Adolescents

Photo by John Anderson

Adolescents

Old punks never die; they just don't leap as high as they used to. Which explains why Adolescents original guitarist Frank Agnew recruited his son, Frank Jr., to handle backup shredder duties. Like father, like son: This snarky apple not only missed falling far from the proverbial tree, he's actually grown into a far more impressive chunk of timber. Opening SoCal barrage "OC Confidential" set the tone, walloping, twin-guitar harmonics overlaid with Tony Cadena's exuberantly snotty vocals and backed by beach buoyant harmonizing. The already sizable circle pit went straight through the looking glass into the opening sequence from The Decline of Western Civilization as the chiming chords of "Amoeba" penetrated the new dust bowl that is Waterloo Park, the audience very nearly drowning out the band on the chorus. Ditto that only more so for 1981's "Rip It Up," "Wrecking Crew," and righteously iconic set closer "Kids of the Black Hole," which enveloped the crowd like some primal, teenage harbinger, sucking all the haze away, leaving naught but fun and more fun.