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When faced with the decision of continuing the Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman should have followed his instincts and shut the tour down.

This year's Warped Tour continues the tradition of the multi-stage music festival, but with little of the rock and alternative grandeur that it once carried.

Throngs of concert-goers, sporting either ironic t-shirts or t-shirts with better bands absent from Warped Tour, packed the sold out event for nearly two hours until even the gods couldn't take any more of the spectacle and sent torrential rain, lightning and even a tornado warning to the area.

Weathering the storm

Packs of fans lacking proper rain gear fled through the parking lot only to arrive at their vehicles soaking wet messes. The fans that did brave the weather huddled under the ticket alcoves, merch tents and even hid under the wooden deck of an outdoor food court.

For their diligence Warped Tour continued under the roof roof of the Comcast Center's main stage and the rest of the outdoor stages continued shortly after that.

Then, everyone got to experience why the Warped Tour should be put to rest.

Not to sound too old, but much of the alternative rock music coming down the pipe sounds very much the same. While the world is still trying to shake off the icky feeling caused by the emo movement bands are evolving their sound into things like "pop punk" and "screamo" which are just as bad as they sound.

Bands like Alesana seem too concerned with emulating current bands than looking at the roots of music and playing off of those basic themes.

Ones that are beyond insufferable include From First to Last who make it look like their only mission is to be the most annoying band in existence.

The whole alternative rock scene wouldn't be so bad if any of these bands had any lasting value beyond the flashes in the pans that they are. Of course, the whole day wasn't just doom, gloom, ironic '80s sunglasses and tornado warnings.

As the day wore on there were few bands that struck out from the rest of the pack. What helped is that they made sure they had a distinctive sound.

The band 3OH!3 hit the small Hurley.com stage (all the individual stages have a corporate sponsorship) with heavy rock guitars mixed with flowing electronic sounds and deep hip hop bass beats.

Needless to say this kept a throng of people fully engaged throughout the set. The only weakness of the band may be the drunken frat boy lyrics that promote guyhood while singing about not being your boyfriend.

Closing out the the show as one of the final acts Katy Perry came on stage to the opening chords of "Barracuda" (you know, the one kids know from Guitar Hero) by Heart and then the rapturous applause of a nearly full main arena.

The Warped Tour only shows that despite being sold out provides little reason for its continued existence. If Ozzy had the good sense to leave this year's Ozzfest as a single date and location concert this year, maybe Warped Tour should have just packed up the show.

Ryan Brown can be reached at 508-236-339 or at rbrown@thesunchronicle.com