Back in 2017, when the Warped Tour announced it would no longer be making its annual cross-country trek, even those who took down the thumb-tacked posters of their alternative, punk and hardcore heroes long ago must have felt a tiny tug at the heartstrings. Fortunately for Bay Area locals, Shoreline is one of only three venues across the nation to host the storied festival this year. Marking its 25th anniversary, the tour that gave rise to the likes of Blink-182, Paramore, Less Than Jake and even Katy Perry returns with sets from The All-American Rejects, Jawbreaker, Offspring, Thrice, Sum 41 and more.

Warped Tour
Sat-Sun, 12pm, $71+
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View

The Vans Warped Tour has been helping break alternative and punk bands since the summer of 1995. Alumni include My Chemical Romance, Katy Perry, Fall Out Boy and many more—in fact, 1,700 bands have played the tour over the past 23 years. The storied touring festival kicks off what founder Kevin Lyman says will be the last cross-country tour this Thursday in Pomona California. The third stop on the roadshow pulls into Mountain View this Saturday. The tour features a lineup of classic pop punk and newer emo acts—from 3OH!3 and Asking Alexandria to Reel Big Fish and Sum 41.

Vans Warped Tour
Sat, 11am, $55+
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View

The Warped Tour debuted in 1995, making the traveling alternative music festival as old as its average attendee. And while punk acts have teeter-tottered in mainstream popularity in the intervening decades, the festival is still going strong with a mix of legacy acts and newer bands.

Skanking to the Oldies
This year’s main stage finds ’90s ska veterans Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish high up on the bill, in spots that might previously have been held by more contemporary groups. In fact, besides headliner Falling in Reverse, most of the bands on the main stage this year hail from the late ’90s and early 2000s—with Sum 41, New Found Glory, Yellowcard, and Four Year Strong rounding out the bill.

Metalcore Mania
The mashed up genre of dissonant metal riffs and pop-punk choruses known as metalcore is a big part of Warped Tour these days. And much of the main two support stages’ acts fall into this category. Pioneers of the genre like Atreyu and Every Time I Die join a number of newer bands like Issues, Chelsea Grin, Oceans Ate Alaska, and the Japanese band Coldrain who are making their very first stop in the Bay Area.

Pop Punk Party
Many of the remaining bands on the bill walk a line between punk looks and pop hooks. Bands like Sykes from the UK (a three piece of keys, guitar, and drums), whose poppy choruses are really only a step or two removed from R&B. Bands from a similar mold are Australia’s Tonight Alive—an unabashedly pop group on the list—The Maine (not from Maine), and The Summer Set, whose lyric “I’m a bit too pop for the punk / but I’m too punk for the pop kids” may be on-the-nose but also seems to be the MO of many of this year’s bands.

The Classics
Finally, there are the mainstays of pop-punk bands, like Teenage Bottlerocket, who play the Cyclops Stage this year, and Fat Wreck artist Masked Intruder. These two bands have been working the DIY and punk circuit for years and for many people represent the kind of ethos and drive found previously in the Less Than Jakes and New Found Glorys of the festival. Also included is Walnut Creek’s The Story So Far. Just be sure not to take any selfies on stage around them. A video of that group’s singer dropkicking a girl from the stage for doing just that went viral earlier this year.

WTF?!
The Warped Tour has made some rather odd booking decisions in the past. Case in point, that time they brought former From G’s To Gents contestant, dadaist rapper and aspiring professional wrestler RiFF RAFF along for the ride. In the spirit of keeping Warped attendees on their toes, they’ve done it again. This year’s award for biggest WTF artist to Atlanta’s Waka Flocka Flame, whose “Hard in Da Paint” is one of the major early anthems of trap music.

Van’s Warped Tour
Aug 6, 11am, $42
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View

Music in the Park returns this Thursday with the L.A.-spawned cultural melting pot that is Ozomatli. That same night, Barbra Streisand, one of the last true lounge singer legends, looks back on her long and bedazzled career with a performance at SAP Center. Back in town for its 22nd year The Vans Warped Tour descends upon Shoreline Amphitheatre. And Ira Glass, creator of “This American Life” discusses the human condition in Saratoga.

Ozomatli
Thu, 5:30pm, $10-$15
Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park, San Jose
In the ancient Aztec language of Nahuatl, “ozomatli” translates to monkey. The sprightly simian is also the god of dance, fire and music on the Aztec calendar. It’s an appropriate name for a band that knows how to keep people moving with such an eclectic array of sounds. Formed in 1995, Ozomatli take inspiration from the music they grew up hearing on the streets of L.A.—classic Latin, jazz, reggae, rock and hip-hop. Interwoven in these sounds are upbeat lyrics exploring a variety of topics, from sociopolitical issues, like immigrant and workers’ rights, to colorful cultural reflections. (ST)

Barbra Streisand
Thu, 6:30pm, $190-$510
SAP Center, San Jose
One of the last of the lounge superstars, Barbra Streisand’s bedazzled career stretches across six spectacular decades. She found success in pretty much every project she embarked upon in film and music. As the winner of an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, Babs belongs to an elite group of entertainers. And the EGOT is just the tip of the iceberg as far as her trophy locker goes. In 2014, her album Partners debuted at No.1, making her the only artist to have a top-charting album in each of the past six decades. (ST)

Kenny Chesney
Sat, 5pm, $21-$246
Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara
Go big or go home! Last year, during his “Big Revival Tour,” Kenny Chesney broke the 20-year-old attendance record set by Pink Floyd at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium. On that same tour, he also sold-out, and set an attendance record, at the Target Field in Minneapolis. In fact, Chesney has made a habit of breaking attendance records at large stadiums over the course of his career. Word has it he even has one of the sexiest tractors in America. On Saturday, Chesney returns to the Levi’s Stadium with Miranda Lambert, Sam Hunt and Old Dominion for his “Spread The Love Tour.” (ST)

Young Soulja
Sat, 3pm, Free
Pacific Auto Parts, San Jose
Up and coming San Jose-based hip-hop artist Young Soulja The Realest is poised to break. His debut album, Well Connected, features an exclusive from R.Kelly and boasts more than a million downloads from Limelinx. He’s toured with big names like Big Sean, E-40, Paul Wall and French Montana. His recent album, For All It’s Worth, included the single “Shake It”—an ode to well-endowed women. The track put him on the radar of local hip-hop tastemaker DJ Chewy Gomez and received airplay on multiple radio stations. He performs at Day Of The Dirt Festival in San Jose. (ST)

Ira Glass
Sat, 5:30pm, $40-$70
The Mountain Winery, Saratoga
Ira Glass is a master storyteller with a keen understanding of the human condition. His radio show, This American Life, airs on more than 500 radio stations in the U.S., Australia and Canada, pulling in 2.2 million listeners weekly. Glass played an integral part in the rise of podcasting and a number of TAL contributors have gone on to launch successful programs—most notably Serial. The show’s popularity has extended to television and film. The cable network Showtime briefly produced a This American Life series, and comedian and TAL contributor Mike Birbiglia teamed with Glass on the dramady Sleepwalk With Me. (ST)

Warped Tour
Sat, 11am, $59-123
Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View
The Warped Tour debuted in 1995, making the travelling alternative music festival as old as its average attendee. And while punk acts have teeter-tottered in mainstream popularity in the intervening decades, the festival is still going strong with a mix of legacy acts and newer bands.

Warped Tour After Party
Sat, 7:30pm, Free
O’Malley’s Sports Pub, Mountain View
When a full day of punk and hardcore in the sun just isn’t enough, Pin Up Productions has got your back. Take in a lineup of heavy-hitting local and touring acts—and catch a break on those brutal Shoreline beer and cocktail prices—at O’Malley’s, just a short Lyft ride from the amphitheater. The bill includes SoCal metalcore outfit Caligula Dance Party, Carson City melodic metalcore act We Predict A Riot, San Francisco tech-metalheads Red Sky and San Jose-based throwback thrashers Sentry. (NV)

Messer Chups
Sun, 5pm, $15
The Ritz, San Jose
Most often associated with its origins in the California beach culture of the early ’60s—and that one Pulp Fiction scene—surf rock has since spread all over the world. Today, bands all over the world have picked up on Dick Dale’s fast-galloping picking pattern and distinctive “wet” guitar tone, which guitarists produce by cranking up the vibrato and reverb on their vintage amps. The Ritz celebrates the iconic sound with a lineup of surf rock bands from all over the globe, including The Messer Chups from Russia, The Phantom Four from Amsterdam and The Bradipos IV from Caserta, Italy. (ST)

A Jazzy Afternoon
Sun, 2pm, Free
Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park
The extraordinary life of jazz expert Dr. Herbert Wong will be celebrated along with the posthumous publication of his book, Jazz on My Mind: Liner Notes, Anecdotes and Conversations from the 1940s to 2000s. Internationally known for his jazz expertise, Wong started out as a DJ during WWII in the Armed Forces Radio Network. He went on to spin jazz at KJAZ for more than 35 years. Wong also founded the Berkeley Unified School District’s jazz program, Palo Alto Records and Blackhawk Records, where musicians including Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Elvin Jones recorded. Wong passed away in 2014. (ST)

Huey Lewis and the News
Sun, 7:30, $50-$100
Mountain Winery, Saratoga
San Francisco natives and ’80s rock sensations Huey Lewis and the News are returning to Mountain Winery after nearly four decades of success. The band has benefitted from prominent mentions and placement in several well-known films—some of which were clearly tongue-in-cheek. The uninitiated might recognize their contribution to the Back to the Future soundtrack—“The Power of Love”—or the theme song the band penned for Pineapple Express. And of course, there’s the grisly scene in American Psycho, in which protagonist Patrick Bateman kills his colleague with an axe while “Hip to Be Square” plays. (MH)

With almost two months of touring ahead of her on the Warped Tour, Bay Area rapper/vocalist K.Flay has a few favorite summer jams to keep her company during the long hours on the road. She shares her top picks below before the tour stops on her home turf this Saturday at Shoreline.

Look out for K.Flay’s new album Life as a Dog on June 24.

Alex Metric & Jacques Lu Cont feat. Malin – Safe With You
I am literally obsessed with this song. I feel like it’s that rare breed of track that’s uplifting but tinged with a sort of morose energy at the same time. You can dance but also cry. It’s better to dance, though.

Zhu – Faded (Odesza Remix)
If you don’t like this, then something is wrong. Things get pretty great around 1:40.

Lykke Li – No Rest For The Wicked
Lykke Li is one of my favorite artists, period. I love the honesty and emotionality of everything she does. This song is so beautiful and I really appreciate the aesthetic of the album as a whole.

Sales – Chinese New Year
The weird-ass tuning on the guitar made me like this song immediately. There’s something so charming about this band. Maybe that’s a weird word to use, but I just like that their music feels totally sincere. Like, what someone would say to you when you’re lying down in a parking lot.

Phantogram – Black Out Days
The vocal sampling and the melodies on this track are so good. The whole record is incredible — I feel like they’ve developed and progressed so much with the new album.

Punk rock provocateurs Guttermouth won’t be coming to San Jose on March 9, after all, thanks to a booking error with the band. Before the announcement we checked in with singer Mark Adkins to discuss new music in the works, and why he’ll never perform in San Francisco or on the Warped Tour again.

I like the fact that your website says “10 albums later…we’re still punk.” I think it sums up what you do and that you don’t necessarily care what the trend is.

I think when bands change styles, they usually lose more fans than they gain. Bands are known for a certain thing and when they go the opposite direction or a different direction, they’re almost betraying their core fans who they started with.

You did have a brief period in the 2000s where you went a little poppy.

Record labels were throwing around a lot of money so we were taking that. We were catering a little bit, which wasn’t the right thing to do. It was the wrong thing to do. We were so sick of watered down pop-punk stuff that we were just made a trippy record that made no sense. We got a ton of backlash for that, but fans are starting to appreciate it. It’s the whole “10 year later” thing.

That record (2002’s Gusto) just didn’t work and it took a little while to rebuild some faith. It just seemed like at the time that there was so many bands doing the same thing that it was boring to us that we decided to make something a little kookie. We paid the price.

You have a new track called “Together.” Are you working on a new record?

We just want to put out singles. The record industry is what it is, which isn’t much. To release a full record is such a monetary out of pocket thing, I just want to record singles here and there and start releasing those. You can’t even buy hard copies anymore, practically, CDs and whatnot. Kids don’t even know what they are.

We have several more singles planned—just give them away for free and just pop them out on occasion. We are thinking of releasing a song a month. … We’re more a live band than anything. That’s what we do best, play live, so we focus on that more than anything.

Have you been playing a lot of shows in the past five years?

Yeah. We did Japan, Australia and Canada. The Bay Area isn’t too far for us, but it’s a little too politically wound up in the wrong direction. The last time we played San Francisco, we got our tires slashed, all four of them. San Francisco blows. I will never go back there.

What happened?

The mayor had just declared San Francisco a sanctuary city for all illegal aliens. I made a comment about that, criticizing it and they snapped. It’s just too wound up, I don’t understand it. It’s hard to comprehend.

This whole thing about you guys having a reputation for getting banned and offending people, is that exaggerated at all?

There’s been a few incidents, but we don’t try and make things happen. One thing about us is every show is different. We have played with some bands that go through the motions, play the same thing every night, make the same comments every night. It’s just so boring.

We don’t even write a set list. We go on stage and just play off each other, so every night’s different. Sometimes things are said and happen and people get a little uppity. It’s just lots of sarcasm—tongue and cheek sarcasm. Some people take it the wrong way. It’s hard to remember cause I’m drunk, too. Some people take it really serious.

The things that offend people, are they, like the immigration thing, sometimes political?

I got into it for a short time, and just realized, it’s hopeless and there’s nothing I can do single-handedly. It was just hot air and getting me nowhere. Singing in a punk band is not the best way to affect change. It’s not going to work at all. Crass never changed the world did they?

Can I ask about the 2004 Warped Tour? Did you guys get kicked off or did you guys leave on your own?

It was a mutual agreement. There were nine bands who were complaining about us [Yellowcard and My Chemical Romance were two of them] We were mocking them on a regular basis. They would go cry to the boss. That was the Punk Voter year, when all of that was going on, and we didn’t agree with all that. [Guttermouth made pro George W Bush shirts to mock the uniformity of the politics of the other bands] All those complaints and all that political crap going on, we just decided, it was a mutual thing between Kevin Lyman, the owner of Warped Tour, and myself that it would be best if we left. Warped Tour used to work really well for us. Now I don’t even know what’s going on. I read the roster, I don’t recognize one band. We were on the inaugural one in 95.