Great review written by Watcho! from the Boston show.

The streets of Boston are the most daunting of any city I've ever visited. They twist and wind, suddenly change names, and disappear into numbered alleys. There aren't enough street signs, and the ones that are there don't necessarily feel the need to face the streets they're describing. Having flown from Houston to Providence, RI (boy, were my arms blah blah blah), and then taken the Acela to Boston, I found myself standing in front of the Back Bay station without a street-wise map and only 2 hours until the 6:30 doors at the Avalon for tonight's Bad Religion show. It will take me the full 2 hours to find my destination, which in reality is only 10 minutes away. Oblivious to this fact, I step into Beantown, and head out in the wrong direction?

It takes me 45 minutes until I correctly anticipate an intersection. I take this as a small victory, which is somewhat obscured by the fact that, correct or not, I'm in the wrong part of town. That's ok though, at least it's a frame of reference. After another half hour of meandering, I discover the hostel I'm going to be staying at while in town. Fortuitous.

As some of you may know, it was a special weekend for the people of Boston. After all, Bad Religion was playing, and it was Halloween. The Avalon sits directly behind the outfield wall of Fenway Park, about 100 feet from the Green Monster. The doors are open, and a somewhat small but steady flow of kids are working their way inside. Having seen this show two weeks prior in Houston, I knew that there was no reason to go in this early. I decided to walk the circumference of the ballpark and take in the site known as Rabid Red Sox Fan Buys Every Damn Piece of Red Clothing He Can Get His Damn Red Hands On Fever. Maybe in your own fortunate travels you've been to an amusement park, or perhaps Studio54. Perhaps you've been unfortunate and never been to an amusement park, or perhaps only seen an awful movie about Studio54. Regardless of your experience with Ryan Phillipe films, you are undoubtedly aware of something called the "velvet rope." There was a short stretch of it in front of the Avalon, presumably because the operators of the club felt the need to encompass every nightclub clich? under the sun, but more on that later. RedSox fans were lined up by the hundreds to buy shirts, hats, pennants, bats, keychains, feminine hygiene products, all emblazoned with the Sox logo. Interestingly, I didn't see them selling any red socks. The lines went on forever, winding through the stores and streets cordoned off with the afore-mentioned velvet rope. I move on through the crowd, stepping past the news trucks and famous statue of Ted Williams handing a child a baseball. It's inspiring until you remember that the guy's kids sued each other over whether or not to cryogenically freeze his body to be cured in the future. That alone should put an asterisk next to that 400 batting average.

I bide my time at the Cask N' Flagon, a popular bar up the way from the club, and a few steps away from the spot where a police officer inadvertantly killed a young girl a week before with a tear-gas pellet. Cup of clam chowder and a pint of Stella Artois: $10.

It is time for the show.

The guy out front checks my backpack for "anything naughty," which is an odd thing to hear coming from a chain-wallet leather vest-type biker dude. Through the doors, through the turnstile, I'm immediately stopped by the merch booth which is conveniently (for now) placed there. A quick scan tells me that a lot of kids between Texas and Massachusetts have been buying BR's "poser gear," which was a plain white Haynes undershirt with a faux faded crossbuster on the front, cuz it appears to be sold out. They played 3 shows in Florida the week before, so I'm not terribly surprised. Next in the hallway is the coat check which affords me the mandatory opportunity to pay $3 to hand my possessions over to someone who may or may not give a shit about their safety. Next to that is a small alcove-style bar, and a line of people standing in front of it. All of this, and I haven't even walked into the room where the band will play. To give the place some type of "character," there are these 6 foot dioramas set up around the place, each with their own wacky kitsch theme, usually having to do with fortune-telling or the presence of a freak show. Underwhelming. Positioned at each doorway is a club employee. Not content to wear the standard "STAFF" shirts or what have you, the Avalon employees are decked out in black shoes, black slacks, black windbreakers zipped to the top, and the little secret service ear buds coming up out of their collars. I assume this is because keeping kids from smoking in the venue and handing out wristbands is, like, totally a "black op." The room is small but spacious, and has a convenient flow to it, with a couple of different riser levels, an upstairs that is more of an overlook than a balcony, and bars? They got 'em. The left side of the room is marked with a 250-foot bar with at least 10 people working behind it. There are two beer tubs on either side of the entrance, a rotunda-type bar over on the Hetson side of the stage, and a couple more at the top of the stairs. The ceiling is high, and packed with a million dollars worth of party lighting. I'm not so spoiled as to judge a club by it's backstage accessibility or the size of it's VIP section, so I'm pretty happy overall with the house.

Again, I have successfully avoided the fashion trainwreck that is From First To Last. No love lost there, I assure you. Rise Against come on, and are somewhat better than the last time I saw them. I still don't really like them that much, but the kids are having a good time which is what matters. Rise Against does, however, win the award for "Most Squandered Good Feelings Moment." At one point Tim makes this miscalculation:

"Congratulations Boston. What a week you've had, huh?"

Crowd: LET'S GO RED SOX clap clap clap-clap-clap (repeat ad nauseum)

"You know I'm not going to stand up here and pretend I'm from Boston, or that I'm a Red Sox fan, but where I come from we have some Sox too, the White Sox. It's about rooting for the underdog, it's about being punk rock. The underdog is punk rock."

About the time he said "White" the crowd started booing which turned into eye-rolling laughter at the punk rock part. Just play another song dude. Which they did, and all was forgiven. Three songs left, "Without Bad Religion, bands like us blah blah blah." They get it done, and then they were done. Last time, BR took an hour to get on stage. Tonight, they only take 30 or so. In the interim, I met some girls who had driven from Detroit in the middle of the night to see the Dropkick Murphies play in front of city hall that day at noon, but had arrived too late. One of the Murph's had put them on the BR guest list as a consolation prize, so they were moping around being too cool for school. I left them to go watch BR, who were promptly taking the stage.

I really like the way BR has been starting each show. A pre-recorded stripped-down version of 'Overture' plays to a darkened stage. First Brooks comes out, then Baker, then Hetson, then Graffin and Jay, each building a live foundation to the tape until 'Sinister Rouge' begins. Never a band to incorporate even the slightest theatrical elements, I think it's a wonderful addition. The back wall of the club is filled with a large light wall that looks like stars when lit up, and for this reason BR don't have their giant logo flag hanging, which is unfortunate cuz it's super cool. The set list is basically the same as the other show I saw, with a few changes. The crowd was responsive to it all, and the group I found myself surrounded by were really into the newer material. Couples were enjoying themselves, as though they had spent the last 5 months sharing TESF with each other. I thought that was awesome. Much to my chagrin, I got to spend the entire show with drunk girl screeching 'ALONG THE WAY!!!!' in my ear the whole time. As well as being under the impression that BR are playing that this tour, she also failed to grasp the idea that the band can't hear you yelling your favorite song WHILE THE BAND IS PLAYING ANOTHER SONG. Not once did she manage to yell it when there was relative silence on the stage. When told that they just aren't going to play it tonight, she asked me if they'd play 'White Trash Second Generation" instead. I told her it was the TESF tour. Unfortunately the band didn't play any of the deeper tracks that they've pulled out in recent dates. I really wanted to see those.

BR are happy to be on tour right now. They really seem to be enjoying each other on stage, again with the exception of Brooks. Maybe they're all best buddies on the bus and backstage, but in front of the audience he comes off as just some guy in the back. Jay seemed to have a greater respect for the actual lyrics of the songs this time around. Memorable moments: during the first breakdown in 'Generator,' as the song begins to come back together Jay and Baker started riffing from another song for a moment, just long enough to make Graffin have to rethink what song he was singing. It was a pretty funny moment and Greg seemed to laugh it off and go on killing it like he always does.

Outside, people began to fill the streets, camping out for the Red Sox victory parade the next morning causing this exchange from the stage:

GG: "I was listening to the radio today and they said that they were expecting 5 million people to come out for us. They're camping out in the streets. We had no idea Boston loved Bad Religion that much. You guys are the lucky ones, you're in here where all the action is. Oh, and apparently your minor league team did something this week, winning their minor league champion whatever."

CROWD: LET'S GO RED SOX clap clap clap-clap-clap (again, ad nauseum)

JAY: "Oh enough, you won already!! Get over it."

Bentley later added that if the Sox won, the Patriots won, and Kerry won, then Massachusetts would rule the world.

The show ended as it has been, with a sated crowd filing out of the venue to the sounds of 'Jesus Christ Superstar.' The problem tonight though, stemmed from the specific setup of that first hallway I described earlier. Now 1000 kids had to file out the way they came in, past a large group amassed at both the coat check and the ill-placed merch booth. I managed to get through it all (with my safely-returned backpack), and burst back out onto the streets of Boston, while not desolate, are certainly without purpose. Into the night and onto another adventure, but that's another story.

Set List, Bad Religion Boston, MA 29.10.04
(special thanks to Graffin2010)

Overture/Sinister Rouge
Social Suicide
All There Is
LA is burning
Let them eat war
God's Love
Supersonic
Prove It
Kyoto Now
Epiphany
Come Join Us
Infected
Man with a mission
Generator
Modern Man
21st Century digital boy
Sanity
Change of Ideas
No Control
I want to Conquer the World
Fuck Armageddon
We're Only Gonna Die

Encore:
Do What You Want
American Jesus
Sorrow(closed)

Thanks to Watcho! for this news!