The Exploited Brings Street Punk to SoCal: Scottish OG street punks the Exploited bring their spiky selves to the OC on Thursday, followed by a set in LA at the Belasco on the following Friday. Total Chaos and Cro-Mags also perform.
When you say the word punk? to people perhaps only vaguely familiar with the genre/scene, Exploited frontman Wattie Buchan is what many of them envisage. With his famous mohawk and Scottish sneer, he looks like everything that the likes of Rancid wanted to be. Meanwhile, the band have been putting out solid material since forming in '79, part of the British second wave. The Punks Not Dead? track from the 1981 album of the same name is their rallying call, their call to arms, and perhaps their best know song but while they have hardly been prolific, later material is worth the effort, including 1996's Beat the Bastards and 2003's Fuck the System.
Elsewhere, we chatted with Harley Flanagan of the Cro-Mags in 2019, and he told us of there state of hardcore that: I can't tell you; I?don't really go to shows unless I'm playing. I?haven't really since the '80s, so I couldn't tell you much about the bands.I still listen to the old stuff. I only know a few new bands, mostly ones I have played with. I have seen a bunch of good ones, but it's hard for me to keep track of them all. I do think it's time for HC to lose all the fake gang wannabe tough guy BS, and I think that it is. I think that really killed it in a lot of ways, and people are starting to realize that. As far as I'm concerned, real tough guys fight in cages for money and/or fight Isis or struggle to make positive changes in the world; they don't bully people at shows and jump people. I think that shit is cowardly and weak, but fortunately I'm seeing it less and less.
The Exploited Brings Street Punk to SoCal:?The event takes place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 at the Observatory.
