With the threat of rain being traded for reports of a hot and sunny New Jersey Monday, I headed for the parking lot at Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ, armed with the necessities to cover the 2008 Van's Warped Tour.

I had my SPF 50 sunscreen, camera bag, digital recorder (for interviews), and most importantly a 15-year-old Sherpa--my son Hunter--to help me navigate my way across the vast territory occupied by dozens and dozens of acts giving their all on multiple stages for nearly 10 hours.

After 13 years at bringing this vast smorgasbord of music, Warped founder Kevin Lyman appeared laid back as he sat for interviews, hosted friends in his VIP tent, and pedaled around between the tour busses on a beat-up old Schwinn bike. With the tour hitting central Jersey a couple of days past its mid point, everybody involved, including some of the recently added acts, were pumped to fire up the thousands of mostly teens, and a few hundred parents who braved the scene to see what all the fuss was about.

The day was a blur of activity between interviews and going head-to-head with multiple crowd surfers being sucked into the pits by the many security guards who had their work cut out for them most of the day. In fact, besides the many bands and support personnel putting on the music, security, police, fire and EMS crews were the real heroes of this and I'm sure most of the Warped tour stops.

By the time All Time Low [ tickets ]--one of the day's standouts--hit the Hurley Stage at around 2:30 p.m., the body count began mounting between kids passing out from the heat, and others getting hurt surfing or whacked by thrown bottles, cans and various pieces of clothing--including some pretty heavy footwear.

One of the bigger names to go on early in the day was Canton, OH's Relient K [ tickets ], tickling the growing throng of fans with their lush harmonies and sometimes-quirky songwriting. "Devastation and Reform" was a highlight with John Schneck and Ethan Luck trading off between glockenspiel and drums.

A couple of hours later, the pair discussed their newest project, "The Bird and the Bee Sides," a compilation of hard to find cuts and alternate versions spanning the band's decade-long career.

"It's not as much a new Relient K record as much as it was a bunch of songs we had that we felt we really needed to be packaged for Relient K fans," Schneck said.

"Most of the songs are mellow, and I've got a reggae tune on it that I wrote and played all the instruments on," Luck added.

Chatting with Jeff Turner from Say Anything [ tickets ] about his favorite part of playing his first Warped Tour, he said he liked meeting the band's youngest fans. Turner recalled being a shy pre-teen coming to the show as a fan and being intimidated to approach his favorite bands during signing sessions.

"I've literally been in the exact same position," he said. "Back in '96, me and my brother came to Warped for the first time. So, doing the signings and having these nine-year-old kids coming up, it's important to be nice to them. It helped me, so I want to do it for them."

A few minutes later Say Anything was cranking out crowd favorites, including "Alive with The Glory of Love" and "Shiska (Girlfriend)," as front man and primary songwriter Max Bemis poured on the energy.

For Cobra Starship [ tickets ] bassist Alejandro 'Alex' Suarez, it's been the best summer ever. He said the band has been touring on their latest offering, "Viva La Cobra!," for almost a year and was happy to be breaking out some deeper tracks from the project on Warped.

Once they hit the main stage a few hours later, Cobra Starship was positively electric, riveting one of the biggest crowds of the day with what many of the fans raved about as the best set at Englishtown. The band romped through the abbreviated Warped set delivering "The Church of Hot Addiction," "Guilty Pleasure" and "The City is at War."

New Jersey native Charlotte Sometimes [ tickets ] said she's recently acquiesced primary songwriting duties, and was psyched to be sharing the credits with keyboardist and singer Coley O'Toole. The band was also celebrating the completion of their first video project.

"In the video, Charlotte is poisoning the main [male] character with apples ," O'Toole said.

"I'm very much into the whole TV show 'Bewitched,' so I made sure that was incorporated into the video," Charlotte added. "It has an interesting look to it and I love the way it came out."

In between bands, fans checked out the midway atmosphere that included too many product booths to mention, met bands at the many kiosks on the midway, and even did some skateboarding on the Van's half pipe.

Another Warped alum, TAT, was attracting passersby to the Ernie Ball stage with their unique brand of decidedly British punk. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Tatiana DeMaria worked her magic while bassist Nick Kent and drummer Jake Reed laid down the beat and the bottom end. One of their earliest singles, "Champaign Cocaine and Strawberries," positively rocked the crowd, helping to draw more than a hundred clamoring new devotees to their CD-signing session.

With their new release just a few weeks away, London-based TAT was pumped up to be heading out to open for Alice Cooper for a few Midwestern dates. But they paid tribute to Lyman, who helped launch the act on two former Warped Tours.

"Yeah, we're still spongin' off Kevin Lyman," DeMaria said. "He's been treatin' us, but Kevin and Fat Mike have really, really helped this band."

Back on the two main stages, with the sun setting over the horizon, two of the final acts of the day--Gym Class Heroes, and Tom DeLonge's Angels & Airwaves [ tickets ]--each worked their fans into a frenzy. At one point, singer Travis McCoy sent some love out to Barack Obama before leading the crowd in flipping the bird to the current administration and wrapping their set with "Clothes Off."

Angels & Airwaves, on the other hand, got the kids singing along to "Secret Crowds," from their sophomore offering "I-Empire."

One of the other top attractions at the Englishtown Warped show was Against Me! [ tickets ] That act seemed to draw the most mature crowd, with plenty of 20-somethings crowding the rail to help carry the surfers and singing along with tunes like "Thrash Unreal," "Stop" and "Don't Lose Touch."

Warped 2008 continues meandering through the Midwest, Canada, and out to the left coast through Aug. 17, when it wraps up Carson, CA.