This year’s Warped Tour contained a political fervor unlike any Warped Tour in recent years.

The punk rock music fest, held Tuesday at Germain Amphitheater, was laced with traditional power chords and teen angst lyrics. Still, someone in nearly every band made a political statement about the upcoming Presidential election. None seemed to favor President Bush.

Even band leaders from foreign countries, such as Sweden’s The (International) Noise Conspiracy and Ireland’s Flogging Molly, asked the crowd to vote against Bush in November.

Still, some band members opted to avoid political discussion altogether.

“I’m not very political,” said Warren Fitzgerald, guitarist for The Vandals.

In addition, vendors selling band merchandise handed out flyers comparing Bush to Democratic nominee John Kerry. One booth was sponsored by the website punkvoter.com, which encouraged concert attendants to register to vote.

The political atmosphere seems to reflect a trend in punk music in general. Some punk bands are reorienting themselves away from general political and social disgust and focusing more specifically on the Bush administration. Two albums released this year, NOFX’s “War On Errorism” and Bad Religion’s “The Empire Strikes First,” are examples of this trend. “Fat” Mike Burkett, bassist and lead singer for NOFX, is the founder of punkvoter.com, according to the website.

Yet the political slant was not the only difference in this year’s tour. Noticeably absent were any relatively high profile ska bands, such as Reel Big Fish or Less Than Jake. Also, the main stage seemed to hold more pop-punk radio and MTV bands than in previous years.

Even so, the customary features were still there. Roughly 80 bands performed half-hour sets on 10 stages. There were skateboarding demonstrations, video games and vendors hawking band merchandise.

The headlining bands were nearly all veterans of the 10-year-old tour, including The Vandals, Bouncing Souls, Anti-Flag, Bad Religion and Good Charlotte, among others.

Warren Fitzgerald, guitarist for The Vandals, said playing Warped Tour is a unique experience, because his day has to be structured around one half hour set. Yet, he prefers playing Warped Tour over a separate, headline show for The Vandals.

“We’ve been in a band touring for a long time,” Fitzgerald said. “You can only do so much of it before you lose your marbles.”

He didn’t seem to mind that more main-stream bands are present on the main stage.

“There’s musical aspects, generational aspects and success aspects,” he said. “I think that’s a positive thing. It’s always been diverse.”

He noted that many successful bands gained popularity by performing at Warped Tour, naming No Doubt and Sublime as early examples.

“In a weird way, it kind of encapsulates the youth of music,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald cited Billy Talent and Avenged Sevenfold as two lesser-known acts that seem to be doing well this year.

Both acts performed in Columbus Tuesday. Other highlights peppered the event as well. The (International) Noise Conspiracy invited Rancid guitarists Lars Frederickson and Tim Armstrong on stage to finish the set with a crowd-pleasing rendition of Rancid’s “Olympia, WA.”

At the end of the day, members of NOFX, Bad Religion and other big-name bands got together for “Punk Rock Karaoke,” in which they invited members of the audience onto the stage to sing early punk classics.

Fitzgerald said such friendships are an important part of Warped Tour.

“It’s a fun tour with a lot of fun people – people we’ve known forever,” he said.

Indeed, despite the politics present this year, it is the fellowship and the music that keeps both fans and musicians returning to Warped Tour.