Inland
Invasion infuses bad performances
By Ryan Ritchie
On-line Forty-Niner
Day-long
festivals suck, and KROQ’s Inland Invasion
2 show at the Blockbuster Pavilion Saturday
was no exception.
The heat, combined with $3 cups of water
and $10 cups of beer, made for an unbearable
experience that many patrons would rather
forget.
The show started way too early for the average
punker, and most missed good sets by classic
bands on the smaller second stage. The Circle
Jerks and G.B.H put on two of the better
performances of the day and showed why bands
such as these deserved to be on the main
stage instead of cookie-cutter bands such
as Blink-182 and the Offspring.
Punk shows shouldn’t be held at outdoor
amphitheaters and England’s the Damned and
Los Angeles’ X proved why. The sun made
it too hot for people to want to move and
the lack of crowd response influenced the
bands’ performances.
Newfound Glory looked and acted more like
a boy band than a punk band and Pennywise
brought out the testosterone in everyone
by playing its brand of jock rock to a crowd
full of dimwits and knuckleheads.
The Buzzcocks may not get the same amount
of recognition as its peers, but the band’s
show outshined almost everyone and everything,
including the glaring sun.
Blink-182 drew boos from the crusty punks
and seemed out of place, probably because
they knew the crowd was laughing at them
and not with them.
Apparently the crowd didn’t think the 100
degree weather was bad enough, so bonfires
were lit as the sun went down to maintain
the heat. Bad Religion and Social Distortion
played at the peak of the fires and saved
the show by playing solid, entertaining
performances.
The Offspring played, and that’s really
all that can be said about them. Headliners
the Sex Pistols were next and played the
most uninspired and boring set possibly
in the history of punk.
The Pistols are one of the only legendary
bands in contemporary music with all the
original members still alive. The influence
and impact this band had on popular music
surpasses almost every other band in the
history of music, but no one would have
known that by witnessing Saturday’s show.
The band played every song off its only
album, “Never Mind the Bullocks Here’s the
Sex Pistols,” and a few B-sides. The crowd
seemed more interested in seeing members
Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and
Glen Matlock than hearing them. When songs
were over, no applause was heard. Rotten
commented he couldn’t hear the crowd, but
even that didn’t spark any interest.
The band’s set ended with “Anarchy in the
U.K.,” which many heard on their way to
their cars. The Pistols could have lived
up to the hype and showed all the other
bands why they were and arguably still are
the most important punk band ever, but they
didn’t. The band seemed more intent on making
its show as unenjoyable as possible than
putting on a show for the record books.
The Pistols’ lackluster performance may
have been the greatest rock ‘n’ roll swindle
of them all.
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