They were arrested outside Warped Tour last year for playing an illegal show. This year, they were invited to play the festival
While the trio that makes up Who Cares is excited to play Warped Tour in Long Beach, frontman Omar Sandlin admits the brief spotlight of their arrest has not changed the band's trajectory by much.
As tens of thousands of people flooded into the streets of Downtown Long Beach after a long day at Warped Tour last year, they were greeted with a guerilla set from an obscure band set up on top of a van in the street. Hundreds gathered ’round to listen to Who Cares — until police showed up and arrested the three members.
Some people said the scene was the most punk thing to happen at the two-day festival. Others said the members instantly became legends for their antics.
This year, the trio won’t have to worry about being rolled by the cops as they received an official invite to play this year’s Warped Tour in Long Beach.
“It’s cool, man,” frontman Omar Sandlin told the Watchdog. “I mean, I grew up fucking going to Warped Tour. Some of my favorite bands that literally got me into rock and roll are playing.”
The morning they were released from the Long Beach jail, the band had a message from Amanda Phelan, a talent buyer for Insomniac Events and Warped Tour, asking them to play all six dates the following year, according to Sandlin.
“We were just getting out of fucking jail. We had all our stuff in plastic bags, the garage doors opening, the first crack of sunlight coming in,” Sandlin recalled. “We’re just trying to find somewhere to sit down and lace our shoes up.”
Bassist Elijah Napuri took his phone out of the bag and powered it on. The band’s Instagram page was flooded with comments and messages. He quickly saw Phelan’s DM.
“It was like a movie,” Sandlin said. “We were jumping up and down.”
The band responded but did not hear back, Sandlin said. Ultimately, with some outside help, the band worked out a deal to play the Long Beach date.
This is the second time crashing a festival has benefitted the band, according to Sandlin. In 2024, the group popped up outside of the Aftershock festival in Sacramento. Last October, months after their Warped Tour arrest, the band played the festival, saying it was “the greatest day of our lives.”
But while being arrested for rocking and rolling illegally last year garnered them some attention and opportunities, it has not curried much favor within the industry, which is hard to break into, Sandlin said.
“I remember being in jail [and thinking] this is either gonna change our fucking lives overnight or make our phones vibrate for a couple days and then we’re gonna go right back to our fucking shitty lives,” Sandlin said, adding that the latter, by and large, has become their reality.
While Aftershock and Warped Tour are the highlights of the band’s career, Sandlin noted that nothing else has come of their arrest — no tour offers, no record deals.
“We’re still on a fucking island,” Sandlin said. “We do this crazy crap and pretty much force our way in, force our seat at a table that we otherwise wouldn’t be sitting at. It feels like we always do it with a gun to their head.”
“It was fun, though,” Sandlin added. “Crashing festivals is fucking fun. It feels like you’re robbing a bank.”
But even their ability to chase that high has been taken away, Sandlin said. Lawyers wanted to slap them with multiple misdemeanors, Sandlin said, adding that prosecutors said the members are a “threat to the community,” that the two older members “endangered” the drummer at the time, who was only 15 years old, and that they “need to be taught a lesson.”
Instead, the judge ruled for judicial diversion, which allows them to avoid criminal conviction if they complete certain conditions, one of which is to not perform any more illegal shows. The members also have to do 10 hours of community service each.
On top of that, the band’s van, which was borrowed from a friend and was filled with all their equipment, was impounded when they were arrested. It cost them around $4,000 to get everything back, according to Sandlin, who said the band had to raise the funds on GoFundMe.
“I’m just trying to be honest about it, it’s no fucking ‘woe is me shit,’” Sandlin said. “It’s awesome we’re playing [Warped Tour] with bands that we grew up listening to on the fucking school bus. It’s just like a rollercoaster.”
Warped Tour Long Beach is scheduled for July 25-26 at the shoreline waterfront. For more information, click here.
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