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Fun Fun Fun Fest review: Bad Religion
Mark Nov. 6, 2010 down as the day costumed shock rockers Gwar managed to make a bigger political statement than Bad Religion. Sure, the “statement” involved impaling a stand-in of Sarah Palin and assuring the mass of fake-blood covered fans in front of the black stage that there would now be no chance of Palin ever becoming president, but it made more of an impression than the by-the-numbers hour or so the L.A. punk vets rolled out immediately afterward.
With Gwar’s smoke still lingering in the air from the adjacent stage, lead singer Greg Graffin and company meandered out and uncorked a heaping helping of the indignant, anthemic songs they’ve produced like clockwork for 30 years. If you’re a Bad Religion true believer - grew up with a skateboard welded to your foot, once owned three different Ronald Reagan-as-Bozo The Clown Tshirts, may or may not still have blue hair dye in a drawer somewhere - then this was the elixir of life, delivered with as much potency as a kinda-muddy sound mix would allow. Graffin’s still in great yelling voice, guitarist Greg Hetson is a human spark plug-pogo stick hybrid who draws eyeballs to him and the tunes new and old are an appropriate grab bag of warning of today’s dangers and lamenting lots of blown yesterdays.
Thing is, that’s a lot to take if the entire band isn’t hard-wired into the night and lots of times Graffin seemed to be putting in an appearance, and that the show was an add-on to his book signing earlier in the day for his new tome “Anarchy Evolution.” So while straight-up shout-out classics like “American Jesus,” “Infected,” and “Suffer,” can get by at three-quarters intensity, a newer song like “Only Rain” or “New Dark Ages” seemed listless, especially with MGMT apparently borrowing Pink Floyd’s effects show for the undeniable hit “Kids” within eyes and ears distance over on the orange stage.
The end result of all this? Probably the most consistently strident political band of a generation staying mum and pretty much going through the motions less than a week after Republicans and Tea Party candidates ravaged the political landscape, while an extreme metal band wearing giant costume genitals stoked loud outrage over the state of the nation. I’d have never expected such a thing going in, and if I weren’t there in person to witness it I’d have called you a liar after the fact.
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