GV30 – Descendents – Black Flag – The Vandals – The Dickies – Ill Repute – Shattered Faith – Love Canal – 30 Years of Goldenvoice at The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium – Santa Monica, CA

The final night of the 3 day long celebration known has GV30 came to a stellar end tonight after performances from legendary punk acts and one surprise guest! Opening the show were long time locals Love Canal who‘ve added their flavor to the Punk scene for years.

They opened the show with the track “Friends” and went on to play “Leave me Alone” “Rotten Ones” and the gnarly track “Suicide Train”. The openers served up a Punk rock platter of songs that filled the venue with fierce energy and kept the pit and crowd surfers busy. That same energy would carry on into the following sets from the main headliners.

Orange County legends Shattered Faith played a very quick and blistering set as well which featured the tracks “Verdict”, “Trilogy”, “I Love America” and closed their set with “Right is Right”. Their short yet straight the point sets were a classic of example of how Punk rock in California started, very raw and in your face. It was welcomed by all in attendance.

After Shattered Faith, prominent Nardcore group Ill Repute performed and opened up with "Sleepwalking". In the beginning of their set, the pit was large, but few people were actually inside. As time passed, more people were dancing, moshing, and chanting along to songs such as "Clean Cut American Kid" and "Look at Me". To conclude their energetic 25 minute set, Ill Repute played two of their biggest hits, "Cherokee Nation" and "Oxnard", causing serious chaos in the pit.

The Dickies took the stage before a packed house and stirred things up as their ultra bouncy attack of pogo friendly punk mania rocked the masses. Their set included all their fan favorite hit’s the band could fit in their hour long set. Tracks hailing from “The Incredible Shrinking Dickies”, “Nights in White Satin”, and “Stukas over Disneyland” were all the jazz as the band stormed through them with such positive energy.

As always there were campy stage props brought on set like a penis puppet for "If Stuart Could Talk", a snorkel and blow up doll during "Waterslide" and a gorilla mask for "Your Drive Me Ape (You Big Gorilla)". Better than any stage prop was the bringing out of the Dead Kennedys East Bay Ray who joined The Dickies on stage for a rendition of Black Sabbaths “Paranoid”. That may have not been the last track of the night performed by The Dickies, but it sure was the highlight of their very energetic set.

Up next were Huntington Beach’s very own Vandals, a band who’ve over the years played a huge role in southern California punk rock. Their quirky attack of classic gems like “Pirates Life”, “Urban Struggle” and “Wannabe Manor” sent the crowd into an uproar and kept the circle pit going strong song after song. They even mentioned TSOL and played “Superficial Love” for about 20 seconds, who does that?! Their Christmas jingle “Oi to the world” went over with a bang as the holiday spirited crowd sang along and fist pumped to every Oi! Dave Quackenbush shouted. Their set concluded with guitarist Warren taking over on vocals as he led the band into a hilarious version of the Simpletone's  “I have a Date” It may have been the greatest moment of their set.

As hinted at in the previous night, it was rumored there would be a special guest taking the stage before The Descendents, all guesses pointed to Black Flag as ex members were all in attendance Sunday night. The rumor mill proved to be quite accurate as Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson and Stephen Eggerton slammed right into a few Black Flag songs that sent the place into a state of mayhem. Keith Morris sang with an intensity twice as in your face than anything he’s done with The Circle Jerks in years.

   Here is video of what you missed

The floor split in 2 as the circle pit exceeded the previous nights size and shape. The set was short and sweet and over before anyone knew it, unfortunately many took that as a que to heckle the band despite them not even being on the bill. For shame! Keith came out to explain to the ungrateful crowd that the band only had time to rehearse during the sound check earlier and thus could only play a few songs. It was great unexpected treat.

The grand finale of the night was a headlining slot by none other than The Descendents who have been enjoying their biggest year as a band ever. It may have been their 3rd local performance of the year but that didn’t keep fans from coming back as the floor remained jammed with fans pushing their way up to the stage. Unfortunately for everyone there seemed to be a number of technical difficulties marring their set from the get go. Fucked up guitar gear, screwy bass heads and bad sound slightly interfered with The Descendents, but it wasn’t enough to stop them or really slow them down for more than a few minutes, the right energy remained.

For this special show Milo Aukerman brought out children on stage to read from a biblical like tablet much to the pleasure of everyone during the song “All -o- Gistics”, it was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before! There was plenty of crowd interaction was Milo went into the crowd during “I’m not a loser”; once again the songs lyrics were changed to please the politically correct bunch in the crowd.

   Here is video of what you missed

The band continued through their set with a number of fan favorites and were welcomed back for an encore to play “Sour Grapes”, by now their amps had been switched and they were firing on all musical cylinders. The Descendents set was a gas and as it ended all one could really feel was stoked to have witnessed such an epic punk rock concert at a legendary venue. 3 nights of celebrating 30 years of Punk productions through Goldenvoice and not one gnarly police brutality scene or fracas in the crowd.

Having observed through out the 3 night stand, I fear that these concerts were not filmed professionally by any of the Goldenvoice staff, and if that’s the case what a bummer as there were many awesome moments that deserve to have been captured to film. However it seems though that because the event was a success there will be another Goldenvoice or Gary Tovar produced punk concert sometime next year. Someone may have hinted at June 2012. Who will play, The Adicts, Suicidal Tendencies, Circle Jerks, 7 seconds? We cant wait to find out next year!

 

Here is a high five to the good people who put on this great production. There isn’t anyone doing it better in LA than Goldenvoice. Thank you for years of excellence!

-Louie Bones-
Big Wheel Staff Reporter

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 

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