to see the nazi-like banner behind bad religion last night at the house of blues

id seen a smaller banner atop the sunset strip club last week and i thought it was more funny than ominous, but a huge one like that with the band playing and the shirtless sweaty tattooed skinheads running around made it a bit more of a shock.

and dangerous.

which was awesome.

as a born again Christian you might wonder what i was doing at a Bad Religion show, but the truth of the matter is i love them, theyre one of my favorite bands, and what you should be more surprised about is that this was the first time id ever seen them.

what i like about them is their poppiness. biting lyrics, driving rhythms, and short blasting guitar solos that most punk acts cant deliver. plus most of their songs have no real attacks against Faith – or at least no more than any other mostly-cynical group.

in person theyre the least likely rock band. in any other situation youd think these average joes were more likely to play Rock Band on wii, not celebrate their 30th year run.

after a couple of beers karisa wanted to get in the pit.

every pit has its ups and downs. its nice to rub shoulders with humanity sometimes.

its also nice to experience todays youth at their most, uh, ripe.

sweat and beer and a few toxins being released in a punk pit can smell unique to say the least. and at times the pit expanded and contracted so quickly that you couldnt fight the tide.

gas can be known to escape. and at one point someone released something so exotic that karisa yelled WHO FARTED and several shirtless offenders blushed.

after they played their 30 song set, i peed in the mens room and a guy with a bloody foot said “that is the best tshirt of the night.”

referring of course to my bootleg Taylor Swift concert tee i bought outside staples on Thursday. the same one that karisa gave me a hard time about all night.