Shows for all ages seem to be dying out. Sure, you can always go to the Fleet Center and pay exorbitant prices for nosebleed seats, but that’s not a show. A show is standing with your fellow concert-goers, breathing sweat and cigarette smoke, shoving and clamoring to get close to the stage. The Middle East and TT the Bear’s are places where you can catch shows, but they often limit the audience to 18 and older. They have their reasons (ones like the fact that little kids at concerts can be annoying mosquitoes), but younger people often bring energy to shows that is all too often lacking. As people get older, they seem to lose the abandon concerts are supposed to bring out. That or they find it in a bottle.
Enter Bad Religion, who titled their greatest hits record All Ages and played a sold out show with Less Than Jake and Hot Water Music at the Avalon last Thursday. The club was crowded with the usual bystanders at the bar and off to the stage, but instead of the usual mature crowd, the dance floor in front of the stage was packed with young fans- the vast majority under 21, and many under 18. This group was looking for action, and the bands did not disappoint.
Hot Water Music opened the early show (it started at 6:30 in order to clear the floor by 11:00 for clubbing crowd) with some old-fashioned emo. Not the bland, frail diary readings that gets passed off by saps like Dashboard Confessional as music, but loud, screaming, guitar-heavy punk. The lyrics were mostly unintelligible screams above the throbbing bass and slashing guitars, which was probably a plus, given the nature of emo verse. The music was urgent and direct. By the second song, a pit had begun to form. Hot Water Music played for about half-hour, allowing their sound to sink in and be appreciated without stagnating. They did display an interesting ability to stretch out while still maintaining their intensity during later songs, which put them above the average opening act.
After twenty minutes, Less Than Jake ran onstage, and at the first note of “Automatic,” the mass on the floor immediately squashed forward. This was the main ill effect of the all ages aspect — too many damn people. It was difficult to breathe, much less move along with the music. The music itself was fun, but nothing original. If you’ve heard one Less Than Jake song (and if you listened to the radio during the past six years, you have), you’ve basically heard them all — punkish guitars, hyperactive bass, snotty vocals, and a horn section that comes in on the chorus. The main reason the band stands out is its sense of humor, both in its songs and onstage. One song was dedicated “to all the old Boston ska bands — who turned into s****y emo bands!”
Overall, Less Than Jake kept the glut of bodies moving like an unopened can of sardines in the microwave with “Jonny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts” and “History of a Boring Town,” along with fan favorites like “Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore.” Less Than Jake was catchy and amusing, but it makes one wonder what Hot Water Music might have been able to do with 45 minutes.
Bad Religion took nearly 45 minutes to come out, but they were definitely worth the wait. As the opening chords of “Suffer” rang over the floor, the crowd again moved forward, but not into the same cramped blob that could only stumble over itself during Less Than Jake. Actual pits formed and we thrashed along to “Stranger Than Fiction,” singing lines like “Life is the crummiest book I ever read/there isn’t a hook/ just a lot of cheap shots/pictures to shock/ and characters an amateur would never dream up” with vocalist Greg Graffin. Most of the fans knew the lyrics to every song played in the set, giving the floor an almost communal sing-along feel – even as we were slamming into each other.
The band burned through three songs (“Supersonic,” “Prove It” and “Can’t Stop It”) from their latest album The Process of Belief in under four minutes. As in any tour promoting a specific record, songs from TPOB were more prominent than songs from any other one album. Aside from the conspicuously absent albums No Substance and The New America, generally considered the band’s weakest efforts, the rest of the show drew from Bad Religion’s 20-year history; from the almost arena-rock anthem “Along the Way” to their current single “Sorrow.”
The band had a few surprises as well: surprises that ranged from a soft menacing drum and bass only intro to the normally raging “Atomic Garden” to the full-throttle roar of the classic “Generator,” which even stopped the pit with its gorgeous harmonies floating through the swirling guitar chaos from Greg Hetson and Brian Baker.
The show’s other highlight came with an amazing performance of “Skyscraper,” which was dedicated to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Unlike most tribute or appointed tribute songs, “Skyscraper,” which was written nearly ten years ago as an allegory of the biblical Tower of Babel, is full of both sorrow and helpless rage. We sang like a drowning choir, “Come let us make bricks and burn them hard/We’ll build a city, with a tower for the world,” until the final cathartic repetition: “Build me up.”
The set wound down shortly after that, ending with the traditional closing kiss-off, “F**k Armaggedon, This is Hell.” The band jumped back onstage within seconds, though, for a short encore of fan favorites “American Jesus” and “21st Century Digital Boy” and left for good to weary, but wild applause.
Although there were a few stumbles during the set, mainly because the rest of the band hadn’t quite gelled with manic new drummer Brooks Wackerman, Bad Religion’s enthusiasm and exuberance carried the night. Tearing through nearly 30 songs in a little over an hour, they played off the crowd’s energy perfectly, pausing for quick breaths to joke with the audience only to launch into another furious group of songs.
While Hot Water Music might have had youth on their side and Less Than Jake had the smothering fans, Bad Religion connected with the audience on a much deeper level. I came out of the pit tired, bruised and covered in sweat, but also exhilarated in a way I haven’t been from a show in a long time. The youthful audience was a part of it, but it was mainly Bad Religion’s music that reminded me of my excitement when I first started going to concerts. There’s not much more you can ask for from a show.
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