Preach on, Bad Religion

I couldn’t say why I never caught Bad Religion on tour. Many summers they were part of package tours with other hardcore bands, and summer jobs often got in the way. As I drifted away from their music, I stopped checking. 

Fillmore exterior

Then came September, when I saw they had a Denver show, and I pounced on a ticket. While not one of the famous Fillmore venues from the 60s and 70s, Denver’s Fillmore is a music palace, renovated while keeping its stunning exterior and constructing a general admission venue where there’s no bad views of the stage. 

Driving up to Denver, I dreaded the arrival of winter weather all week, since it essentially severs easy travel between Denver and Colorado Springs. 

But the temperatures would hold. I spent the afternoon wandering around Capitol Hill, Bad Religion songs in my head as I enjoyed golden hour at the state capitol and mostly just walked the neighborhood. 

I stood alone until a towering young man named Curtis came over and started talking to me. He too came alone to the show. We talked about music, living in Colorado and the amazing lack of facemasks at a concert that required them. The crowd was downright friendly, from the young people behind me in line who gave me a fast education on The Alkaline Trio and how they first heard Bad Religion through a Tony Hawk videogame. They were surprised to learn that Bad Religion is likely the only bands whose singer moonlights as an evolutionary biologist and has a doctorate from Cornell University.

The Alkaline Trio

During the War on Women, it was comfortably crowded. During the Alkaline Trio, the crowd grew almost stifling. But the energy of the room was elevated by The Alkaline Trio’s speedy anthems. They entertained and were catchy enough to hook casual fans and newcomers like me.

There was no question which band drew the largest crowd.  On the upper level I heard several couples use variations on the same line – “I don’t care, we can stay if you want. ”The crowd thinned as similar conversations unfolded around the Fillmore. 

But there were still a strong communal cry as the lights darkened for Bad Religion. Between the Trio and Bad Religion sets, I stepped out of the crowd after saying goodbye to Curtis.

With a few notes, I knew that Bad Religion had freshened up the setlist for Denver, as they started strongly into Recipe for Hate. The band had grayed considerably and swapped out a few members. But they came off as a well-oiled machine - singer Greg Graffin’s voice stayed as sharp as ever and the band’s big harmonies never sagged. 

Maybe it’s the state of the world in 2021, the pandemic and post-civility America, but the songs felt timeless and anthemic. Their focus on environment, free-thinking, science, politics and standing up for yourself are arguably more important.

I barely listened to Bad Religion in the 21st century. Anything after a certain date was new to me. Songs like Los Angeles is Burning and Fuck You were new to me but more than a decade old. 

Fortunately my prime listening years got the most attention, as Recipe for Hate, Against the Grain and No Control accounted for nearly half the set. It was a true career-spanning set, with songs from 12 albums and no more than two or three off any given album.Most albums released in the 21st century received a song at best. More importantly, the band mixed up the setlist notably after a run of nearly identical shows earlier in the tour.

Of course the band stretched back to 1982 for We’re Only Gonna Die, one of their signature songs. It has a long-running theme about humanity’s likelihood of causing its own extinction. Flat Earth Society, Faith Alone and American Jesus have not lost any of their edginess or relevance. Graffin introduced Better Off Dead as a song that the band barely played for most of its existence, but it always ranked as one of my favorite deep cuts from Stranger Than Fiction. 

They ripped out Do What You Want and 21st Century Digital Boy, one of their near-hits in the 1990s. Almost twenty songs in, I had to make an exit, as the long day was catching up to me. But I only missed a few tunes and a one -song encore.

Barreling away from Denver in the dark, the songs came back to me, as anthems often do. Bad Religion’s best stayed infectious hours after finally hearing them live.