Youths Get a Fix of Twisted Summer Fun

As she observed the Warped Tour 2001 unfold around her, Cherry Benjamin felt a bit like an anthropologist studying a strange new civilization.

Loud punk bands shattered the air, men in animal costumes pummeled each other and tattooed youths dragged on cigarettes held between pierced lips.

“You have to look at it as a study of a new generation,” said 50-year-old Benjamin, a Long Beach resident who sat in the “reverse day care” tent set up for parents who brought their kids to the event at Seaside Park in Ventura on Thursday. “These are our kids. The skateboarding is good, but the music hasn’t appealed to me yet.”

But it appealed to more than 8,000 young men and women who crowded into the park to see punk and rap bands while taking in some extreme sports and surveying members of the opposite sex.

There were constant live performances, music for sale, stunts, wrestling matches, beer and lots of security. Crowds moved from one show to the next, seemingly overwhelmed by the choices. And some focused like laser beams on favored bands.

Jonathan Cruz, 15, of Camarillo was delighted not to just see New Found Glory, but to have shared a high-five with the band’s leader.

“It’s great,” he exclaimed. “The best part is losing your hearing.”

Other underground bands included Rancid, Pennywise, Yeah Right, Big Dictators, and Me First & the Gimmies.

This is the second year in a row that the Warped Tour has visited Ventura.

Tour producer Kevin Lyman said many of those who showed up at the event preferred this coastal community to today’s show in Los Angeles, where 30,000 people are expected.

“They don’t want to deal with L.A.,” Lyman said.

The tour is a celebration of youth and the unique mixture of music, sports and the beach, he said.

“This is the show I wish someone had put on for me when I was a kid,” Lyman said, noting that most in the audiences are between the ages of 15 and 21. “It’s known in some circles as ‘the punk rock summer camp.’ ”

Though music dominated, there were also events such as “Incredibly Strange Wrestling,” where the crowd pelts participants with tortillas.

One match pitted El Pollo Diablo in a chicken suit against El Macho Sasquatcho, who was dressed like a big ape. The two drop-kicked, pile-drived and body-slammed each other senseless.

Then there was Senor Bueno--hailing “from the mean streets of Irvine”--clad in gold mask, Hawaiian shirt and white slacks.

His opponent was an elderly midget called Rasputin. The old man was dropped on his head and whipped with a belt. Bueno became incensed when the crowd then hit him with tortillas.

“Yo! Yo! If anyone throws a tortilla at me, Senor Bueno won’t get into the ring!” he yelled. “Senor Bueno is not down with that!” A cloud of tortillas immediately rained on his head and he grudgingly continued slapping around Rasputin.

Elsewhere, Scott Johnson, 21, of Santa Barbara relaxed in the shade. He described the event as a “happy festival” unlike other music events where violence and alcohol ruin the atmosphere.

“It’s kind of an underground festival. In a way, it’s more like the original Woodstock,” he said. “It doesn’t really represent all youth, because the whole MTV crowd is missing here. It’s like the anti-MTV people.”