Affliction $5 Christmas Show with Danzig – Pennywise – Suicidal Tendencies – TSOL – at The Long Beach Arena – Long Beach, CA

The Long Beach Arena is a huge venue. One might expect to see a band like The Who or the Red Hot Chili Peppers there, but it's definitely not a place where you would picture a Punk show happening. All together the Long Beach Arena actually has well over 13,000 seats and the floor is over 46,000 feet. The Affliction Christmas show was billed as being sold out, which added to the surrealism of the show. However it turned out that there was no plan of getting close to filling up the venue. There was barely anybody sitting in the seats and the floor was not even close to being packed. How this show was considered sold out can only be speculated upon, but regardless it was still weird seeing a Punk show at such a gigantic arena.

As T.S.O.L. were getting ready to start playing vendors were selling popcorn and slush. A group of four decked out punk teenagers were chasing each other looking like little kids at an amusement park. There was a lot of time spent standing around and waiting, but T.S.O.L. finally started playing. They stuck to their faster hardcore stuff and didn't do any songs off "Beneath the Shadows." A decent sized pit broke out while they played songs like "Superficial Love," "Abolish Government," and "Fuck You Tough Guy." The only real change in pace came when they played "The Triangle," which sounded great. Jack Grisham rattled off some typically snide in between song banter, commenting that "The Long Beach Police Department is calling this show 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'" and "If anyone plans on getting arrested tonight the Long Beach facilities are some of the nicest around." The only serious note came when Grisham noted that the show was a benefit for Amnesty International and that they would be making a lot of money that night. As always T.S.O.L.'s set ended with "Code Blue" and as always mayhem ensued.

After some down time a huge Suicidal Tendencies banner lowered behind the stage and Suicidal came out playing "You Can't Bring Me Down." Their set was a mixed bag of material, from classic Suicidal to some of their rapcore songs. At times their set lagged a bit when Mike Muir spent too much time prompting the audience to chant "Suicidal" or "S.T." but the band was sounding pretty on top and it was awesome to see them play "Subliminal," "I Saw Your Mommy," "Possessed To Skate," "I Shot The Devil," and "War Inside My Head." "Institutionalized" was a glaring omission from their set, but they came off as very slick and professional and Muir managed to get the audience pretty worked up with his inspirational speeches.

In August Pennywise's singer, Jim Lindberg announced his resignation from the band and since then Ignite vocalist, Zoli Teglas has been filling in at the shows that they've been playing. While Lindberg has a pretty distinct voice, if anyone would be able to play his part it would be Zoli Teglas as he has perhaps one of the most impressive voices in punk rock. While it's tempting to dismiss Pennywise as a teenybopper band who cater to the Warped Tour demographic, when they play songs like "Living For Today" and "No Reason Why" it's not so easy to overlook them in such a simple manner. Many of their songs are pretty great melodic hardcore tunes in the vein of Gorilla Biscuits or early Bad Religion. Their set gave off a positive vibe and kids really seemed to be having a great time.

Danzig is still completely badass. Some of the stage props were way cheesy but really when it comes to being badass few people can compete with Glenn Danzig who says things like "The day that somebody else tells me what I can and cannot say is the day that I take a gun to my head and then blow out their brains instead of my own." "Twist of Cain" sounded super heavy and "Am I Demon?" was just as intense. Danzig's voice sounded perfect and the audience was singing along furiously for "Long Way Back From Hell." It would not be easy to headline a show as crazy as this one, but the band really pulled it off well. They played for about an hour before Mr. Danzig said "There's a fucking curfew here" and ended the night with "Mother." As mentioned before Danzig is completely badass.

 

 

-Ditch.-
Big Wheel Asst. Editor

 

 
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