So your favorite band could be on as soon as the gates open, or at the end of the night. The main disadvantage to this was putting two or more bands people wanted to see on at the same time on one of the seven stages. Another distinct disadvantage was for bands playing at the same time as Flogging Molly, as virtually everyone jammed to the stage for FM's insane and frenetic Celtic punk. English heavies Gallows was one of the casualties; this band was brutally fast and ominous, but lightened up the attack with plenty of hang time. The band spent more time with its feet in the air than Eddie Nebula.

So-Cal's In This Moment was heavier than I'd first thought, with singer Maria Brink actually bringing the heavy heat as opposed to the pop-sweet you might expect from a curvaceous cutie in a baby-doll dress. My safety zone was with old-school bands like Bad Religion, NOFX, and Anti-Flag, which diffused a potential riot by making two oafish dudes who were fighting literally kiss and make up in front of the whole crowd, or risk being thrown out.

Shooter Jennings sounded great but drew poorly. These kids may catch on, but still seem to fall under the spell of whichever DIY media blitz hits them the hardest. Jennings and his band were the only long-haired rocker types in a sea of androgyny. Which leads me to the majority of the bands and their, what I like to call, homogenous individuality. Eighty percent of these bands sounded exactly the same, which stripped them of any power. And the chronic overuse of my favorite word in the English language didn't make them sound edgy, but rather like they were trying too hard. Warped Tour is where "fuck" has lost its power.

Sunday it was back to Rochester for the Bop Shop's third Bop Fest. Folks not in the know sat there, jaws in their laps, eyes darting frantically about, looking for the other five guys that should've been on the stage when they could see only two when the Tarbox Ramblers played. That's because Michael Tarbox is a finger-picking, slide-guitar freight train. With just a drummer throbbing on the tubs behind him, Tarbox brought Delta darkness to a beautiful day. Rockabilly hero Jerry Engler followed and swung swell with the Hi-Risers, who also backed up Barrence Whitfield (the turban is back, baby!), who sounded the best I'd heard him in years. He kicked off with "Bloody Mary" and sang lots of stuff off his album "Dig Yourself." It was wild and loose r&b that actually used to scare people. Me? It was like the womb.