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As promised yesterday, how about some classic old-school punk?

April 25th, 2008 Posted by: Dust Devil

Greetings!

Here is an important date for you folks. Thursday, May 1, head over to the Brickhouse Theatre in downtown Phoenix. With so much sissy punk out there today that the masses seem to enjoy, it is a pleasure when the real McCoy rolls in to play a show and remind us of a time when punk rock meant something. The genre used to be dangerous and the music truly intense. Many popular “punk” bands of today would never have survived during the era of the late seventies to early eighties. A truly amazing band out of this period was Orange County legends T.S.O.L..

Formed in 1979 out of the ashes of Vicious Circle, T.S.O.L. brought a melodic edge to punk, but kept the intensity of hardcore, creating a style many tried to unsuccessfully duplicate. The band released The Black E.P. in 1981, a 5-song juggernaut of classic thrash punk rock with heavy political overtones. To this day it is refreshing to hear that disc’s version of Superficial Love when vocalist Jack Grisham proclaims at the end, “President Reagan can shove it!”

Next came the horror punk classic, and one of my all time favorite punk discs, Dance With Me. Do not even pretend to be a fan of punk rock if you do not have this. Eleven songs of intense, melodic, macabre inspired punk; every song is a sing-a-long, in particular the immortal Code Blue.

A bit of a change in style started to occur with their next release, the Weathered Statues E.P.. However, their next release, the watershed Beneath the Shadows and considered a classic today, alienated many of their fans at the time of its release in 1982. T.S.O.L. did the unthinkable, introducing keyboards to the genre and slowing down the pace considerably. The band didn’t care, something you have to respect about them. T.S.O.L. always did things their own way without care of what the masses believed. Their uncompromising approach is one of the reasons they remain legends today.

Jack and drummer Todd Barnes left the band and various versions of T.S.O.L. lingered on, but their sound changed to punk metal. Guitarist Ron Emory left and shortly thereafter, bassist Mike Roche did as well, leaving T.S.O.L. without a single original member and confusing their fans.

Luckily there is one thing is music that is always present for bands that undergo many line-up changes; the reunion! 1991 the original four began to play shows again, but were not able to use the name as they had lost the rights to it. Eight years later they got back together again, minus Todd Barnes who had passed away. This time they owned the T.S.O.L. name and not only played concerts, but created new work as well. The result thus far has been Disappear in 2001, Divided We Stand in 2003 and a disc re-working many of their classic tunes, Who’s Screwin’ Who? in 2005.

I thought we lost them again in 2006, but here we are in 2008 and T.S.O.L. has risen from the ashes once again. There is no telling how much longer the world will be blessed with this great band, so take advantage of the fact they are playing shows again and go see them! Seeing one of the great frontmen of this genre of music in Jack Grisham should be reason enough!

Seeya next Thursday!

The Dust Devil

Brickhouse Theatre MySpace Page http://www.myspace.com/thebrickhousetheater
Official Site for the Original T.S.O.L. http://www.truesoundsofliberty.com/online.htm
T.S.O.L. MySpace Page http://www.myspace.com/tsol
T.S.O.L. Concert Schedule http://www.pollstar.com/tour/searchall.pl?Content=A-TSOL&By=All&PSKey=Y&StartSearch.x=8&StartSearch.y=9

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