Bad Religion, Astoria, London
It may be hard to believe, but there used to be downsides to living in the second largest county in the country, Lincolnshire. It may well be basking in history and full of fertile farming land, but nobody, and I mean nobody, used to play live shows there. As a result, I never got the chance to see one of my favourite punk rock bands, Bad Religion, when I was a lad. In fact I interviewed them before I saw them live! Every time they toured it was London or Manchester and they were just out of my reach. Thankfully, I now reside in the nation’s capital city and with Bad Religion back in the country to promote their forthcoming album ‘The Empire Strikes First’ I jumped at the chance of seeing the band at the Astoria.
Now due to Saturday nights at the Astoria being home to the G.A.Y. night, the gig was quite an early start. Subsequently my dash across London after work resulted in me missing both the support acts, Fireapple Red and Randy. In all honesty though, I’ve seen both of them before, I was only there for the main act. When I arrived the venue was as full as I’ve seen it, both upstairs and down. The atmosphere was building to fever pitch and there was a nice mix of people there – if there’s a band that can bring ‘all ages’ together its certainly this one.
Bad Religion entered a stage swathed in darkness and launched straight into the timeless ‘Fuck Armageddon, This is hell’. Greg G’s vocals were too low to begin with but it thankfully wasn’t long before his distinctive style could be heard throughout the venue. The one fact that I was most impressed with from the opening barrage of ‘No Control’ ‘Kyoto Now’ and ‘Supersonic’ was just how tight this outfit are. The decades of touring have not worn them down and they are a very explosive live act. This was summed up nicely by the energetic performances of the individual band members, particularly Greg H. We were also treated to some relaxed on stage banter with topics ranging from Bush and Blair to London’s world famous phone boxes.
The set was full of classics, mixed in with some beefy sounding numbers from ‘Process of Belief’ and brand new tracks from their forthcoming album. Now unlike 90% of the population I’ve refrained from downloading ‘The Empire Strikes First’, so it was nice to hear some strong new material. ‘Sinister Rouge and ‘Gods Love’ were two tracks that went down especially well. However, being a fan for some time, it was hearing great renditions of songs like ‘21st century digital boy’, ‘Generator’ and ‘Atomic Garden’ that brought the biggest smile to my face. The overall level of this gig was probably best summed up by the superb encore. Finishing with the triple whammy of ‘Along The Way’, ‘Punk Rock Song’ and ‘American Jesus’ was a stunning way to end well over an hours worth of entertainment. The band played nearly 30 songs, and whilst they didn’t play everything they could have done, it was a very impressive set list.
Ticket to show: £16, tube fare: £4, seeing one of your favourite bands for the first time producing a near-faultless set: priceless.
Mark
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