Los Angeles punk rockers Bad Religion are celebrating 40 years together as a band by playing music from one decade of their career at a time over a four date live stream series. They’ll be streaming from The Roxy Theatre in Hollywood starting with their ‘80s catalogue on December 12. The ‘90s will follow on December 19, ‘00s on December 26 and ‘10s on January 2.
This “Decades” series is being hosted by No Cap Shows with tickets available on their site. Fans can buy access to all four shows for $40 or individual shows for $15. Each show will start at 2 p.m. PT and includes interviews from band members reflecting on their career.
Bad Religion have been consistently releasing music since their debut self-titled EP in 1981. Their first full-length was a hardcore punk album called How Could Hell Be Any Worse? (1982), which they followed up with a progressive rock detour called Into the Unknown in 1983. They moved back to punk and settled into their own sound for late ‘80s classics Suffer (1988) and No Control (1989).
In the ’90s, they released Against The Grain (1990), Generator (1992), Recipe For Hate (1993), Stranger Than Fiction (1994), The Gray Race (1996) and No Substance (1998). Over these albums, they proved themselves to be a consistent act.
By the ‘00s, Bad Religion were very comfortable with their style and kept doing what they’d been doing. They focused on their success as a live act and released a new record every two or three years. The New America came out in 2000, The Process of Belief in 2002, The Empire Strikes First in 2004 and New Maps of Hell in 2007.
They tried some new things in the ‘10s. The Dissent of Man (2010) and True North (2013) are their most melodic releases to date. They also put out Christmas album in 2013 called Christmas Songs, although they’d be overshooting the holiday season if they were to play any songs from it for the January 2 show. Their most recent album was 2019’s Age of Unreason, a politically charged return to straightforward punk rock. They couldn’t tour it this year because of the pandemic, so they’ll be playing some songs from it for the first time in January.
There are two ‘20s songs from the band so far, Black Lives Matter-supporting “What are We Standing For?” and “Faith Alone 2020,” a rework of their 1990 classic with lyrics relevant to the uncertain climate of the United States during COVID-19 quarantine. The tracks were said to be part of “a string of singles” the band recorded during their time off from touring this year.
Photo credit: Raymond Flotat
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