The Flip Side
By Dan Bennett

Opening for the most popular rock band in the world isn't the best job in the world, but if the members of Bad Religion wanted great jobs, they would have become forest rangers or something. Bad Religion performs between Mudhoney and Pearl Jam on Monday and June 27 at the San Diego Sports Arena. The shows are sold out.

"We are very realistic about this tour," said Bad Religion vocalist Greg Graffin. "It's not a Bad Religion tour, and we're not going to share the spotlight with Pearl Jam. We're just going along for the ride." It's not so ridiculous to assume Bad Religion could have been as famous as Pearl Jam. Well, maybe not that famous. But the Orange County punk band has been around for almost a decade now, and its use of melodic hard rock was slightly ahead of its time, main-stream radio-speaking. The band's most recent album, "Stranger Than Fiction," was critically acclaimed and has had decent sales, another throbbing, minimum-chord series of songs dealing with both personal and political issues. Everything from Bosnia to the undercurrent of censorship in America is addressed. Bad Religion has long been known for its hard-core sound, mixed with surprisingly melodic hooks.

Although the current album is less than a year old, and Graffin says band members are pleased, he also says there's no reason to reflect too much on it now. "I'm really looking forward to the next album," Graffin said. "I don't like to rest on past laurels. We were all set to make a new record, then decided to put it off for another month so we could do this tour" Bad Religion broke out with its 1988 album "Suffer," followed by the albums "No Control," "Against the Grain" and "Generator." The band's former self-owned label, Epitaph, is still a thriving entity, though "Stranger Than Fiction" marks Bad Religion's debut on Atlantic Records. Another album will follow early next year. "I've been writing for the last year, and it's a long-term process," Graffin said. "I have a template of what we're going to do, then we'll work the rest out in the studio. Our goal has always been to provide food for thought. We want to have something to say beyond the obvious." Graffin says he's pleased music fans en masse are becoming more receptive to alternative rock, particularly hard-core sounds that were once commercial taboo. "People who buy music are now more open to different types of music," Gratin said. "But there's a reason more people are listening. The music that's being played on the radio has elements that attract people to the songs, something our music has more of now, whether it's hooks or melody or whatever. You listen to the tapes we used to make in the basement before we had an album, and you know there's a reason why nobody showed up to our shows." That said, Graffin also hasn't lost his attitude. "If the Pearl Jam audience doesn't like our music, too bad," Graffin said. "Pearl Jam was nice enough to give us all the time we wanted, so we're taking a little less than an hour. For those people who don't like real punk rock, it may be a long hour."