Last Sunday, April 11, the Californians from Bad Religion were at the Sala Tejo in Lisbon to celebrate their 45 years as a band, well lived by the way. As any celebration requires, there were special guests, lots of people present, beers and good music. The veteran quintet brought with them nothing more than New York icons Agnostic Front, Californian melodic hardcore legends Strung Out, Belvedere straight from Canada, Crim from Catalonia and the mythical Portuguese band Trinta & Um.
Having said that, we're talking about a complete festival, with more than six hours of hardcore and punk in a fantastic atmosphere that was just as full as it should have been, and the organization's punctuality with regard to the start times of the concerts should be highlighted.
CRIM
At 17:10, the Spaniards of the Crim band formed in 2011, originally from Tarragona, Catalonia, took to the stage of a still empty Sala Tejo, with people arriving, still occupying their space, the band didn't do badly and sent their punk-rock full of power and attitude, certainly those who managed to be present at this time liked what they saw.
BELVEDERE
One of the most important bands in Canadian hardcore, the Belvedere entered the stage of the Sala Tejo with a packed audience, many of whom we spoke to were really looking forward to seeing the band make their debut on Portuguese soil.
And the wait was worth it when the first chords of "Two Minutes for Looking So Good" began, albeit timidly, the first circle pits. The Canadians made good use of their 40 minutes with straightforward songs, almost always using the heavier ones, such as "Elephant March", which at this point lifted the entire audience in front of the stage, singing along at the top of their lungs, followed by "Closed Doors", another song that totally stirred up the circle pit and infected the whole atmosphere.
Giving a lot of prominence to their most successful album, Twas Hell Said Former Child, released in 2001, they played five songs from this work, and in addition to the opener there was still time to check out the great "The Only Problem With Wishful Thinking", "Excuse Me, Can I Use This Chair?" and they closed with "Brandy Wine", warming up the mood for what was to come.
THIRTY ONE
"We are the Thirty One de Linda-a-Velha", said frontman Goblin. Here the house was almost full and it was great to see the Portuguese public enjoying one of the most important and fundamental hardcore punk bands in the country.
With a lot of attitude, the quartet played at home with the fans in their favor and paraded, if the day before in the Lisbon derby there were no winners, on Sunday afternoon Trinta & Um won by a landslide with classics such as "Não Há Regresso", "L.V.H.C" and "Devo Ódio Ao Mundo" there wasn't a soul who stood still in the Sala Tejo.
STRUNG OUT
Here's a band I've wanted to see live for a long time, Strung Out a band formed in 1991 and hailing from Simi Valley, California, they deliver a sound based on melodic hardcore, while at the same time inserting elements of heavy metal.
The quintet presented a very cohesive concert, playing practically songs from all their works, naturally giving more attention to two albums Twisted by Design released in 1998 to great public and critical acclaim and Exile in Oblivion of 2004 each with 3 songs present, such as the one that opened the festivities, "Too Close to See", or "Exhumation of Virginia Madison", which came soon after.
Delivering a brutal balance between heaviness and melodies, the band cheered up and started an unstoppable festival of crowd surfing, circle pits and mosh pits, especially when they played a piece of Pantera's "Walk". They continued with "Blueprint of the Fall" and "No Voice of Mine", which set the atmosphere on fire even more, and that was it until the epic finale with "Matchbook", which made it clear that Strung Out will be very welcome in Portugal in the future.
AGNOSTIC FRONT
It's important to note that another band besides Bad Religion is also celebrating an incredible 45 years of life, we're talking about the Godfathers of New York hardcore, the inimitable Agnostic Front led by two legends, charismatic guitarist Stigma and vocalist Roger Miret.
That's right, my friends, when Agnostic Front took to the stage, the Sala Tejo was already abuzz and it wasn't even 9pm. With a short, direct and unmassaged line-up, the band started off with "My Life My Way" followed by "For My Family" and then the hostile atmosphere in the best sense of the word became unstoppable, another crowd surfing, circle pit and mosh pit festival, and it wouldn't end until the last song.
Roger Miret's weakened voice was noticeable at times, but we mustn't forget the fight he had with cancer in 2021 and that fortunately he's completely cured and more than that on stage rocking out and singing non-stop full of attitude, that's undoubtedly what's worth more than one or two voice flaws, who cares about that in punk and hardcore! When "Gotta Go" started to be sung, the whole audience got on board and once again transformed the Sala Tejo into chaos and destruction, a more than special moment from a band that is always very well received by the Portuguese public.
There was still time for Stigma and Roger to call little Clara, who was on her father's shoulders in the middle of the mosh, to come on stage and dance to their emblematic cover of "Blitzkrieg Bop", a true anthem of world punk that the little girl will certainly never forget.
BAD RELIGION
At 10 p.m., everyone in the Sala Tejo was anxiously awaiting the entrance of those who are neither new nor rare in Portugal. On the contrary, they keep in touch with the public here with frequent 'shows', this being their third in six years, all of them sold out, showing the affection of the Portuguese public for the band.
There's also nothing new since the last time they were here, with the "Age of Unreason" album tour in 2019. So they've revamped the setlist with a career overview and the advantage of celebrating 45 is that there's a lot to take in. And when the first chords of "Recipe for Hate" began, if you were in the front half of the Sala Tejo, there was no way you couldn't get into the mosh pit. Then came "Supersonic" and moments later "No Control" and then there really was no control, the crowd went wild and the atmosphere was as pleasant as possible for those who like real hardcore.
Vocalist Greg Graffin, teacher that he is, knew how to control the crowd like few others, speaking very little and sending real stoners through the window with classic after classic, including "My Sanity", "I Want to Conquer the World" and "We're Only Gonna Die", at which point a fan who was right at the railing handed over a vinyl record of The New America released in 2000 for the whole band to sign, something that was done before the end of the concert. Another highlight is the combination of two punk and hardcore legends on guitars: Brian Baker, who has been with the band since 1994 and has played with Minor Threat, and Mike Dimkich, who joined in 2013 and takes care of the solos in an exquisite way, give the band more than the right sonic measure live.
In the final part of the concert, the hits began, one after the other: "You", "Generator", "21st Century (Digital Boy)", "Infected", with the help of the audience in the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah part, which was chilling until it ended with "Fuck You", which brought the festivities to a close, a pause for a breath and the encore, which came back with two smashes "Sorrow" and "American Jesus", one of the band's best-known songs, the emotion and ecstasy of everyone present at that moment was visible, magical as it should be, magical as the sum of Bad Religion + Portugal will always be, long live the kings of California!
Artists: Agnostic Front, Bad Religion, Belvedere, Crim, Strung Out, Thirty-one
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