Posted on Fri, Jul. 11, 2008

Modern-rock fans are no doubt pumped up to see most of the main acts on the Vans Warped Tour -- Angels & Airwaves, Relient K, As I Lay Dying, Every Time I Die, Mayday Parade, to name a few. But no one is more thrilled to be at the concert than one of the bands: A Dream of Reality.

The Coral Springs-based group joined the tour July 3 in Dallas after its manager ''pulled some strings,'' says lead singer AJ (just AJ), and will take the stage at Bicentennial Park sometime Saturday for a 30-minute set (each day's lineup isn't revealed to the acts until 9 a.m. day of show).

''We've been having six-hour-a-day practices for about a month now, making sure everything's perfect and ready to pull the trigger,'' said AJ the week before joining Warped. 'We don't even have lives anymore -- it's like, `Let's just do this band.' ''

A Dream of Reality's sound is a natural for Warped, whose lineup is dominated by hard-rock, nu-metal and thrash.

'A lot of people define us as a `screamo/emo' band, but I like to think of us as just a rock band,'' AJ said. ``We try lots of different things, but also lots of familiar things. Screamo only limits you to so much and emo only limits you to so much, but rock is everything.''

The band's manic stage presence is also tailor-made for the tour.

''We bring lots of energy, lots of crowd participation,'' says AJ. ``I'm one of those guys who likes to be all over the stage at all times. We really like kids to get involved with us -- we have little games we play, we give out candy and toys and stuff like that.

'It's just me and a mike up there, and I just try to stay off the stage as much as possible and in kids' faces. That's my job -- I climb things, I hang upside down from things and I never stop moving. You can't let them lose attention -- if they lose their attention for a second, you've lost them completely.''

AJ thought up the band's name in the eighth grade, but says it didn't mean much until they started finding success.

''I never really put much thought into it -- I just came up with a name,'' he says. ``But now when I think about it, you know, this is our dream, and we're working really hard to make it a reality.''

The group will release its first album, It's Nothing Personal, on Powerline Records Sept. 6. Fans can watch videos of the singles After Dark and Let Me Be the One on YouTube.com.

AJ -- who grew up listening to Dion & The Belmonts, Frank Sinatra and Elvis -- has always pushed the band to offer something different.

''We try to give the audience something they've never seen before, something that died years ago,'' he says. ``Like the time of the Rat Pack. Acts like that used to get the crowd involved, they'd bring people onstage, they'd do each other's songs and stuff like that. Not a lot of bands do that today -- a lot of them are just straightforward, boring, seen-it-all-before, check us out with our long, sweet hair. We're not trying to do that -- we're trying to give people their money's worth.''

Another band that strives to stand out is Gym Class Heroes, whose playful, sample-heavy, hip-hop sound is an aberration among all the raging guitars and shrieking vocals of the typical Warped lineup.

''Whenever we're in a situation where we don't fit in, we squeeze ourselves in,'' says lead singer Travis McCoy, aka MC Schleprok. ``You guys might not have come to see us, but when you leave, we're gonna make sure you've had a good time regardless of whether you're into hip-hop or not. Actually, we don't consider ourselves just a hip-hop band -- I mean, we draw influences from Hall & Oates. We're all over the place, so I think that appeals to a lot of different people.''

Gym Class Heroes is sure to perform its hits -- Cupid's Chokehold, which samples Supertramp's song Breakfast In America (``Take a look at my girlfriend''); and Clothes Off!, which offers an amusing twist on Jermaine Stewart's We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off. But fans will also hear new music from the upcoming album The Quilt, which continues to expand the band's sound.

''We're never sure how well-received our new records will be, but we try to grow as artists,'' says McCoy, who will perform despite an incident at a St. Louis show last week that resulted in his being charged with misdemeanor assault. ``And with this record, we got a club song, we got a song with an island reggae vibe. It just runs the gamut -- that's why it's called The Quilt.''

Two bands on the Warped bill -- Relient K and As I Lay Dying -- stand out for reasons that have nothing to do with music: They're devout Christians. One might think hard-rockers and their fans, with their decadent reputations, might be intolerant, but that doesn't seem to be the case on the Warped Tour.

''That's what we believe in and we love writing about it, but it's like, if you do any other profession and you believe in something, there shouldn't be any clash with the other employees around you,'' says Relient K front man and pianist Matt Thiessen. ``Most times people don't put you down for what you believe in.''

As I Lay Dying singer Tim Lambesis agrees: ``I think sometimes other people might hold something against us because they think of us as a certain way, but once you get to meet everybody on tour, everything's fine. We all get along well.''

What's not so easy to tolerate is bands not knowing until the day of show whether they have to play first or last, especially for singers.

''It's weird with my sleeping schedule,'' says Lambesis. ``Usually I try to be awake at least three hours before we play, but here that's not possible -- I don't generally wake up before 9 a.m.''

Thiessen says the uncertain schedule forces bands to prepare a bit differently than they do for normal gigs.

''I try to make sure I get to bed early enough so that if we are that lucky band that gets to play first thing in the morning, I'm ready for it,'' he says. 'But actually, I think it's really cool because it puts everybody on a level playing field. If you were to find out the night before that you're playing last, you might send out an e-mail saying, `Hey, we're on at 6:30 p.m.,' and if people are only going to see that band, they might show up at 5.''