By It is hard to imagine punk rock without Bad Religion. Although the band has been around for nearly three decades, Bad Religion shows no signs of slowing down. Unparalleled in success, Bad Religion proves that it still knows how to sell out a show.
Outside the House of Blues in Anaheim on March 21, I was not at all surprised to see a packed crowd anxiously awaiting the arrival of the legendary band. I was surprised, however, at how young the crowd seemed to be. I would not have expected a band that began its career in the 1980s to currently have teenage fans, but I suppose this further proves that Bad Religion’s music is inspirational enough to move teens today as it did more than 20 years ago.
Although they may have aged in appearance, the men of Bad Religion still held the presence of energized teenagers, lighting up the stage. They performed with immense passion, as if time had not passed and they were still in the midst of teenage angst. Greg Hetson and Brett Gurewitz jumped across stage, thrashing their heads about as they strummed their guitars. Greg Graffin thrashed out out lyrics of idealism and hopes of changing the world with such an ardor that it sent chills down my spine.
It’s not difficult to see why the band has maintained such success for such a long period of time. Through its music, Bad Religion inflicts a sense of raw reality of the maladies in the world in a way that shakes listeners to the core. Lost in a world of synthesized pop music and cookie-cutter songwriting, Bad Religion breaks the mold. By touching on subjects of substance, the band intellectually stimulates its audiences. As the band began its performance of “I Want to Conquer the World,” I felt a sense of elation.
It is songs like this that remind me that good music does still exist, even though most of the industry has sold out to mainstream media. Sophisticated and meaningful lyrics set this band apart from other punk bands. This can in great part be attributed to songwriter and lead vocalist Graffin, who received a master’s degree from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Cornell, proving that punk rock music can be deeper than just projections of anti-establishment and teenage angst.
In a fallen world of war and greed, where materialism and aesthetics inhabit our everyday lives, bands like Bad Religion remind us that there is a bigger picture. From the looks of the crowd that swarmed the stage, maybe a band like Bad Religion is what we need right now: to turn us away from the depreciating world, to stir us in a way that most current music cannot.
Although my time spent with Bad Religion was short, it was without a doubt significant. Its music holds something deeper than today’s pop culture can even scratch the surface of. To witness a performance from a band as influential as Bad Religion is an enlightening experience that I will not soon forget.
