LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - "The
Battle of the Dueling Lead Guitarists" could have been the title for
Thursday (Jan. 24) night's sold-out/stuffed-to-the-gills
Bad Religion album release show at the Whisky on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
With the return of founding member and Epitaph Records head Brett Gurewitz on guitar and songwriting duties, an amusing element of "who will take lead in this song?" erupted over the course of the 24-song set among Gurewitz, long-time guitarist Greg Hetson, and Gurewitz's 1994 replacement, Brian Baker (ex-Minor Threat). How many viable, innovative punk bands with three guitarists can you think of?
But, Bad Religion pulled it off. The six songs the band played from its newly released album The Process of Belief on Epitaph (Gurewitz's first album with the band since 1994's Stranger Than Fiction) came off without a hitch, as each of the three guitarists had clearly defined parts. The crowd reacted strongly to the new songs, singing along with "Sorrow" and "Supersonic." The set list contained at least one song from every one of the 12 original albums except for 2000's New America.
The band had minimal stage banter between the songs, but instead ripped seamlessly from new song to old song and back to new. Highlights of the evening were the lead guitar mix-up before a searing rendition of "Fuck Armageddon ... This Is Hell," the crowd sing-along during "I Want to Conquer the World," and Graffin's occasional rants about multi-national corporations, the government, and Sparkletts water.
The Whisky show was the first of three Los Angeles club dates before Bad Religion departs for an international tour in support of The Process of Belief. But, more important, the show was the fulfillment of many fans' ardent wish to see Gurewitz back onstage with the influential group. Rumors had been circulating that the riff between Gurewitz and Bad Religion had been breached, when the band formally announced last summer that they had departed from Atlantic Records, would be returning to the Epitaph fold, and that Gurewitz would be writing songs with vocalist and lyricist Graffin once more for a new album. Fans were ecstatic.
The Process of Belief has exceeded fan expectations, as it not only is a return to the strength of the Graffin/Gurewitz songwriting team, but the album expands upon the band's hardcore roots to further explore hard, harmonic punk without falling into flabby, arena rock territory. The fans showed their appreciation at the Whisky by keeping the mosh pit going the whole time, and cheering wildly at the opening guitar riffs for each song. It truly was controlled mayhem.
The Distillers, whose Sing Sing Death House was released on Epitaph last year, opened the Whisky show with growling punk wasabi that cleared out any and all cobwebs. Bad Religion will be touring Europe in February and the United States in March.
