Punk Rock Bowling, Las Vegas (May 26-29)

Punk Rock Bowling – May 26-29, 2023 in Downtown Las Vegas; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

It's Memorial Day weekend! What are we memorializing? We forget. So F it...in Vegas.

Punk rock's dead, but... No, come on, punk's not dead! It's vital and this four-day festival aims to show some relevant bands and old favorites with a few greats that never got the exposure they deserve. Them's the breaks. This was always about going against the stream, against commercial success, against the rock 'n' ethos of getting wasted, building an ego and a solo spotlight, then crashing and burning. Punk's about getting straight to the crashing and burning. Seek and destroy. F authority, anarchy, freedom, individuality, self-responsibility, stand up for something instead of falling for anything. Fight the power. Undermine the system. Or at least play something simple and fast with some animation and real emotion.

Bad Religion: "We're Only Gonna Die"

(PunkPit) kit.com/DigitalKeith, Feb. 2, 2018, PunkPit.com. Vocalist and UCLA Professor Greg Graffin, Ph.D. (who went on to study life sciences at some name brand university to earn a doctorate in biology because what are punks if not smart-asses and -alecs sticking it to The Man), is clever keeping it simple with the lyrics to this classic:

(BadReligionEnLima) "We're Only Gonna Die"

Early man walked away

As modern man took control

Their minds weren't all the same

To conquer was his big goal

So he built his great empire

And slaughtered his own kind

Then he died a confused man

Killed himself with his own mind

We're only gonna die

from our own arrogance

We're only gonna die

from our own arrogance

We're only gonna die

from our own arrogance

• Henry Rollins, was Slayer punk rock? Crossover
• "Cult": Slayer hates bad religion, not the band

Best punk rock albums of all time according to Bad Religion