Huntington Beach Bubble Punk band Guttermouth was surprisingly better than I thought they would be although that doesn’t constitute the shows promoters giving them billing status over a legendary band like T.S.O.L.  Not in my book at least.  I wasn’t too familiar with Guttermouth’s material, but like I said they were surprisingly better than I expected them to be.  The band puts on an energetic show and the singer Mark didn’t seem to mind being “rained-on” by the shower of spit aimed right at him from his enthusiastic fans.  Not for the first half of the bands set at least, after which time he donned a white full body suit in order to deflect any more foreign matter than what he had already been hit with.  The music is a cross between the Vandals and that “Hey Mickey” song by 80’s new waver Toni Basil.  The guitars and drums are punchy enough but it would be nice to see the bands songwriting catch up to the instrumental genius displayed by the members in their live show.  The band has all the ingredients and capabilities of writing the same kind of hits as their musical peers who are selling records in mammoth proportions, and with a few more years spent developing their songwriting skills under their belt, we could be talking hits and record sales of Offspring like proportions for Guttermouth. 

Read all about Mark and the rest of these lunatics at www.xxx-guttermouth-xxx.com. 
 

Okay, time for my final confession here.  My enthusiasm for Bad Religion isn’t the same today as it once was.  My interest in other music by other bands was, and is still greater than my die-hard loyalty to Bad Religion after hearing the commercially oriented “Stranger than Fiction” six years ago.  With the exception of “Incomplete” and “What It Is”, I think every song on that disc was layered with the treatment to inspire a radio friendly hit.  Sure I still like everything before that with “Recipe for Hate” being my all time favorite Bad Religion album.  To me the only thing that keeps Bad Religion above the level of mediocrity is their thinking mans philosophy, and their live show.  I still believe in a bands right to evolve musically, but when a band starts writing hits to please the record companies and the masses, that band ceases to be “my” band.  As shows go, Bad Religion did not fail to come up with the goods on this night and treated the fans of both their new and old material to an evenly paced set that wasn’t about building a sense of unity with the world as much as it was about carrying out a revolutionary message of changing the world and how it all starts with you.  Bad Religions strength and their selling point might just rely on their longevity in the music business more than it does with any revolutionary message they’re trying to get across to their fans.  The energy of Bad Religion live does still carry a significant amount of weight in their favor though and they are still a band worth going to see. 

Check out the official Bad Religion website for merchandise, history, and tour dates at www.badreligion.com.