The Adolescents

The Adolescents have been around for so long now that founding guitarist Frank Agnew's 18-year-old son, Frank Agnew Jr., is also playing guitar in the legendary Orange County, California, punk band's current formation! This year, the group is actually celebrating its 25th anniversary (granted, it's spent more than half of...

By Michael Alan Goldberg

December 22, 2005

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The Adolescents have been around for so long now that founding guitarist Frank Agnew's 18-year-old son, Frank Agnew Jr., is also playing guitar in the legendary Orange County, California, punk band's current formation! This year, the group is actually celebrating its 25th anniversary (granted, it's spent more than half of that time broken up, but whatever) by releasing O.C. Confidential, its first album of all-new material since 1988, and touring nationally for the first time since 1989. Coming up around the same time as Social Distortion and Agent Orange, the Adolescents (which pilfered members from those other two bands) helped pioneer that brash, punchy, snotty, and much-imitated SoCal punk rock sound. Having undergone more lineup changes over the years than last season's Diamondbacks, the Adolescents of 2005 also feature original members Tony Cadena (vocals) and Steve Soto (bass), along with onetime Social Distortion drummer Derek O'Brien. Sure, you can apply the same joke about the principals' ages vs. their band name as you can with Sonic Youth, but this show should be a blast for both the crusty old been-there-done-that punks and the young'uns alike.

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