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Cavalera’s Elusive ‘Nailbomb’ Comes to 1720 For A Rare U.S. Performance
Danny Ryan
February 12, 2026
While Nailbomb may be a heavy metal associated band due to vocalist Max Cavalera also being the original frontman of legendary Brazilian extreme metal band Sepultura, their unique signature blend of industrial, groove metal, and hardcore punk makes them an absolute anomaly in the genre; being equally as popular within industrial and hardcore punk circles as they are with the metalheads. Considering how widespread Nailbomb’s influence is across these different scenes, they couldn’t have picked a more appropriate lineup for their 1720 Warehouse performance on January 20, 2026; consisting of the Inland Empire’s biggest hardcore band Big Ass Truck I.E., the gruesome sounding death metal of San Fernando Valley’s Greenwitch, Arizona darkwave act Meldamor, and OC industrial punk group Purest Form. The selection of openers not only felt like a curation of artists that Nailbomb themselves are fond of, but a celebration of all of the different scenes that played a part in creating the band’s distinct sound. related: Cold As Life Play First SoCal Show – Death Or Glory at 1720 This was an exclusive one-off Los Angeles performance and only Nailbomb’s third US performance, which only made the night that much more unforgettable for anybody who was lucky enough
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Punk Rock Should Be Weird: Snõõper at The Regent
Danny Ryan
February 9, 2026
On January 30, 2026, The Regent Theater in Los Angeles was packed with sweaty, young punks ready to take part in this historical new movement of experimental punk music; and they were as big of a part in creating the atmosphere as Snõõper- the Nashville based headliners making their Los Angeles tour stop. Worldwide by Snõõper was one of the most talked about albums in 2025 alternative music for very good reason; it’s futuristic, bizarre brand of punk rock with laser-pointed quirky synthesizers is a huge breath of fresh air in the modern world where trends reign supreme. Hardcore legends Ceremony certainly agreed with this, hosting Snõõper at their Home Sick festivals in San Francisco and San Luis Obispo. In anticipation for the festival, Home Sick also hosted a mini tour for Snõõper and friends: Diode, Happy Death Men, and Ezcodylee. related: Janky Fresh Friday – New Albums from AFI and Snõõper Diode was actually my favorite act of the evening by far. They seemed to have had the most genuine approach to taking on this Devo-influenced freak-punk sound that many online are referring to as “egg punk”. While both Snõõper and Happy Death Men were too gratuitous with using noise and
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Cold As Life Play First SoCal Show-Death Or Glory at 1720
Danny Ryan
January 29, 2026
Death Or Glory Fest has one of the most interesting histories out of any festival in it’s first year- having history is not necessarily the best thing to start off with. Being moved from San Diego to 1720 Warehouse and losing half of the lineup was quite the drastic change-up. Regardless all of the artists who performed gave it their all, and it’s important to the scene that Death Or Glory stayed committed to hosting Detroit’s legendary Cold As Life for their first SoCal performance ever while maintaining a solid enough lineup to justify carrying on. The lineup featured a hodgepodge of fanbases with LA legends Strife, Orange County’s much more melodic Ignite, Los Angeles’ Section H8 performing their first show in over a year, and the brutal OC powerviolence of Scalp. related: Earth’s Crust- CY Fest 2024 at The Belasco While many bands who played fit in with the tough-as-nails final bill for the fest, there were definitely outliers who probably would have had better crowds at the original San Diego iteration. The original SD lineup had more classic punk and Oi artists with a much brighter sound like TSOL and Rixe, so some variety was definitely lost when
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Black Flag At The Roxy and The Greg Ginn Predicament
Danny Baraz
January 23, 2026
I was standing in front of The Roxy Theatre, waiting to see Black Flag. The date was January 16th, 2026. It was the first time I was going to see Greg Ginn on stage in an incarnation of this band. How does any self respecting punk at my age find himself in this situation? To be honest, I was more curious about the new kids in Black Flag than the lone remaining original member and founder. If it weren’t for them, I might not have been motivated enough to find myself there on time. But before I go any further or say anything else- Greg Ginn is the architect behind one of the most recognizable punk rock legacies in history-period. BUT… I have judged Greg Ginn harshly. There has got to be something really negative about his personality and demeanor to be standing alone in what is ultimately a standard bearing and iconic but shared legacy- and to have almost none of the members of one of the most claimed bands in punk rock standing together with him in life truly says something about character- and that’s just Black Flag. related: Jello Biafra Talks Politics, Music, and The Music
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Jonathan Richman: The Gift Of Being Present at Ojai Valley Women’s Club
Michelle Evans
December 17, 2025
I was not expecting to have my heart broken at the Jonathan Richman show at Ojai Valley Woman’s Club this past December 9th, 2025. Jonathan Richman is arguably the kindest soul in punk, except I’ve never actually heard anyone argue this. On the surface he comes off as simplistic, idealistic and perhaps even naive. Not everybody “gets” Jonathan Richman and by all accounts this seems perfectly fine with him. He’s never bent himself to appear any differently than exactly who he is. When he led the highly influential proto-punk band The Modern Lovers, their fast, energetic hit “Roadrunner” sort of blew up in its own way and turned them into a household name…if your household was hip enough at least. Following this success, The Modern Lovers responded by opening their very next show with silly, cute and quaint “I’m a Little Airplane,” complete with stretched out airplane arms by Richman and, yes, airplane noises from the entire band (nnnyyoww nnnyyoww!). Audience members constructed paper airplanes and floated them towards the stage, to the delight of The Modern Lovers. The scene made the concert look more like a children’s show and was not at all what the audience was expecting following
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Every Cap’n Jazz Song Is My Favorite- Live At The Wiltern
Michelle Evans
December 10, 2025
On November 20th 2025, I saw Cap’n Jazz at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA and then immediately drove to Las Vegas. The familiar five hour, starlit drive through the glowing blue Mojave Desert served as a catalyst for my mind to wander and wonder…is time travel real? What the hell just happened at the Cap’n Jazz show? related: Emo Is Hot Mulligan at The Hollywood Palladium As Southern California was being drenched by a rare storm, a weird-ass but perfectly curated variety show was going down on Wilshire Blvd. The curiously stacked lineup looked like any one of the mixed CDs I would have made in high school. Some thoughtfully burned acid jazz courtesy of Digable Planets, an angsty AFI track, “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats. A perfect compilation. I would take a sharpie and scribble “Trix Mix” or something equally dumb on the white surface, but man would that tracklist hit hard on the bus ride to school. Here at The Wiltern, Cap’n Jazz invited four wildly eclectic supporting bands to the bill, as well as four different DJs buffering the sets. related: Ceremony Gets Their Flowers at Hollywood Palladium Anthony Family, a new project led
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Habak Find Beauty In The Horrors Of Humanity At The Roxy
Rob Shepyer
December 5, 2025
The Habak show at the Roxy on November 29th, presented by Viva! was more than your typical winter punk rock invading West Hollywood. I first heard of Habak after seeing Lagrimas open for Soul Glo at Zebulon in 2022 and then following the band until their Teragram takeover with Habak- I knew Los Angeles was witnessing the formation of a new scene, subgenre, and phenomenon in punk music. Both Habak and Lagrimas represent a style known as melodic crust. related: Earth’s Crust- CY Fest 2024 at Belasco Sonically akin to a lovechild between Deafheaven and Doom, Habak represents the emotional interior of anarchism. With so much political activity both in underground and mainstream circles, we often get exposed to the surface of rebellion but never the glacier of emotionality underlying the action. We see the rallies, the chanting, the rioting, the rhetoric, but when anarchists go home, we rarely see the pain to empathize with. Habak gives the world a sonic synthesis of that pain so we don’t have to venture into every anarchist’s home to see it for ourselves. How does that pain feel? Like suffered screaming over the most beautiful, dissociative harmony. related: Avant Garde Headbanging w/ The
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Oi My God: Cock Sparrer at The Palladium
Danny Ryan
November 28, 2025
On November 22nd and 23rd 2025, legendary Oi band, Cock Sparrer played two sold out shows at the Hollywood Palladium. Have you ever experienced something that you felt you “weren’t supposed to”? Whether it’s something paranormal, shocking, surreal, from another dimension, or like you accidentally found yourself having traveled back in time? While there is a rising scene of newer Oi bands like The New York Hounds and The Chisel, seeing an original band from the 1970’s movement is nearly unheard of nowadays with legends from founding groups like Angelic Upstarts and The Business unfortunately passing away in recent years. related: LA Still Believes In Anarchy – The Exploited at The Regent Of all the original boot-boy skinhead Oi bands from 1970’s England; few have even come close to reaching the cult status that Cock Sparrer has in modern times. Hell at this point, the term “Oi” is almost unanimous with Cock Sparrer nowadays and especially their 1983 no-skips masterpiece of an album Shock Troops. Returning to Los Angeles for the first time in 25 years to completely take over The Hollywood Palladium on November 22nd and 23rd like it was a coup run by unruly ‘77 Rude Boys, this
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Emo is Hot Mulligan at The Hollywood Palladium
Danny Ryan
November 25, 2025
Hot Mulligan headlined the Hollywood Palladium on Nov 19th 2025 and that’s important. I’ll tell you why. What qualifies as “Emo” has shifted dramatically in many waves throughout the years. There are some that consider 90’s Midwestern Emo like American Football to be the pinnacle of the genre, while others look all the way back to the 1980’s melodic hardcore projects like Embrace and Jawbreaker as the roots of the scene. Regardless, true up-and-coming Emo artists have been relegated to the underground again in the post-Hot Topic and MCR years of pop culture, with many of them choosing to take influence from all waves of Emo rather than wasting time with arguing about “what real Emo music truly is”. related: Emo Never Dies – My Chemical Romance at T Mobile Arena Hot Mulligan are one of the few Emo bands in more recent years to transcend out of the underground and into more mainstream status, as evidenced by their Hollywood Palladium headlining show on November 19, 2025. Just because they have reached the status of headlining a venue as massive as The Palladium doesn’t mean they have forgotten their underground punk roots however. Hot Mulligan wants to emphasize that they
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Substance Festival 2025: The Post Pandemic/Post Punk Era
Danny Baraz
November 14, 2025
Substance Festival in Los Angeles has become a right of passage in this city and this past November 7th and 8th we attended the 2025 installment in the festival’s return to the Belasco Theater. Approaching this Substance Fest review with any overt enthusiasm would be antithetical to the spirit of the way we revel in the morose nature of this art- the oddly mesmerizing decay of destruction/creation approached with a somewhat detached dreariness that is direct in it’s aloofness. But also… the fucking horrific beauty of it all… or whatever. related: Cloak And Dagger Fest- The Heart Of Los Angeles Bled From Dusk To Dawn Even with the orbits and cycles of pop culture and music circling back to black lipstick among the masses, the mainstream attention can cause a scene to go into lockdown and it’s members more discerning on where they spend their show dollars. So for Substance Festival, it was important to pull in the beating heart of the scene at the increased ticket price. related: Sextile At The Novo- The Most Important Band in Los Angeles? A touch for curation in the dark arts is what scene loyalists look for most and their return to the
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The Saints at the Teragram Ballroom: Still Stranded After All These Years
Janky Smooth Central Command
November 11, 2025
I never thought I’d ever get the chance to see The Saints live, especially after the passing of frontman Chris Bailey. When I heard the band was reuniting with a new lineup, I had my doubts. The Saints are a legendary Australian band whose influence shaped countless others. But seeing their current incarnation on November 5, 2025 at The Teragram Ballroom, featuring original members Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay, proved that they truly do justice to the old classics. The lineup was rounded out by Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Mick Harvey (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds/The Birthday Party), and Peter Oxley (The Sunnyboys). Touring as The Saints ‘73-‘78, they focused on the band’s golden years-and it was everything a fan could hope for. Of course all the obligatory “hits” were played like “I’m Stranded” and “This Perfect Day.” The 90-minute set was perfect. related: Cruel World 2025 at The Rose Bowl – We’re Only Happy When It Rains Opening the night were The Chimers, an Australian guitar/drum duo who delivered a driving post-punk set that perfectly set the tone for what was to come. Words and Photos: Albert Licano The Saints at the Teragram Ballroom weren’t just a nostalgia trip-they
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Soft Play and KennyHoopla Make WeHo Punk Again at The Roxy
Taylor Wong
November 4, 2025
It was Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at the legendary Roxy Theatre on Sunset Blvd in West Hollywood, and the night had that undeniable buzz that only happens when a crowd knows they’re about to witness something unhinged in the best possible way. The audience was young, charged, and balanced; a good mix of people, but it was the women who owned the pit. They slammed, laughed, picked each other up, and set the tone for the night; wild but communal. The lineup was a dream pairing for anyone who still believes live music should leave a bruise: KennyHoopla and Soft Play, two acts with nothing to prove but everything to burn. related: L7 Celebrate 40 Years w/ Lunachicks And Friends at The Belasco KennyHoopla took the stage like a live wire, feeding on the room’s pulse from the first note. He was restless and genuine, bounding from one end of the stage to the other, never still long enough to cool down. His set felt like sprinting through an emotional minefield: loud, tender, and kinetic. Some of the tracks in the mix included “how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?”, “ESTELLA”, “hollywood sucks”, and “monalisa,
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