Bad Religion / Rock City / Nottingham

Jun 11

Jun 11 Bad Religion / Rock City / Nottingham

The term ‘legends’ gets thrown around far too easily these days, often by me, but tonight we truly are in the presence of transatlantic punk legends. Delayed from 2020 because of Covid, Bad Religion continued their 40th (+2) anniversary tour at Nottingham’s Rock City, supported by UK Subs.

There’s a notable difference in style between the UK and US punk scenes from the 80’s and both of these bands are among the best of their genre. UK Subs were formed in 1976 and are from the earliest wave of UK punk, led by the enigmatic vocalist Chris Harper, a mainstay despite many line up changes through the years, best known for tracks such as You, 21st Century (Digital Boy) and American Jesus.

Bad Religion were formed in Los Angeles California in 1980 and are part of the US wave of punk I grew up on alongside the Dead Kennedy’s and Black Flag, and vocalist Greg Gaffin remains their only remaining founding member. Signing for Epitaph they gained wider acclaim alongside the likes of Green Day, NOFX and Rancid, and their most successful (commercially) albums were “Recipe for Hate” and “Stranger than Fiction”.

A large crowd were in the house tonight for these two bands, and first up UK Subs hit the stage. It’s incredible to think that founding member and driving force Charlie Harper is now 78, as he still struts his punk rebellious attitude around the stage as they started an impressive 40+ minute set, including all their best known tracks including Riot, Stanglehold, Tomorrow’s Girls and Warhead. They were on top form, with Steve Straughaun (guitar) and Alvin Gibbs (bass) oozing punk cool. But the show really belonged to Charlie…. Who came over as an unstoppable force. Somehow you just imagine him stopping and his vocals are still really good. A thoroughly enjoyable set from one of the first and best UK punk bands to grace a stage.

Set List

You Don’t Belong

Rockers

Party in Paris

Endangered Species

Emotional Blackmail

Ice Age

Time and Matter

Down on the Farm

Fear of Girls

Barbie’s Dead

Tomorrow’s Girls

Bitter and Twisted

Warhead

Riot

Stanglehold

Disease

The stage was all set for the arrival of Bad Religion, and they strode onto the stage purposefully before exploding into a great version of Generator (from the album of the same name 1992) which was raucous and lively. With a set list of 26 tracks all eras and albums were covered with classic Bad Relgion tracks Recipe For Hate, Punk Rock Song and perhaps my favourite rack of the night, Los Angeles is Burning (from 2004’s ‘The Empire Strikes First’)being particular stand outs.

Their musicianship was outstanding and Greg Graffin was on top notch form on vocals. Before you could relax, we were hit with a nother group of great US punk classics tracks like You, (1989’s ‘No Control’) Infected (1994’s Stranger than Fiction’), Digital Boy (1990’s ‘Against the Grain’) & American Jesus. American Jesus (from 1993’s amazing album ‘Recipe for Hate’) is my favourite Bad Religion track and what a great performance they gave tonight. These guys have always written exquisitely good punk music, I defy anyone not to enjoy one of these !

And somehow we had got to the last, and 26th track Fuck Armageddon (this is hell) from their 1982 debut album ‘How Could Hell Be Any Worse?’ and what an end to the show ! It’s bass line opening is so iconic before a simple guitar picked line joins in…. you can feel it building, as the cymbols crash into action, the track just explodes into pure early 180’s punk fever ! Memories of listening to Bad Religion, Black Flag and Dead Kennedy’s come flooding back !

With such an iconic back catalogue to choose from, I’m sure some fans went home without favourite being played, but this was an incredibly good show and the guys clearly still LOVE what they do. This is US punk at it’s finest and it has aged like a good wine….. perfectly – Just as powerful today as ever !

It’s just left it 40 years to see Bad Religion play live. Mind you, I believe they’ve only ever come to Nottingham once, back in something like 1984…. So not all my fault lol

Set List

Generator

Recipe for Hate

New Dark Ages

Epiphany

Punk Rock Song

LA Is Burning

Struck a Nerve

Suffer

Come Join Us

End of History

Fuck You