It's hot. You're sweaty. Dozens of bands are showing off their raw skills on more than ten stages. A plethora of teenagers and young adults, wearing their punk-or-nothing personas, surround you. A ministry of radio stations has staked out their own spots within the vast parking lot to distribute their hope, wisdom, and free swag to the fastest growing consumer age market in the world.

It's the only place where a reclusive Misfits fanatic, a Hollister-clad, tennis-playing prima donna and a forty-something business owner with a passion for up-and-coming music can join forces to become one of the most sought-after audiences in the nation. Where are you? You're at Vans Warped Tour 2006!!!

Yes, most of the concert-goers were about five years younger than my sidekick Aaron and me, and yes, it was hotter than Al Roker's armpit in a wool sweater in July, but it all comes with the territory. The July 29th Detroit date for Warped Tour brought out droves of fans, and with good reason. The tour itself has expanded over the past 11 years, showcasing talent since 1995 and this year boasting more than 100 bands. In Detroit, the Comerica Stadium parking lot caged thousands of spectators, with stages lining the pavement.

Woven throughout the crowd, various booths offered everything from anti-smoking information to autograph signings from one of the performing acts. Each band's merchandise tent filled the halls inside Comerica Park, where foot traffic was treacherous to say the least. Fans could take a load off in the shade on stadium seats that normally make room for Detroit Tigers fans' butts. There was never a lack of something to do, or see, or hear, and although it was a bit unorganized, it worked.

Or at least, mostly it did; my one complaint is that I couldn't find one of the stages. At all. I troved through the entire lot and simply never found it, hence missing one of the acts I'd planned to cover. I did have a little chart of which band played when on what stage, but that's only because I was a member of the media; and I did see a huge billboard-type wall half-slated with showtimes and stages, but if I were a regular concert-goer, I would be pissed not knowing exactly where the bands I wanted to see were playing, and at what time.

Only a couple of the stages were marked clearly with their stage names, and there was no map to the locations of these stages at all, so it was pretty time-consuming just finding where you wanted to go. It all seemed as though it had been hammered together that morning, but that was honestly the only major downfall I could find. Of course I got sick of the eighth-grade girls and sweaty, shirtless punk boy-men, but like I said, it comes with the territory.