Bad Religion

After England's anarchy-driven Sex Pistols imploded in 1978, it seemed fatuous to think that punk rock would survive. Bad Religion knew differently. "People who were buying grunge records are switching to punk," explains Greg Graffin, lead singer of one of the longest-lived bands in the genre. "Why? Because grunge has a history rooted in punk. " Grunge heavyweights Nirvana and Pearl Jam both acknowledged a debt to the punk rock of the late '70s (the Sex Pistols and the Ramones)

These are tough times for righteous punk bands such as Bad Religion, which played a sold-out show at the Theater of Living Arts Monday night. What's left to rebel against? The two-headed hydra of Reagan and Bush is long gone. Dinosaur arena-rock has utterly fossilized. The hippies are marginalized. The corporate greedheads you once reviled are now putting out your albums. Heck, corporations will sell anything that turns a profit, even anticorporate diatribes. There are no more easy targets.

With the notoriously frat-friendly ska band Less Than Jake opening for hard-core elders Bad Religion, you'd expect more than generational divide. LTJ spent the '90s getting fast and freaky with frothy subject matter, whereas the punk Bad Religion has always come off as pugilistically proletarian. If LTJ is a beer bong, Bad Religion is a shot of Jack Daniel's. Yet at the sweaty, sold-out show at the Electric Factory on Monday, fans and bands engaged in a unified display of polite moshing; good, clean punk; and the occasional message.

Are punk rockers allowed to get old? It's almost a contradiction in terms: Imagine the phrase "three chords and a mortgage. " On Monday night at the Electric Factory, Southern California vets Bad Religion grappled with their own limitations and those of music that lives only for the moment. It's not clear who won, but at least a lot of kids got to stay out late on a school night. One could blame the cold and rain or the sterile environment of the Northern Liberties mini-rock venue - though over a decade ago, this 16-year-old quintet could have turned such limitations into catharsis.

Those who flocked to the Tweeter Center on Friday for the daylong convergence of punk rock and extreme sports known as the Vans Warped Tour must have thought they were getting the bargain of a lifetime with the promise of 82 acts for $25. They were duped. While around 82 acts did indeed perform across eight stages, there were - with minimal exceptions - really only three acts from which to choose: harmless-as-a-housecat pop punkers; goofball ska-punks; and white-bread hard-core boys who were full of sound and fury, and signified nothing but hot air. With all due respect to the Sex Pistols, this was the great rock-and-roll swindle.

The scene Friday at the sold-out Trocadero was straight out of a battle of the bands at a youth rec center. Four whining, screeching, boiler-plate pop-punk quartets jumped around the stage in Red Bull-induced frenzies as parents milled about the back of the room while the teenagers pogoed, chatted loudly over the bands, and posed for group pictures with friends. Hey, anything to keep the kids off the streets, right? Texas' Dynamite Boy opened the show with brisk, crunching verses that usually slid into half-time shout-along choruses that were anything but dynamite.

Time has run out for entering cable-television magnate Ted Turner's $500,000 save-the-world contest. More than 1,000 manuscripts on the theme of the survival of the planet arrived before the deadline yesterday, according to Marcia Dworetz, a Turner Publishing Inc. spokeswoman. The Turner Tomorrow Awards sought fiction set in the near future with the theme of ensuring the survival and prosperity of all life on the planet; the top winner, to be announced June 3, will receive $500,000 and be published.

What I love about the '90s is that there's a festival for just about everyone, no matter what music or haircut they choose. Soccer Moms. Left-handed swing dancers. People who still really like Hootie. OK, I'm making all that up. The one group of people who understands that music-related gatherings of any kind belong indoors in relative air conditioning at nighttime are the goths, who convene at the Trocadero (10th and Arch streets, 215-922-LIVE) at 7 tonight for the Projekt Festival, named for the record label known for its mysterious spelling and acts like headliners Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

Since the summer package tour became a popular rock-and-roll business model in the early '90s, many traveling daylong music fests have come and gone. Once-successful treks such as the jam-band-oriented H.O.R.D.E. tour quietly faded away, while Lollapalooza, the granddaddy of them all, again hangs in limbo, finding it hard to please everyone in the fickle alternative music market. Meanwhile, that punk-rock day camp known as the Vans Warped Tour is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer.

Steve Garfield knows how you feel about him. How could he miss it in the city that loves to talk back? For 24 years, Garfield has spent his working days roaming the streets of Philadelphia, locking yellow metal boots onto the vehicles of parking scofflaws. Garfield allows that booting can be a trying experience - for the booted and even for those sensitive bystanders who may figure that there, but for good luck, go they. "It's not the most fun thing when you get your car booted, and watching other people get booted, you know, people can be a little upset," he acknowledges.

Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff. POP . . . plus Vans Warped Tour: The most durable (15h annual) and reliable of the one-day, multistage festivals will have many skateboarding across the bridge for the likes of Bad Religion, NOFX, Bayside, Devil Wears Prada, Less Than Jake, Flogging Molly, Meg & Dia, Underoath, Anti-Flag, Alexisonfire and more. Susquehanna Bank Center, 1 Harbour Drive, Camden, noon today, $38.25, 856-365-1300, www.livenation.

Steve Garfield knows how you feel about him. How could he miss it in the city that loves to talk back? For 24 years, Garfield has spent his working days roaming the streets of Philadelphia, locking yellow metal boots onto the vehicles of parking scofflaws. Garfield allows that booting can be a trying experience - for the booted and even for those sensitive bystanders who may figure that there, but for good luck, go they. "It's not the most fun thing when you get your car booted, and watching other people get booted, you know, people can be a little upset," he acknowledges.

In Concert 457 Shirley Rd., Elmer; 609-358-2472. www.appelfarm.org . Roger McGuinn/Carsie Blanton . $29.50. 10/12 8 pm.519 Hurffville - Cross Keys Rd., Sewell; 856-256-8660. www.sjlivearts.com . Lonestar . $32.50-$65. 10/13 8 pm.421 N. Seventh St.; 215-569-9400. www.livenation.com . Insane Clown Posse/Necro/Motown Rage . $30 advance; $35 day of show. 10/15 8 pm. Red Jumpsuit Apparatus/Amber Pacific/New Year's Day . $15 advance; $17 day of show. 10/16 8 pm. Bad Religion/The Briggs/Jena Berlin . $20 advance; $22 day of show.

Since the summer package tour became a popular rock-and-roll business model in the early '90s, many traveling daylong music fests have come and gone. Once-successful treks such as the jam-band-oriented H.O.R.D.E. tour quietly faded away, while Lollapalooza, the granddaddy of them all, again hangs in limbo, finding it hard to please everyone in the fickle alternative music market. Meanwhile, that punk-rock day camp known as the Vans Warped Tour is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer.

The scene Friday at the sold-out Trocadero was straight out of a battle of the bands at a youth rec center. Four whining, screeching, boiler-plate pop-punk quartets jumped around the stage in Red Bull-induced frenzies as parents milled about the back of the room while the teenagers pogoed, chatted loudly over the bands, and posed for group pictures with friends. Hey, anything to keep the kids off the streets, right? Texas' Dynamite Boy opened the show with brisk, crunching verses that usually slid into half-time shout-along choruses that were anything but dynamite.

Those who flocked to the Tweeter Center on Friday for the daylong convergence of punk rock and extreme sports known as the Vans Warped Tour must have thought they were getting the bargain of a lifetime with the promise of 82 acts for $25. They were duped. While around 82 acts did indeed perform across eight stages, there were - with minimal exceptions - really only three acts from which to choose: harmless-as-a-housecat pop punkers; goofball ska-punks; and white-bread hard-core boys who were full of sound and fury, and signified nothing but hot air. With all due respect to the Sex Pistols, this was the great rock-and-roll swindle.

With the notoriously frat-friendly ska band Less Than Jake opening for hard-core elders Bad Religion, you'd expect more than generational divide. LTJ spent the '90s getting fast and freaky with frothy subject matter, whereas the punk Bad Religion has always come off as pugilistically proletarian. If LTJ is a beer bong, Bad Religion is a shot of Jack Daniel's. Yet at the sweaty, sold-out show at the Electric Factory on Monday, fans and bands engaged in a unified display of polite moshing; good, clean punk; and the occasional message.

What I love about the '90s is that there's a festival for just about everyone, no matter what music or haircut they choose. Soccer Moms. Left-handed swing dancers. People who still really like Hootie. OK, I'm making all that up. The one group of people who understands that music-related gatherings of any kind belong indoors in relative air conditioning at nighttime are the goths, who convene at the Trocadero (10th and Arch streets, 215-922-LIVE) at 7 tonight for the Projekt Festival, named for the record label known for its mysterious spelling and acts like headliners Black Tape for a Blue Girl.

Big Fat Friday presents a number of upcoming events sure to satisfy what's left of your summer appetite for hip happenings - so crank up the Sly Stone (all together now, "Hot fun in the summer time!") and read on: WATERFRONT EXTRAVAGANZA Artistic talent, vocal expertise and pyrotechnics converge FRIDAY through SUNDAY when Independence Blue Cross presents the 3rd annual Craft and Fine Arts Festival on the Great Plaza stage of Penn's Landing. On Friday, the Opera Company of Philadelphia will present arias, duets and ditties at 8 p.m. On Saturday, the Penn's Landing Festival Orchestra performs "Water Music Overtures" at 8:30 p.m., including George Handel's "Royal Fireworks Music" Overture, with its own choreographed fireworks show.

These are tough times for righteous punk bands such as Bad Religion, which played a sold-out show at the Theater of Living Arts Monday night. What's left to rebel against? The two-headed hydra of Reagan and Bush is long gone. Dinosaur arena-rock has utterly fossilized. The hippies are marginalized. The corporate greedheads you once reviled are now putting out your albums. Heck, corporations will sell anything that turns a profit, even anticorporate diatribes. There are no more easy targets.