‘Warped’ View of Better World

A summer rock festival seems like a good place to forget about the world’s troubles.

But for punk rock guru Louis Posen, it’s another chance to make the world a little better.

As guitars wailed at the Warped Tour’s stop in Ventura on Wednesday, Posen talked about how the annual rock festival is a good forum to educate young people about social responsibility. He said everyone should give back to the community, and his way of doing that is through music.

“I was raised with the idea that we’re here on this planet for a short time and we need to do what we can to help” others, said Posen, 31, president of Sub City records, which donates 5% of record sales to nonprofit groups such as the Women’s Justice Center and the National Foundation for Blindness.

At the daylong festival at Seaside Park, Posen was among a group of activists who gathered around the Take Action stage and tent area where information on everything from human rights abuses to teen suicide was passed out.

Through his record label and fundraising concerts, Posen has for years raised money for the National Hopeline, a suicide prevention organization. He helped found the annual Take Action Tour, which kicks off in September and has contributed tens of thousands of dollars to the hotline (1-800-SUICIDE).

The goal of Hopeline is to reach out to teenagers and young adults -- the majority of the Warped Tour audience -- who may suffer from abuse, drugs or depression, Posen said.

“We want them to know when you’re in a crisis, there is help,” said Posen, who has struggled with a degenerative eye disease since he was 19. He said his experience with the disease got him involved with the National Foundation for Blindness and that has had a lasting influence on him.

Following the success of Hopeless Records, which he started in 1993, Posen said he wanted to do something to help others. So he formed Sub City Records, which donates a portion of its proceeds to various charities.

“After doing Hopeless for seven years we realized we wanted to do something good for all the people we were reaching,” he said. The same year, Posen kicked off the first Take Action Tour. The first benefactor was the National Foundation for Blindness.

Posen wasn’t the only one reaching out to youngsters Wednesday.

Volunteer Josephine Ferreiro, 20, was gathering signatures at the tent area for a petition supporting free trade.

“It’s a great way to get the information out there,” Ferreiro said. “Some of these kids are 12, 13. It’s a great chance to get them active.”

A few tables over, Shaena Kwok, 25, was soliciting signatures for Amnesty International, which works to protect human rights worldwide.

“There’s a lot of young people out there who are open-minded and interested in helping but they don’t know what they can do about it,” Kwok said. “So we help them find it.”

Even the bands on stage were doing their part. Melee, a Sub City band that performed songs from its new CD, “Everyday Behavior,” is donating 5% of its sales to Orangewood Pals, a charity that provides halfway house services, guitarist Chris Cron said.

“We didn’t have to go to Sub City but we wanted to give back to the community,” Cron said. “It’s our duty.”

Guitarist Rick Sanberg agreed: “Music is for entertainment, but as human beings we have an obligation to help people out.”

Former Sub City band Thrice, which did not perform at the concert, continues to contribute to a variety of causes, Posen said. The band, now on Island Records, donated more than $60,000 to charities from its record sales, he said.

Ryan Zoradi, 18, who was sporting a Thrice T-shirt as he left Take Action’s tent Wednesday, said the band members’ charitable work gives them special appeal. His brother, Justin, 22, agreed.

“It’s easy to look up to musicians because they’re talented, but you take a band like Thrice and they’re saying there’s more to life than being rich and famous,” he said. “It shows that people with that much power can do really good things.”