Good Things come to those who wait so they say, but the annual punk rock festival is delivering some bad bands to their lineup. Well, one in particular, and by bad, we’re talking in the name department. Punk veterans, Bad Religion are making their way down under for Good Things this December bringing with them their 17th studio album, Age Of Unreason.
“The album sounds fast and it sounds new but it’s remarkable to me that it retains the seeds of Bad Religion’s essence. It could be only one band that has made this album so that’s remarkable the continuity but at the same time, we get multiple generations of people and fans at our shows. We have fans that have grown up with us as well as young kids who just decided to go punk last year and those younger kids really are gravitating towards the new album,” says frontman Greg Graffin.
Age of Unreason comes six years after their 2013 release of Christmas Songs but packs just as much punch as fan favourites No Control and Recipe For Hate, with the political and social messages the band are known for remaining ever so relevant.
“It’s depressing when the warning signs that Bad Religion have written about for so many years start to come true and that is what was going on in those last 18 months [of the writing process]. We were in our element and it just felt natural and it was unfortunate, so we just did what I think we do best and that is writing songs that have some sort of a hopeful sound or a hopeful feeling without pulling any punch and trying to enlighten people into what is going on,” he says. “You can’t expect too much change in a small amount of time. You have to look at it generational. I think we have the potential on the brighter side of things. When Bad Religion started in 1980 we lived in a much less inclusive society, I think that we can say that good things are happening.”
More good things are still to come, not only in the political and social landscape or with the festival of the same name, but in the band celebrating their 40 year anniversary this coming year, commemorating the occasion with a book and either a documentary or live concert. They also recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of No Control mid-tour with Good Things alumni, The Offspring, who also happened to celebrate a massive 20th birthday for ‘Smash’ while they were in town last year. Look at that full-circle moment!
“The Offspring, we kind of consider them our offspring because we took them out on some of their earliest shows and we gave them exposure in some of the places that we had already built up a following and we’ve been friends ever since. And so we consider them a younger generation Bad Religion style but of course they went onto achieve greatness on their own and I think whenever you can tour together it’s a really special occasion,” Graffin says.
Will the band pull an Offspring and play No Control in full for Good Things?
“Our fans in Australia don’t get to see us very often so not only do we have new material but they haven’t seen a lot of our catalogue because we don’t come very often. When you have as many albums as we do, and this is album 17, we feel obligated to give people who have been with us for so long, a good mixture of our entire catalogue.”
We’ll see you with your faded Bad Religion tee in the mosh at Good Things Festival Melbourne, Friday 6 December at Flemington Racecourse. Secure your ticket at www.goodthingsfestival.com.au/
Written by Tammy Walters