Bad Religion

Strung Out

Saved the best for last. This was round 4 for me of the 30th Anniversary HOB tour and this one was my favorite.  Strung out…Bad Religion…HOB Sunset? Count me in.  I went to this gig with Jennifer, Kelvin, and Anthony.  Strung Out brought in Jennifer and Anthony.  While Kelvin and I are SO fans, we were there even more for BR.

Strung Out played a good show, and had a decent setlist. I enjoyed hearing Velvet Alley the most, but also dug a bunch of the other tunes.  Their shows always reinforce just how much I don’t know their older catalog as well as I know the newer material. The bummer about the SO set was the crowd…the meatheads.  The pit was just vicious with the Beef n’ Cheddar crowd and a couple bloody fights even erupted.  So lame. We stayed out of the pit for SO for that reason, but also Kelvin and Anthony where in good spots toward the front and I just wasn’t feeling like going in with this band. I still enjoyed watching their set and they made a good opener.

Then after the usual half hour intermission came on the Bad Religions, of course opening with Do What You Want.  I was excited for this show and was in and out of the pit the entire set. I ran into my BR buddy Keshav at the show.  The crowd was much improved for BR, so the pit was actually fun and just how it should be for a punk rock show: chaotic, but not stupidly dangerous. Jennifer joined in the pit for the No Control songs and Anthony stayed behind the pit mostly for the show. The block of Process of Belief songs was a nice surprise, those first three songs on that album always get me pumped. They played a very nice setlist and it was just an awesome show.

My thoughts on the whole tour?

I made it to four of the Hollywood shows.  Not too bad considering I live in San Francisco. That’s one of my favorite venues, and hey, with my parents house in LA that makes it easy.

I liked the mix of songs, even if the setlists were a bit predictable and the encores were repeated (I know, I know the process of choosing the setlist considers several factors). It was pretty rad hearing tunes like Marked, The Handshake and Delirium of Disorder live.

Brett only played one of the shows I attended, but hey it was cool having the extra bit of dynamism/depth for the one show.  I don’t consider his absence lacking, but rather his presence a bonus at shows.

Two of the my four shows unfortunately had a high number of meatheads on the floor, but aye, I know that’s a part of the scene.

My favorite shirt worn on stage of the tour has to go to Baker for his Larrydavhead t-shirt. Haha, so good.

Cheers to BR for playing a rad tour, and still looking like they’re having fun every night.  At this rate, I look forward to the next HOB romp in 2012!

BR will be touring the US for new album tour in the Fall. I’ll be there.