Bad Religion 10/5/07 at House of Blues

Friday night I went to House of Blues for the second week in a row, this time it was to see Bad Religion. I saw them play in the summer at the Warped Tour but I really wanted to see them under more normal circumstances and also with them having a longer time to play.

The Briggs

The Briggs

The Briggs

The Briggs

I got there plenty early this time and met up with Lew. We found a pretty decent spot to watch the show from since most of the crowd had not yet arrived. About an hour later the curtains opened and The Briggs started playing. They were a four piece band that played a really energetic and melodic style of punk complete with lots and lots of “whoa oh ohhs”). They two guitar players and the bass player all shared vocal duties so the lead vocals varied depending on the song. They also traded places a lot and were moving all over the stage. The got a pretty warm reception from the crowd too and the half hour or so that they played seemed to go by very quickly.

Gallows

Gallows

Gallows

Gallows were second. They played a really aggressive style of hardcore and they seemed to have a lot of fans in the audience. The kids were excited for them. They got a much bigger crowd reaction and crowd movement for their own songs than they did when they did a Black Flag cover. That should tell them something.

Bad Religion

Bad Religion

After a bit of a lengthy delay, Bad Religion finally took the stage. The crowd had been growing a little imapatient (and full, that place was pretty packed) by this point so when the curtains opened, the crowd roared really loud with approval. Bad Religion wasted no time at all getting to work and as soon as they started their first song, I started watching my back for any crowd surfers who might be flipped into the barricade up front where I was shooting for the first few songs.

Bad Religion

Bad Religion

And flip up there they did, but not as often as some shows I’ve been to recently. That didn’t mean the crowd weren’t going crazy because they were. There was crowd surfing and moshing galore and plenty of people singing along to the more popular songs. Between songs like “21st Century Digital Boy”, “Atomic Garden”, “New Dark Ages” and more, the band would joke around with the crowd, tell stories and were just having a lot of fun. No one in that band really ever stopped smiling and it came across pretty clearly they weren’t just going through the motions and they were really having fun up there.

Bad Religion

Bad Religion

At one point they played a song they said they had only played live for the first time the night before, I am pretty sure it was “Dearly Beloved”. Well they must have ironed out the kinks the first night because it sounded like they had been playing it live for a long time. They ended their set with “American Jesus” much to the delight of everyone in attendance.

A few minutes later they came out for a three song encore that included “We’re Only Going to Die” and closed with “Infected”. Their total set time was about an hour and 15 minutes and the crowd still wished there was more! It was a performance that was easily twice as good as their Warped Tour outing, which was also very good. I’d definitely go see them again, even if they didn’t play either one of my two favorite songs; “Bad Religion” and “In the Night”.

Additional photos can be viewed on my flickr stream.