bad religion

bad religion: the kings of punk rock. sometimes when there's nothing going on in my brain (a rare occurrence) this lyric passes through my brain, "Nothing comes easier than madness in the world today. Mass paranoia is a mode not a malady."

I recently drove down to Eugene through a sticky molasses mess of traffic. Once the goo of traffic dripped off, Nick and I went to see Bad Religion play.  I hate to admit it, but this is the only show I've been to in about three months.  Pathetic, I know.

Nevertheless, it was a quality time with a quality person.  Nick and I ate at Pita Pit before the show and decided that it's a bit disturbing to see what you're eating (tomatoes, lettuce, bacon) personified in paint on the walls right next to your table.  Yum, delicious tomato smiling at me from above.  Creepy, really.  The show was, in the words of my dearest friend Nick, "kick-ass." The Bouncing Souls opened, and man does the lead singer have the most unusual stage presence.  I couldn't tell if he was just high or really confused and maybe thought he was singing to a 1960' lounge of suave people.  It's as if the words and sounds coming from his mouth didn't quite match up with his motions.  I wanted them to sing this:



but they didn't.  That's okay the superb talent of Bad Religion and the brief moshing moments of bliss (note to self: don't wear glasses to the next time, I was Nick's coat rack for half the show as he flailed his arms and legs about...and as I got latched onto by the most intoxicated woman there, I think she thought I was an attractive male and all Nick could do was laugh, making the situation ten times worse) made up for it.  Speaking of Nick, this man has the most amazingly accurate old-Jewish-woman-who-smokes impression.  I've always admired people who can do impressions and change their voice.  Imitation really is an impressive skill.

After the show Nick made me watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which I'm sure is a delightful movie, but when you are super tired, a little cold from trying to sleep on a leather couch, and have had two years of rhetorical criticism, it's hard to watch a movie without picking it apart.  My college education has ruined watching movies for me, everything I watch has some sort of "reading" and can be analyzed in some sort of way.  Damn college education.

update 12/15/10: This reminds me, Nick let me borrow Greg Graffin's book Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science, and Bad Religion in a World Without God, his signed copy and what is the first thing I do?  I drop it in the mud :(  don't trust me with your valuables.  No, I'm a careful custodian of anybody's valuables, I just had hands like butter that day.  Anyway, thank you Nick for the book (and the half dozen more that I have borrowed from you over the past few years). POWER!