On November 4, 2016 I headed to the Hollywood Palladium to see the very last show of The Vox Populi Tour, which featured Bad Religion, Against Me!, and Dave Hause. Of course Against Me! and Bad Religion were supposed to tour together a couple of years ago, but better late than never.

Of the three acts of the night, Dave Hause was the only one I hadn't seen before live aside from seeing him play with The Falcon during the summer. I was sort of assuming that it would be him singing and playing an acoustic guitar, to my surprise it wasn’t that at all. It was him singing and switching between electric and acoustic guitar along with his younger brother playing electric guitar and switching to a keyboard for few songs. This was really different and interesting way to play as a duo. They played songs such as “Autism Vaccine Blues,” “Seasons Greeting From Ferguson” and “Time Will Tell.” There was a pretty funny moment about half way through the set where Dave was talking about one particular bad presidential candidate who he didn’t specifically name and the crowd kept yelling, “Which one?! Which one?!” and he eventually caved and said both (I’m paraphrasing here). But the surprise of the night was during the last two songs. Since they were basically one half of a full band they brought up Jay Bentley to play bass and Atom Willard to play drums. One of the songs they played was a brand new one called “Dirty Fucker.” I’m not sure how long we’ll have to wait to see those musicians perform together again. That was one hell of a collaboration to witness.

Up next was the almighty Against Me!, a band I never get tired of seeing. Despite the political overtones of this specific tour they kept the talking to a minimum and the rocking to a maximum. They definitely played more new songs than old, but it was still cool hear songs from Shape Shift With Me live such as “333,” Haunting Haunted Haunts,” and “Crash.” I do have to admit that I think that I like listening to these newer songs live more than the studio recordings. When you hear them live they seem to have much more of that Against Me! rawness that fans love so much. Interestingly, bassist Inge Johansson sang “ooh’s” in between the riff of “True Trans Soul Rebel,” which you hear only on 23 Live Sex Acts or you heard the band do that during the shows leading up to Transgender Dysphoria Blues’s release, but not on that album itself. Some of the older tracks that Against Me! played were “Walking Is Still Honest,” Cliché Guevara” and unexpectedly they played “Tonight We’re Gonna Give it 35%,” which was completely mind blowing. I had only seen Laura Jane Grace performan that acoustically, but I never imagined that they would play it as a full band. It was truly incredible.

Against Me! Setlist:

True Trans Soul Rebel

333

Haunting Haunted Haunts

Unconditional Love

Transgender Dysphoria Blues

Tonight We’re Gonna Give it 35%

New Wave

Dead Friend

Crash

Cliché Guevara

Walking Is Still Honest

Pints Of Guinness Make You Strong

I Was A Teenage Anarchist

Black Me Out

Now when it comes to Bad Religion shows in their hometown of Los Angeles, I personally believe that it is about a 50-50 shot that Brett Gurewitz will be up there playing with them. I have been to shows where he has and others where he has not. Unfortunately, this was another show where did not perform. But he was there. I (along with a ton of other fans) did see him walk out of the venue talking with Jay Bentley. Anyway Bad Religion’s set was killer. They were in near-perfect form that night, but I have to say that Brian Baker’s guitar playing was outstanding. The band played songs like “Skyscraper,” “No Control,” “You,” “Fuck You,” “Robin Hood In Reverse,” “Generator,” “Sorrow” (you can see the full set list below) and they managed to end “21st Century Digital Boy” with the riff from “Eye Of The Tiger,” which was pretty funny. Bad Religion also played “New Dark Ages,” which is one of my favorites of theirs and during the drum fills the lights went totally dark and a strobe light flickered under the drums. I’m not one for light shows being a big part of concerts, but that was pretty cool. The big surprise during Bad Religion’s set was when Laura Jane Grace walked up on stage to sing guest vocals (originally done by Tim Armstrong) during “Television” and she absolutely nailed it.

Bad Religion’s performance this time around was particularly important to see. This was the first tour with their new drummer Jamie Miller, who played like he has been part of the band for years. He was remarkably graceful and destroyed during every song.

The last show of The Vox Populi Tour was truly awesome, but not just because of the great line up and each band’s set. It was also great because each performance had a surprise. Jay Bentley and Atom Willard joined Dave Hause on stage for a couple of songs, Against Me! played “Tonight We’re Gonna Give It 35%” and Bad Religion had Laura Jane Grace sing Tim Armstrong’s part of “Television.” How could this show not be awesome?

Bad Religion’s Setlist:

You Are (The Government) 

 


I Want to Conquer the World 

 


New Dark Ages 

 


Atomic Garden 

 


Come Join Us 

 


Let Them Eat War 

 


Television 

 


Fuck You 

 


The Streets of America 

 


Skyscraper 

 


No Control 

 


Against the Grain 

 


Suffer 

 


New America 

 


Sanity 

 


Recipe for Hate 

 


Robin Hood in Reverse 

 


21st Century (Digital Boy) 

 


Generator 

 


Man With a Mission 

 


You 

 


Change of Ideas 

 


Delirium of Disorder 

 


Do What You Want 

 


American Jesus 

 


Best for You 

 


Encore:

Infected 

 


Sorrow 

 


Fuck Armageddon…This Is Hell

You can see some pictures the show on the Punknews Instagram.