Thou Shalt Not Commit Adulthood

I was fortunate enough this weekend to witness a band I had finally started giving up thinking I'd be able to see. Despite coming of age as a punk rock kid in Fort Collins, my timing was just slightly off and I never got to see the great heroes of Fort Collins punk rock at home. Of course I'm talking about The Descendents.

Growing up I always imagined seeing them at the Starlight, a tiny venue of many punk shows in my day. Today, the Starlight is closed and I don't go back to Fort Collins very often.

So imagine my surprise when I found that The Descendents were playing a show in Denver, sort of a one-off thing, at The Fillmore, which is pretty much the opposite of The Starlight. I never thought they'd play a place like that.

Let me take a few sentences in the middle here to acknowledge the other band that played that night. Another band I missed seeing whenever they were in town despite being a fan about 10 years ago. Hot Water Music is currently working on their new album at Fort Collins' The Blasting Room so they got to play as well as another one-off show that's not part of a tour. They have a huge discography, and my time as a fan only spans a couple of their albums, so I only knew a few of the songs they played but they were still incredible. I may need to get back in touch with their music.

Now, when the great and powerful Descendents took the stage, the first thing I noticed was Milo's grey hair. For a band that prides itself on immaturity, it was quite striking.

But the music. Oh, the music. Every damn song was played with such a high energy level, such electricity and fervor, I almost forgot I was at a venue advertising a Creed concert in the coming weeks. For The Descendents' set, I know every word, every note and every chord was right, right on.

For the All-o-Gistics they brought a bunch of kids on stage. From my understanding, they are the band members' kids. They have kids? They have their own Descendents?? But the kids read off the All-o-Gistics. These kids are the future and if they live by these simple rules they don't have to worry about running out of energy and passion in their lifetime.

One strange thing happened. One of the biggest moments of excitement for much of the crowd was when they played "Nothing With You" off the strange second-reunion-album, 2004's Cool To Be You. It is probably one of the better songs off that album, but it's really got nothing on their 80s discography. I know a lot of kids probably got into the band with that album, but I certainly got into the band with their other strange reunion album, 1996's Everything Sucks but it didn't take me long to discover the beauty that is the band's 80s discography. So why people would particularly latch on to something from 2004 in 2012 when it's markedly inferior to the old stuff (this can't just be my opinion...right??) is a big mystery to me.

What other observations can I make? It was kind of funny when Milo sang "When I Get Old," and he even laughed a little bit at the beginning of the song, but I don't think he's really become his definition of old. Grey hair and whatever age number he has reached has nothing to do with that.

They played damn near every song on the classic Milo Goes to College and I went crazy screaming along to damn near every song they played. That's what's important. I finally got to see those local Fort Collins punk rock heroes live. It wasn't at a tiny, sweaty, smokey bar, but it was still everything else I would hope for. And soon I will be able to re-live the show (and you can see it too!) because it was being taped for some sort of video release. Can't wait!

One last thing. This whole post was about how they embrace immaturity, and how we love them for it, but there has always been one dark spot in one of their early songs, a song that is otherwise awesome and I still love, but it always makes me uncomfortable. "I'm Not A Loser" is a great anthem for punk rock types against jock types that will empower the outcasts of high schools for generations to come, but it happens to end with a bunch of homophobic slurs. These days, it is apparent which side of this ongoing battle of the outcasts vs the cool kids that homosexuals will tend to reside upon, and in this live rendition, this has been recognized, as the slurs were taken out of the song. Some things are worth growing up over, and I'm happy to see that they have become wise without losing their ability to declare "thou shalt not suppress flatulence." Amen to that.