Audio By Carbonatix
In the self-descriptive sense, Youth Brigade is no longer a credible name for an iconic punk band that formed in 1980 and toured with Social Distortion during the early Reagan era. Then again, Middle-Age Brigade seems a little neurotic, no? So what to do? Claim philosophical privilege, that’s what. If you ask Mark, Adam or Shawn Stern – the sibling trio from Beverly Hills who started the band right around, oh, the time Billy Joe Armstrong’s nuts were dropping – the principle of “youthfulness” is first and foremost a state of mind. That’s always been their policy, even when they were fresh-faced turks playing to capacity nightclub crowds during punk’s Hollywood heyday. Fair enough. Certainly, the brothers Stein will make their local fans happy by tapping some of that positive-minded punkitude during their upcoming mini-tour of the American southwest (they’re also playing Tucson and Las Vegas). Credit the band’s mini-Renaissance to their show at last spring’s SxSW and myriad documentary film profiles, including Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and Punks Not Dead The Movie. Maybe cell-decay-denial pays after all.
Fri., June 5, 2009
