TSOL, Bad Religion, Youth Brigade and three opening acts played at Day II of the Golden Voice 30th Anniversary show. A full capacity crowd at the legendary venue, Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, for a night reminiscent of an old school SoCal punk rock bill. Several generations of punk enthusiasts gathered for this larger-than-life event presented by legendary rocknroll show producer, Gary Tovar.
The first act was a lousy band called A Pretty Mess. Female-led generic punk that left everyone wanting the headliners as soon as possible. The second worse thing, aside of this, was hearing a Ramones-only soundtrack between bands. A lack of variety that reminded us that definitely, the best was yet to come.
Mystic Records 80s outfit, The Grim, hit the stage for their blend of hardcore surf punk that set the tone for the rest of the night. Fast songs with potent guitar riffs that initiated circle pitters to wreck shit up. Things to highlight were the tallest bass player ever and the lead singer throwing out their entire merch to the crowd.
Sin 34, the female-fronted 80s hc band, came next. Led by singer Julie Lanfeld and drummer Dave Markey (from We Got Power Films fame), they blasted songs from their classic "Do You Feel Safe". It was so good to hear live, a sort of underrated band from that era.
After this, arrived one of the main dishes of the feast, Youth Brigade. 2/3 of The Stern Bros, Shawn and Mark, accompanied by two young guns to play all their classics. "Blown Away", "Modest Proposal", "Men in Blue", "Fight to Unite", "Violence" and they ended their set with singalong classic "Sink with Kalifornja"(in the latter, the remaining Stern brother Adam as well as producer Gary Tovar, join them on stage for the encore).
The main reason for our attendance, TSOL, brought mayhem to the stage with their presence. Lead singer Jack Grisham with a full-face of make up and a suit joined by the other original members: guitar extraordinaire Ron Emory and pounding bass player Mike Roche. Keyboard-player (Greg Kuehn) included, they passed through their classic discography with great taste. Fast punky stuff like "Superficial Love", "World War 3" and "Abolish Government" and horror punk anthems as "Sounds of Laughter", "Silent Scream" and "Wash Away" kick some major ass. Grisham's witty and irreverent talk between songs stand them out as great punkrock performers, a thing musicians in general lack. Their classic necrophiliac tune "Code Blue" ended their round set like a bomb.
Bad Religion closed the fest with an hour-long wall of sound full of their 3 decades repertoire. "Fuck Armageddon, This is Hell", "Do What You Want", "You Are the Government" heated up thousands of kids, old timers and walk ins. Their 3 guitar attack of Hetson (Circle Jerks), Baker (Minor Threat) and Gurewitz (Epitaph Records) was outstanding. Graffin (UCLA professor) and Bentley (original bassist) completed the full five-man front row performance. Songs like "I want to conquer the World", "Modern Man" and "Supersonic" continued the singalong extravaganza. Finally, to time travel to the eighties decade, they played never-before stuff from their first album. This was a great way to end this show because it completely fulfilled the purpose of showing the attendees how was punk rock back in the day. As Gary Tovar said: "Don't ever underestimate the power of Bad Religion".
Post Scriptum: This fest started on Friday with X, Adolescents and Social D. and ends on Sunday with Descendents, Dickies and Vandals.
