Minneapolis:

It has been 11 years since Bad Religion played the legendary First Ave. in Minneapolis. Needless to say, I had eagerly been awaiting this show since its announcement. I was even more anxious to see which songs they would choose to showcase off of their newest album, New Maps of Hell. I knew BR would not disappoint either way, but was curious to see how the crowd would react to Gallows, embarking on their first proper club tour of the U.S.

The show was a study of polar opposites. Gallows got things started, to my surprise, with no singer to be found. The band sounded tight and urgent with vocals coming from nowhere. A friend then pointed out that Frank was in the crowd trying to get the pit of maybe 100 people moving. It didn't work. In fact, the most entertaining part of the show was listening to the guy behind me yelling at him with a fake British accent. The band played four or five songs, getting more and more upset with the sparse crowd before jumping into their "Nervous Breakdown" cover. While they weren't bad, it was clear to see that the band's cockiness was wearing thin on a crowd of people who had probably never heard them before. A couple more songs with some shit-talking of the Midwest thrown in for good measure and it was done.

The Briggs came out and surprised me. I had never seen them, let alone heard their music before, but really enjoyed their set. Both guitarists were more than capable with their vocal duties. I was expecting more of a street punk sound but I would describe them as almost pop-punk. Good pop-punk. Good set.

The only thing worrying me about BR was the fact a bartender told me they had only sold 500 tickets to the show. It was obvious when the doors opened that it wasn't going to be sold out. Could this be the final rollercoaster drop of the band? I don't know, but they sure as hell don't disappoint. I had seen them 12 times prior to this -- not easy for a guy living in the middle of Iowa -- and this was by far the best set list I have heard them play. There was a great mix of old and new songs coupled with a great attitude by the guys in the band, which left the crowd of 800-900 people walking out hoarsely saying how powerful this band still is.

[Punknews.org]



Covington, KY show, in order:

Fuck Armageddon
Supersonic
Social Suicide
Requiem For Dissent
Modern Man
Atomic Garden
New Dark Ages
21st Century Digital Boy
You
I Wanna Conquer The World
52 Seconds
Heroes And Martyrs
Skyscraper
Dearly Beloved
Lookin' In
No Control
Recipe For Hate
Do What You Want
Suffer
The Defense
Anesthesia
Generator
God Song
Sorrow
American Jesus

Encore:
We're Only Gonna Die
Infected

Graffin also said that they will probably only do one more album, huge bummer...

Thanks to JW for this news!



Awesome set in Covington, Kentucky. Greg made fun of the Creation Museum and Jay was losing his voice pretty quick. I pissed myself when their set opened with Fuck Armageddon and pissed myself several times more when they played Skyscraper, The Defense, God Song, Atomic Garden, Dearly Beloved, Looking In, and We're Only Gonna Die as an encore. Totally worth the cigarette burns and drunken rednecks with glass bottles in the pit.













Thanks to RatGuy for this news!