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Bad Religion played the Wachovia Spectrum on Halloween, 10-31-2009, in Philadelphia,PA.  Pearl Jam had the great honor to bring the entire building to a close by performing four shows in one week (10-27-09, 10-28-09, 10-30-09, 10-31-09), with the run concluding on Halloween night.  Pearl Jam’s ties to Bad Religion ties have been around since Bad Religion’s album Recipe For Hate, on which Eddie Vedder sung back up vocals on a few songs. Those ties led to Bad Religion the opening slot on 10-30-2009 and 10-31-2009.

I was fortunate to be able to photograph 2 of the 4 last shows ever to be held at the Spectrum.  I photographed Pearl Jam and the opening bands on the nights of the 27th and the 31st.   The Spectrum in Philadelphia has long been holding historical sporting events, concerts, movie moments, and  millions of other memories for a worldwide audience.  One of my earliest  memories is one of the most popular moments for the Spectrum was when Rocky boxed to win his first title of the Rocky movie series.  And now the legend of the building ends with a historic 4 night residency by Pearl Jam and friends.

Bad Religion took stage and won over the crowd with their punk rock anthems and sing along vocal harmonies.  They mixed songs of old and new spanning their whole career.  From the old school “Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance” to the newer rocker and anthemic “Los Angelas Is Burning”

Greg Graffin is a university professor off the stage but caries teaching on stage with him as well.  Bad Religion’s music has been called “punk rock for the thinking man” in the past because of the lyrical content.  Greg and Brett Gurewitz have a knack of fitting some words into songs that other lyricists would never be able to (or even know what they mean).

For example:
Ameliorate – “Germs Of Perfection”
Anechoic – “Delirium Of Disorder”
Denouement – “F**k Armageddon… This Is Hell”
Epicene – “Automatic Man”
Ersatz – “The Surface Of Me” 
Inchoate – “1000 More Fools”
Irascible – “Hooray For Me…”
Nascent – “Strange Denial”
Oligarchy – “Oligarchy”
Pusillanimous – “Hear It”
Reprobate – “A Walk”

While the vocabulary in the songs may be impressive, it is not the focus of the songs. The center and focus of many of Bad Religion’s songs is a message of conviction, and stay true to your beliefs, question everyone and anything, and of course to learn as much as you can.  This message is spread out over themes of politics, consumerism, propaganda, religion, and anything else that has lit a fire under Greg Graffin.

As an old friend and a collaborator to the original recording, Eddie Vedder took the stage to alternate verses and sing back up on “Watch It Die” from the Recipe For Hate album.  It was certainly the highpoint for the fans that were not familiar with bad Religion’s music, as soon as Eddie took stage the fans cheered and quickly got on their feet.

The complete setlist for the night was as follows:

Los Angelas Is Burning
Them And Us
Struck A Nerve
new Dark Ages
Suffer
Atomic Garden
Dearly Beloved
21st Century Digital Boy
Anastesia
No Control
Man With A Mission
Watch It Die (Featuring Eddie Vedder on Vocals)
Only Gonna Die From Our Own Arrogance
Infected
Sorrow