Bad Religion
30 Years Live
Released May 18, 2010
Epitaph Records

Greg Graffin – vocals
Brett Gurewitz – guitar, backing vocals
Brian Baker – guitar, backing vocals
Greg Hetson – guitar
Jay Bentley – bass, backing vocals
Brooks Wackerman – drums

1. Fuck Armageddon, This Is Hell!
2. Dearly Beloved
3. Suffer”
4. Man With a Mission
5. New Dark Ages
6. Germs of Perfection
7. Marked
8. A Walk
9. Flat Earth Society
10. The Resist Stance
11. American Jesus
12. Social Suicide
13. Atheist Peace
14. Tomorrow
15. Won’t Somebody”
16. Los Angeles Is Burning
17. We’re Only Gonna Die

This is one of those cool things that bands do sometimes. I got an email saying that everybody on the Bad Religion mailing would be receiving a download link for their thirtieth anniversary compilation live album. It would be a download only exclusive.

I had no idea I was on this mailing list. So it was a great surprise to receive something I didn’t ask for. Unlike the PR department over at Old Shoe Records (yeah I still have the email from six months ago, “Hey Mike the package went out in the mail today!”)

Anyway, I did the older, early eighties, Bad Religion stuff, and this comp is peppered with it. I’m not sure if you can still get this, but if you can, download it and enjoy!

Rating: ** * two out of three stars.

On to the story . . .

There was an article I caught a little while back from Dr. Neil Clark Warren the founder of eHarmony. It was a lengthy piece about how marriage as a whole is pretty much dead. A not unions, per se, but the institution of marriage is not really functional in this day and age.

My brother-in-law likes to say “every man needs a good woman behind him.” I’m not sure if he truly understands this quote, or if he caught it in a Humphrey Bogart movie. You see his definition of what a good woman is very antiquated. He wants a woman standing by, waiting on his beck and call.

Now some women like that role, then people like Alfred Hitchcock had someone like this and flourished. His wife Alma would collect screenplays, read them, choose the next picture, draw storyboards, design the costumes, and Alfred would show up and direct.

Then there are women that can completely destroy you. If a good woman can build you up, then a bad woman can tear you down.

A couple of years before my dad passed away he told me about going to dinner at a co-worker’s house. He had never met the coworker’s wife until that night. Everybody was talking, eating and having a decent time. My dad’s coworker clears his throat and starts to tell a story, and as soon as he utters his first sound his wife yells: “Shut the fuck up. Don’t say a word. I know everything you’re going to say, I know everything you’re ever going to say. I’ve heard it all. You’re never going to say anything new. I’ve had it.”

Needless to say the evening wrapped up pretty quick after that. I remember my dad saying once, people, like Hollywood, only have five stories. And they just keep re-shuffling those stories. You spend enough around people and you’re bound to be beat over the head with those stories.

The point is, if you have a good woman she can make you think that those five stories are the greatest anecdotes known to man.

In modern times, that though, is hard to find. Everybody is pressed for time and agitated, no one wants to sit through a story. So maybe Dr. Warren is right, use eHarmony to meet somebody nice, then move on as soon as your five stories get stale.