[The Glass House, CA - 28/06/2007]

Requiem For Dissent



Thanks to Mike Rel for this news!



[Pomona Fairplex, CA - 29/06/2007: Daily Bulletin]

Having already fried in the sun for nine hours, the mindless natives were restless and started to throw trash in the air before Bad Religion closed the day's proceedings.

Finally, the veteran L.A. band took the stage.

"It's great to be back in the Inland Empire. For those who don't remember us, we are Bad Religion," said vocalist Greg Graffin. They got down to business with some solid hardcore punk leavened with three-part harmonies and a hard-hitting triple guitar attack. As darkness approached, Graffin joked about the minimal stage lighting and how clean they were on this tour opener (the crowd couldn't say the same). The set stretched back to the early days ("I Want to Conquer the World," "Social Suicide," "Generator"), mid-career songs ("American Jesus," "Supersonic") and equally sturdy ones from the upcoming CD "New Maps of Hell" ("Heroes & Martyrs," "Honest Goodbye").



[Pomona Fairplex, CA - 29/06/2007: OC Register]

By the time Bad Religion came on to finish off the show, much of the day's vendor booths had been taken down and only the "older" crowd was left.

Acknowledging that it's been a while since the band has graced Warped, singer Greg Graffin was furious in delivering a powerful set including "American Jesus" and "Heroes and Martyrs" from the band's 14th album due in July.



[Lucky Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, CA - 01/07/2007]

01. American Jesus
02. Social Suicide
03. Generator
04. Requiem For Dissent
05. Honest Goodbye
06. Los Angeles Is Burning
07. 21st Century Digital Boy
08. God's Love
09. Do What You Want
10. Supersonic
11. Heroes And Martyrs
12. Sorrow



[Thunderbird Stadium, Vancouver - 03/07/2007: straight.com]

Sets by Killswitch Engage and Warped frequent flyers Bad Religion did little to surprise or disappoint. The crusties came out in full force to start sausage-fests, er, circle pits, in the middle of the crowd, and the bands obliged with music perfect for shoving people.

An interesting thing happened, though. As Bad Religion rolled along, the crowd divided. Young kids, crowd-surfing with MySpace graft bags clutched in their hands, largely ignored the punk veterans, abandoning the stage to wait for closers the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. In turn, Bad Religion fans fled the scene before the Jacksonville, Florida, pop-punkers played note one. See, the kids couldn't give a toss about Bad Religion, and the oldsters don't give a fuck about the "future" of punk. What's worse, both the crowds combined didn't have a patch on audience numbers from previous years, which may have been easily explained. After all, if you've sang along to Pennywise's "Bro Hymn" on at least five past Warped Tours, there was no need to show up in '07 for one more tour of duty in the pit.



Summer Survival - Tips by Performing Bands

-What?s the best way to deal with a friend who got way too drunk at the show?
?Prop him up and put him on the ballot for president. It worked last time.? ? Jay Bentley, Bad Religion

-What?s the best way to deal with someone trying to pick a fight with you?
?Discourse, intelligent discourse, evasive maneuvers, preemptive admission of defeat, unilaterally withhold supplies and demand that all nuclear activities cease forthwith. (None of these work apparently). Just run away.? ? Jay Bentley, Bad Religion



Bad Religion Wax Warped Nostalgic

Jay: "I started to think about all the [festivals] that we've done and all the [then] up-and-coming bands that are no longer around. That's the intriguing part. They're here and the next time you do a big festival, they're not there anymore."

Greg (about last minute set time decisions): "Some days we might go on at 3 pm, and some days we might go on at 6 pm. One ethic of the Warped tour is that there is supposed to be no true headliner."

Brett (about the day-to-day lineup randomness): "I don't think the kids think of it this way, but it's really for their own good. Think of how many more Churros they can eat if they get there at eight in the morning versus if they get there at 5 pm."