10 must see acts on this summer's hottest tour

Punk, emo, rock and hard-core bands will come together once again during this summer's 11th annual Van's Warped Tour, founder Kevin Lyman's rock ’n' roll circus. With endless music options (nearly 100 bands will perform on 10 stages), we've narrowed it down to 10 must-see acts:

THE OFFSPRING
Like last year's headliners Bad Religion, this group has the honor of being the oldest and most well-known band featured on the bill this year. There's no doubt the punk rockers will crank out the singles — along with a new track, “Can't Repeat” — from their greatest hits album released last month.

MXPX
This tattooed and pierced trio have been churning out well-crafted pop-punk tunes long before the new wave of wannabe punk rockers — Yellowcard, Simple Plan, Good Charlotte — took off their training wheels. The 13-year-old band released “Panic,” their latest effort, earlier this month and are sure to crank out newbies this week along with old-school favorites such as “Chick Magnet” and “Punk Rawk Show.”

THE MATCHES
This Oakland, Calif., band is one of the best-kept secrets in music today; their album, “E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals,” continues to be ignored by commercial radio and MTV. The disc is filled with hook-injected, ready-for-radio punk-rock tracks such as rap-pop-punk number “Eryn Smith” and the powerful “Sick Little Suicide.”

ALL-AMERICAN REJECTS
Their sophomore album doesn't drop until July 12, but that won't stop this power-pop band from road testing new tracks such as “Dirty Little Secret,” which is already up on iTunes. Lead singer Tyson Ritter tells Rolling Stone magazine that the new disc features less anguish and more songs about the young band growing up. Fans also can expect old favorites such as “Swing Swing” and “Happy Endings.”

MATCHBOOK ROMANCE
This emo/hard-core group, formerly The Getaway, is on the rise. They graced the cover of Alternative Press earlier this year, and their video for “Promise” was the most-streamed video on MTV.com in early April. They're working on the follow-up to 2003's “Stories and Alibis,” which was produced by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion fame.

MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE
This New Jersey band's dynamic, fist-pumping single “I'm Not Okay (I Promise)” propelled them into rock stardom last year when they released their debut album, “Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge.” The Warped Tour headliners sold out a barrage of dates with their friends The Used, with whom they recorded a stellar cover of the Queen/David Bowie classic “Under Pressure.”

THRICE
Warped tour headliners Thrice — who performed at this year's Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif. — are preparing to release their third album in September. The adrenaline-fueled, melodic hard-core group's song “Artist in the Ambulance,” off the 2003 album of the same name, was a college radio favorite.

MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK
The poppy rock band opened for Rufio at the Bash on Ash (R.I.P.!) a couple of years ago and nearly stole the show with their catchy song, “The Future Freaks Me Out,” off 2003's “I Am the Movie.” The band is back with a new album, “Commit This to Memory.” The disc was produced by Blink 182's Mark Hoppus and its first single, “Everything Is Alright,’’ features Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stumph and Limbeck's Rob MacLean and Patrick Carrie.

THE STARTING LINE
While Alternative Press recently praised this pop-punk group's second full-length album, “Based on a True Story,” Blender pulverized the disc. Go with Alternative Press on this one. The Starting Line have come a long way from “Say It Like You Mean It,” the group's 2002 debut. Look for the band to perform their new single, “Bedroom Talk.”

DROPKICK MURPHYS
The rowdy Irish punk band has been together for nearly a decade and released their latest effort, “The Warrior's Code,” last week. Their live shows are explosive and their crowds are known to sing along almost as loudly as the band plays, which is a show in itself.