Billboard: Warped Tour Kickoff Party

Kevin Lyman still employs an "old-school" method when it comes to picking bands for the Vans Warped Tour. "I stand outside the gate and watch to see what shirts the kids are wearing as they come in," Warped's founder and producer told Billboard.biz at Thursday's kick-off event at Club Nokia (LA Live) in Los Angeles. "I saw a lot of Memphis May Fire and Sleeping With Sirens shirts last year."

Accordingly, Memphis May Fire and Sleeping With Sirens were among the first few bands he booked for 2012, before he had secured a single main stage act. And while those bands weren't in the house at this year's kick-off event, plenty of other acts were. This included surprise sets from Yellowcard (who played acoustically) and The Used, as well as performances by Falling In Reverse, Matt Toka and Dead Sara. The bands were preceded by a short press conference and a screening of the Warped Tour doc "No Room for Rockstars." The VIP area was filled with a handful of veterans from the tour, which launched in 1995, as well as newer acts like Vampires Everywhere! and a myriad of industry people. CLICK HERE to read the rest of my report.