Play main stage at Warped Tour '25

But we don't know how to become a band that can win! - Then watch this new doc about Led Zep

Forget just attending the show. Perform on the main stage like a boss at the show! How?

Get warped, Man, and wear Vans to skate.

While many punk rockers are excited about the resuscitated Vans Warped Tour returning this summer (2025), the touring festival’s highly anticipated comeback has spurred another iconic event to follow suit. Welcome back the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands for 2025!

Over the years, the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands has often provided emerging talent with a platform to further their careers and acts such as Nothing More, Mayday Parade, PVRIS, James Valentine, and others have benefitted from taking part in Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands competitions before finding greater fame.

Ernie Ball 'Battle of the Bands' returns

I would totally fall for someone in a band 💖

Tying in with the Vans Warped Tour’s return, the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands competition will be back for 2025 with one band eventually being selected to perform on the main stage of Vans Warped Tour at all three of the 2025 stops in Washington, D.C., Long Beach (Los Angeles/Orange County), and Orlando, Florida.

• 25 rock + metal bands you might not know but will in 2025, maybe even including your own Two Cents and the Shy Boy (or whatever dumb@$$ name you come up for yourselves)

And that's just the beginning of what the winner will receive. There are over $100,000 in prizes and the potential for a record label contract on the line.

Live Nation and Kevin Lyman envision new format. - Rolling Stone writes an article about it.

About the Prizes + Contract

You don't have to look like a dipsh*t, but it helps. Just ask Post or poseur Travis Kardashian.

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FTW. Let's start a new life as hedonistic rockers

The 2025 Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands winner has an incredible prize pool for taking home top honors. Some of the items include:

• High-end guitar and bass gear from Ernie Ball, Ernie Ball Music Man, Sterling By Music Man, Marshall, Orange, Revv, Galien Krueger, and BOSS
• Top-tier drum equipment from SJC, Gibraltar, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Remo, and Humes & Berg
• Keyboard equipment from Roland and Korg
• Live and Studio equipment from Universal Audio, Electrovoice, Mackie, and Sennheiser
• A $1,000 Vans gift card for each main stage performer
• A feature in an episode of the Ernie Ball's Big Sound

In addition, one grand prize winner will have the chance to sign a record deal with EDGEOUT Records/Universal Music Group.

That’s a pretty great haul for an unsigned group looking for one of their first big breaks. If your band or you think you have what it takes, go ahead and sign up to compete for the Vans Warped Tour slot.

• ENTER: battleofthebands.com

Danger! It's all fun and games till someone gets hurt. - Kevin Lyman, who's going to be playing?

How to enter

Submissions are now open at battleofthebands.com and will run through May 1, 2025. A panel of industry pros will judge entries based on technique, creativity, originality, and entertainment value — but fan support matters, too!

I listen to so much music that I can create some.

Advice on winning

We're not that good yet, but we came up with this claptrap "Dazed and Confused" by not worrying

Man, why not me? I should just go for it.

Rally a [social media] crew, spread the word, and let the votes roll in! [What do those things mean? A) Tell your mom to tell her friends on Facebook. B) Listen to lots of eclectic, obscure, and popular bands for inspiration because YOU will be a blend of all of those. C) Imagine you're totally original, unique, and the Greek Gods' gift to the audience. How? If Ghostemane can believe in himself, then you can get delusional about your chances of stealing the spotlight for attention. It's as easy as ABC. It helps to be very troubled.]

• Chad Childers, Loudwire via MSN, Feb. 2025, Warped Tour Comeback Spurs Another Iconic Return; Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Sheldon S., Crystal Q. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

FILM REVIEW: Becoming Led Zeppelin

Becoming Led Zeppelin (Sony)

We saw it on an IMAX screen, sitting in the front row heads cranked up to take in the whole screen, for it to be in our faces and extra loud. And that it was. It's good, really good. It's no The Song Remains the Same, which is the first Led Zeppelin movie, a filmed concert at Madison Square Garden, New York, in the 1970s with the conceit of introducing them as legendary, bigger-than-life figures, particularly Page, who lived in a castle... More