My Punk Rock Evening, 2/1/07

It's been a while since I've been to a punk show. Even longer since I've really been a punk. But last night I got a whiff of nostalgia, mostly in the form of my friend, Brian's old, pot-infused, Jack Daniels-soaked, Ford Bronco on the 20 minute ride to see Ignite, Circle Jerks, and Pennywise play at the House of Blues on Sunset.

Brian, myself, and 3 others met up in Studio City, after much bad planning and long waiting, so we could carpool over the hill into Hollywood.

"Whose car are we taking?" I asked.

"Well, I wanna get drunk, so we should take my car," offers Brian, without hesitation.

It didn't sound like a good idea to me, but maybe I'm just square. It turns out his logic was that because he wanted to drink Jack and get high on the way to the show, his car, the already beat-up one, should take those punches, while someone else drives it. That was good enough for me!

The other Brian, henceforth known by last name only, Bensi, picked up the driver's seat, leaving 3 of us quart-sized people in a backseat made for 2 pint-sizers. After clearing away the Penthouse and Hustler magazines, as well as one particularly pungent old sweater, we were able to hop over the baseball bat wedged between the driver's door and seat and fall gracelessly into our loveseat for three.

The music starts: Pennywise's About Time blasting off a disc as worn as the car. It scratched and stuttered through distorted speakers, but at least it was loud enough to hear through all that. Then, as soon as we start up Laurel Canyon, the gas light blinks on. Brian insists we can make it, and why not? It's only a few miles, really. And sure enough, as soon as we crest the hill the attitudinally sensitive gas light flicks back off.

Meanwhile, another light is flickering on and off - that of the disposable BIC igniting a pot-filled pipe. Neither of the two full windows in the car work, so the only ventilation the non-smokers get comes from the cracked open rear windowlettes, just enough to keep it from being an official hotbox. I doubt this accomplishes anything.

And the show? Sure, the show was cool too. Ignite was wonderful, as was their mosh pit. They sure have come a long way since seeing them 6 years ago as caterwauling openers for Bad Religion. Circle Jerks, as always, were fun to no end. They are definitely meant to be a live band - no recording medium could capture that kind of humor and energy. Also, to my delight, they closed with a couple of Black Flag songs, which makes sense considering the singer, Keith Morris, used to sing for them, back before they found Henry Rollins.

Pennywise, the headliners, were the weakest point of the show. The energy they produced was nowhere near the level of the previous two bands, even though the fans tried to make up for it on the floor. The highlight of their set was when they asked Bad Religion, who just happened to be hanging out backstage, to come out to play a couple songs, which the audience received with twice the enthusiasm given to any Pennywise tune. It seems like the fans burned themselves out, because once Pennywise took the stage again, the energy was almost gone. Sweaty beasts were stumbling around the pit, not in a cathartic rage, but more like in a long haul cattle drive. There was no encore.

Except for the one I had getting back into Brian's punkmobile! I couldn't live like that, but it's nice to take a vacation every now and then into the life of a true punk rocker. It's like a sliding doors episode of what my life would have been like had I not gone to college. And yes, I know, deep down, that I shouldn't put so much emphasis on a car as a determination of one's being, but in this case, it was a pretty good hint.