Sex Pistols, X, Buzzcocks, Bad Religion, etc.
On September 14th, the much-ballyhooed 25th anniversary of punk concert took place in Devore, CA. The show was not an all-inclusive representation, as it boasted no San Francisco or New York bands. Most of the featured bands were from SoCal. and a few British innovators, including the best punk rock band ever, "the antithesis of humankind" (as they were referred to by older Brits in 1977) ... the Sex Pistols.
My friend and I spent a few hours waiting by will call to get our passes. Plenty of time to at least hear the bands on the second stage and see outlines of dust being funneled around later it was revealed there were a few stabbings by the second stage well With bands like the Circle Jerks, TSOL, Adolescents, Distillers playing, you ain't gonna get roses thrown at ya. Every other bus bench in L.A sports an ad for Vandals or Distillers CDs. With the exception of Birmingham, England based GBH, all the second stage bands hailed from Southern California. The parade of T-shirts on incoming fans was mind-boggling! Everything from all the bands who were playing Ramones, X - Ray Spex, the Minutemen, et al. It was a veritable history of punk via outerwear and of course, there were the requisite Sid Vicious lookalikes to boot. (No Nancy lookalikes, though, thank God...)
By the time we got to the lawn, to hear Captain Sensible say something about wanting to shag some Britney clones with free tics. I'm sure! I could almost hear them retort. X played a short, ragged set that wasn't up to their usual high standards. The fact that they were playing so early in the day was confusing enough, and the generic sound system didn't help.
The Buzzcocks played next - I had forgotten how good their songs were. Their sound is unmistakably a precursor to what we name-tag "pop-punk" today. But their music is intelligent and stylized, unlike many of the younger bands trading in the genre. New Found Glory and Blink 182 were two bands that definitely did not belong on the bill with real punk bands. Their music is neither pop nor punk, it's just sing-songy froth that a Britney Spears/N'Sync fan would find cutting edge or risqué. Blink especially got it bad, as they played after Pennywise practically incited the crowd to riot. And who was stationed outside the lawn mosh pit during this time -- yours truly, always one to seek out adventure. A nice moment occurred when the Pennywise,(hardcore hell-raisers from Hermosa Beach) played snippets of Ramones songs and dedicated it to Deedee and Johnny. The free booklet that was given out to concert-goers was dedicated to the spirit of Joey and DeeDee Ramone.
