Various Artists - Warped Tour 2006

This two-disc set is the next best thing to being there. Take out the sweat, sunburn, and hangover, and what you have left is over fifty songs to remind you of the Vans Warped Tour, whether you remember being there or not. The Side One Dummy release includes tracks from Anti-Flag, The Casualties, Flogging Molly, Bouncing Souls, NOFX, Matchbook Romance, and Every Time I Die, just to name a fraction. The downside is that none of the tracks are live recordings. The upside is that the album was released in June of 2006, prior to the kick off of the actual tour. So, even if you did make the show, and were inevitably unable to see all the bands that were in attendance, you can relive it in all its glory. If you didn’t make it out for the 2006 tour, this two-disc is a good way to discover new bands, and rediscover old bands. All in all, a decent compilation. One obsessive music geek with a computer might have compiled the same collection. Then again, what is it that they say about a thousand Shakespeares, some typewriters and the resulting Monkey? [www.warpedtour.com]