The Summer Nationals Tour 2014 | House Blues Boston 8/11
A bunch of old Southern California punks bands from Epitaph Records decided to rip it up like the old days. The Vandals, Pennywise, and the legends themselves, Bad Religion were slotted in as openers, while The Offspring used their headlining spot to play their mainstream breakthrough Smash in its entirety. A lot of true punk fans™ were unhappy with this arrangement as The Offspring has really only remained on the fringes of the scene, and are most famous for their later gimmicky songs, but this was no problem for me. Smash, celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year was one of the first records (technically CDs, I wasn’t that cool of a 9 year old) that I ever bought. Normally I refuse to go to Album Anniversary tours as one of the best parts of shows for me is guessing what’s coming next on the set list, but I made an exception this time to embrace the nostalgia.
The Offspring came out to a modified version of their “Time to Relax” intro before busting into “Nitro (Youth Energy)”, a song good enough to warm up the Boston Bruins, so definitely good enough to get the floor moving. For a Monday night, the sold out crowd was pretty amazing. People thrashed around to songs like “Genocide”, “Something to Believe” and “It’ll Be a Long Time”. We clapped to “Gotta Get Away”, danced to “What Happened to You?”, and enthusiatically screamed out profanities in unison to “Bad Habit”. People were actually so eager to belt out the lyrics to the road rage classic that everyone went too early and had to do it all over again. I guess I wasn’t the only 9 year old who took joy in the line “You stupid dumb shit god damn mother fucker”. They even sold T-shirts with the words.
They didn’t sound like a band that had gotten too old, impressively keeping up the energy provided by the previous three bands. They were looking a little older. And thicker. Let’s just say vocalist Dexter Holland looked a little bit like a blonde Lucille II and leave it at that. But they didn’t play like they had vertigo; a little sloppy at times sure, but hey, this was a punk rock show not the symphony. They held out “Self Esteem” to close the Smash Set, before coming back to play about a half dozen more songs, including a few from their other huge hit album Americana including the title track which they re-opened with and “The Kids Aren’t Alright” with which they closed the night. I’m surprised considering the crowd and bands they were playing with that they didn’t try to work in anything from their earlier stuff (Nothing pre-Smash, although they did play “All I Want” from 1997’s Ixnay on the Hombre). Something like “Session” from Ignition would have been fitting. But there’s only so much time and it was still a solid performance. Let’s not be ungrateful: They could play an entire set of just the ballads and jokey songs that everyone hates but they scatter throughout each new album anyway, but they delivered the goods on this night. It was hard, quick, and satisfying. Only one of which I can say about my nightly performances.
The Vandals played a quick opening set with a bunch of 2 minutes punk songs and plenty of time for making fun of the crowd and shaking their butts at us. It was kinda weird. I honestly couldn’t remember that last time I listened to them but hearing “And Now We Dance” and “Oi to the World” reminded me of the days of those ubiquitous free punk compilations discs. It was a simpler time. Likewise Pennywise otherwise clockwise brought me back to the days of the Warped Tour and circle pits and and fists flying. Songs like “Same Old Story”, “My Own Country”, and the always fun “F*ck Authority (The mystery word is Fuck in case you were wondering. Fuck. Say it. We’re all grown ups here) were just as I remembered. They closed with “Bro Hymn” which was fitting because the bro-iest guys there were definitely Pennywise fans. Maybe because lead singer Jim Lindberg is jacked, pounds his chest with the microphone, and generally looks like someone that might stab you for fun. Or maybe because they’re more angry songs. I really don’t know, but “Bro Hymm” is always fun live anyway because the chorus is “Whoa oh oh ooooooh, oooh oooh oh oh oh”, sing it with me now!
Yes Bad Religion is great. No, check that. They are punk gods. But don’t cry for them because they didn’t get top billing. They once had to open for Blink-182 before Mark, Tom, and Travis (in presence only) made dick and fart jokes for 90 minutes. They’ve been around for 35 years and they probably have bigger problems. Like osteoporosis. Singer Greg Graffin looked like Lucille II’s former beau (god I hate that word) Buster Bluth when I saw them 15 years ago. Now he’s leaning more toward Larry David. But age is irrelevant. Unless you’re like the Stones or something. Those old bastards are cooked. But Bad Religion played like their younger selves (or the guys who used to play in the band in their place), entertaining the audience with songs spanning their vast catalog like “F*** You”, “New America”, “Generator”, “Stranger Than Fiction”, “Supersonic” and “Sorrow”. They closed the set with a spirited version of “Infected” followed by the always great “American Jesus”. That’s what I love about these punks bands. I keep getting older and these songs stay the same age.
Bake
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vivienne westwood glasses…
She paired sculpted jackets with hot pants, and used push-up bras on some of her evening dresses to create exaggerated cleavage that would look right in music videos….
[…] weren’t the first but they may be the last and they still put on a great show. At least they did last year when I saw them. Go see them again yourself before Punk is dead! And I mean it this […]