LIVE REVIEW

Bad Religion, Miss Derringer @ House of Blues, Sunsetrip, Los Angeles, CA.

By: Gian Erguiza - April, 2008

Mr. Greg Graffin, lead singer of Bad Religion, let a few songs roll into play before mentioning anything to the capacity crowd at the House of Blues in Hollywood, California. Although not an evasive person, I guess he was just waiting for the right time. Mr. Graffin always has interesting things to say with the knowledge he has and everything he says is pretty much straight on and no bullshit. That’s why I love this guy. He finally muttered on the microphone,” We’ve been playing the Sunset strip for over 20 years and they didn’t want us here and we persisted and now here we are going strong. After all of the hairspray, spandex and whatever else has passed through the strip, we are still here and we are still doing the same thing we’ve always done and that’s to play uncompromised punk rock music the way it should be!” The sold out crowd agreed with a huge response.

His sentiments are all way too correct. I mean where is all the “glam” bands that plagued the strip back in the 80’s? Nowhere near the strip and if they are, not anywhere close to how many people Bad Religion pack in the clubs. Still putting out outstanding records at this point in their career and still out doing most of the bands in the industry, old or new, Bad Religion is a timeless beast that keeps on giving. Standing there listening to them rip through old songs and new ones, it simply amazes me that the energy is still the same and that the attitude is still the same as well. “New Maps of Hell” is just another testament to the band’s success and future. These guys are the real deal and always will be.

I also noticed how many ‘ol skoolers’ were in the crowd showing their support after all these years and it was extremely cool to see how many young kids were in the crowd rockin’ out.

Some of the song highlights for the night were “Los Angeles is burning,” “No Control,” and “Supersonic.” Although all the songs from their set pretty much kicked ass, “Superman” stood out the most and had the best response from the crowd. The other songs that got the crowd riled up and going were “Suffer,” “Punk Rock Song,” “Disease,” and “American Jesus.” I had to pit for American Jesus, it was way too enticing not to knock some heads and bump up some bruises.

Now comes the surprise of the evening. After the supposed last song, the boys came out with acoustics! In rare form I assure you, the boys busted into two tracks that completely calmed the crowd down. It was really cool to see how they managed to put the place in a serene mood after all that intensity which just further proves how good of musicians they really are. I myself have been to a lot of Bad Religion shows and this is something I have never seen them do. It was absolutely off the wall and just amazing!

As soon as they finished, they politely thanked the crowd and went on their way.

I didn’t get a chance to check out the first band because of my typical late arrival due to being typically late all the time. I bet I didn’t miss much though, hopefully. The venue was packed when I got there so they must’ve been somewhat good.

Miss Derringer completely failed to invigorate the crowd. It was bland, boring and god the performance was awful. I don’t mean to slam this band cause they obviously did something right by opening for Bad Religion but they just rubbed me the wrong way. The crowd’s energy came to an abrupt stop when this band came onstage. People went for beers, the conversations were growing louder than the band and nobody was interested whatsoever. Miss Derringer, although attractive as hell, just couldn’t project her voice over the band nor the crowd and commanded no authority which in turn was the downfall of the whole performance. Aside from the makeup being bad ass, the band sounded real good but Miss Derringer, take it from me, you’re going to need much more energy and enthusiasm next time to make me believe that you guys are actual serious musicians. And oh yeah, stop being stiff, project your voice, learn some other dance moves and move it!

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