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Get ‘War Inside My Head’ from Suicidal Tendencies new DVD, ‘Live at the Olympic Auditorium’. (more…)

Gian Erguiza of FrantikMag.com recently conducted an interview with frontman Mike Muir of the long-running Venice Beach, California thrash/punk band SUICIDAL TENDENCIES.

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A two-year breakup period notwithstanding, Suicidal Tendencies have plugged away since 1981. In its earliest of days, as Mike Muir’s brief but passionate interview in Live At The Olympic Auditorium indicates, the band had no ambition of doing anything other than practicing in their kitchen for fun (or playing their own “rent parties”). It’s been a long time, and they’ve come a long way. And the performance on this DVD, showcasing their idiosyncratic, highly-unique street punk/thrash hybrid, reveals a band as energetic as bands half their age.

Notable members like guitarist Rocky George, drummer Jimmy DeGrasso and current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo have in the past spent time alongside Muir, the only remaining original member, yet he has without a doubt always been the band’s core. Yet while the current lineup may differ completely from fan favorite “classic” periods, they don’t sound like a troupe of hired guns. Air-tight in delivery, they throw in dashes of funk, blues and rock into a mix that’s much more heavy on the punk dynamic (“Institutionalized”) rather than the metallic one.

Read the complete Suicidal Tendencies – Live At The Olympic Auditorium DVD Review

(DVD cover courtesy Suicidal Records)

Suicidal Tendencies – Live At The Olympic Auditorium DVD Review originally appeared on About.com Heavy Metal on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 08:14:14.

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Suicidal Tendencies – Live at the Olympic Auditorium
2010 Fontana Distribution
Ray Van Horn, Jr.

Suicidal Tendencies never wholly received the grace of forgiveness bands such as D.R.I. and Broken Bones were extended as punk crossovers. While the latter bands were celebrated and championed by metal historians (in D.R.I.’s case, lovingly praised for inadvertently dubbing the word “crossover” via their first technically thrash album of the same name), Suicidal Tendencies were nailed to the cross for about-facing into their surf and slam modes during the late eighties.

Push to shove, the speed metal incarnation of Suicidal, which featured fan favorite shredder Rocky George and eventually future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, was actually the most proficient of all the crossover acts. How Will I Laugh Tomorrow…When I Can’t Even Smile Today remains Suicidal’s masterwork for their metallic era, even if that album cost the band a lot of cred in the eyes of the skate punks who nurtured the band with their loyalty.

After scoring big with Lights…Camera…Revolution, it was the adventurous and brazen The Art of Rebellion which found Mike Muir and company exposing themselves at the roots, yet they were promptly faced with the backs of their newly-won thrash horde, which joined not Suicidal’s army, but the ranks with the original punkers Suicidal first staked their reputations with.

Despite the peculiar and sometimes blazing career path Suicidal Tendencies found themselves upon, once you cut the cloth and tie on the swag, this is a punk band deep in its heart and soul. It’s taken a veritable collapse of favor and a lot industry dissing upon the shoulers of Muir (who went deep underground for a long time) for the name of Suicidal Tendencies to spoken reverentially again.

In this time, the lineup continues to be shaken up as Mike Muir remains the lone wolf prowling from the lineup recording Suicidal Tendencies’ quintessential 1983 self-titled album. The man with the most tenure in Suicidal beside Muir is rhythm guitarist Mike Clark, and here is where we find the group in their first-ever DVD Live at the Olympic Auditorium.

It took a special moment to lure Muir and his refurbished punk unit out of the shadows, hence this moment captured for posterity with an excitable Mike Muir slinking and cutting from side-to-side onstage as he’s always done in the midst of an area-loved and punk-hospitable venue witnessing its final moments.

Closing the doors of the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles with a stripped and dirtied punk version of Suicidal Tendencies is one for the history books. Considering Suicidal had long been banned from playing in L.A. (having been accused of being gangbangers even before such lingo was spun), you have to appreciate the irony of seeing them finish a chapter of the city’s underground.

It would’ve been truly fitting to have Louiche Mayorga, Grant Estes and Amery Smith help savor the butter, so to speak, however, give Muir’s 2005 stable a hand for putting on an appropriately rowdy and punk-oriented performance. Even when dipping into the metal catalog of Suicidal Tendencies with “Waking the Dead,” “Won’t Fall in Love Today” and “Pledge Your Allegiance,” there’s no flash or meaty chugs, only streamlined downpicking to accompany the flighty, whirlwind tempos replicant of the Suicidal Tendencies days.

Much of the set on Live at the Olympic Auditorium is corralled from the pivotal debut album via “I Shot Reagan,” “I Saw Your Mommy,” “Suicidal Failure,” “Subliminal,” “Two Sided Politics” and their manic fantastic calling card, “Institutionalized.” Added to the fun is “Possessed to Skate” and “War Inside My Head,” the two best cuts from Suicidal’s frequently-maligned Join the Army album from 1987.

As he’s done throughout his tenure leading Suicidal, Mike Muir chants, recites and proseltyzes in-between songs, but soon enough, Steve Bruner is slapping some mad bass to issue some random downhome funk, while Dean Pleasants scorches his frets as quickly as Dave Hidalgo (recently replaced by Eric Moore of Muir’s longtime side project Infectious Grooves) can beat down the skate rat tempos which forged this band from the beginning.

Though the track listing on the DVD case omits the always-hilarious “Send Me Your Money” from Lights…Camera…Revolution! it’s even funnier this time as the rhythm is deliberately scaled a click in some sections, upped in others, keeping it street instead of slick. Thus a polished metal jam from 1990 gets reinvented with a greasier punk tweak ala 1984.

Fans of Suicidal Tendencies from the start are going to feel a sense of relief watching Live at the Olympic Auditorium. For all they might’ve perceived to have suffered as Suicidal explored every opportunity for growth they could, this one’s shot right to the do-ragged domes of the old league. Though some may scoff at Muir for constantly jabbering about being punk, he does slip in an admission of guilt before his audience; without using the words, he’s labeling himself a former sellout who needed a cocooning phase to get real.

The behind-the-scenes story to this show is even more disruptive when you consider Muir found himself practically paralyzed before this concert transpired. Postponing back surgery, Muir’s capacity to roam all over the stage with 4000 fans in front of him and a gallery of photogs and fans poised directly behind the band is pretty damned inspirational. You have to cheer he gave his all for a noble cause in this matter…

Rating: ****

Fontana Distribution has announced the release of Live At The Olympic Auditorium, Suicidal Tendencies’ first ever DVD release. The DVD will street January 26, 2010 via the band’s own imprint, Suicidal Records. The approximately 80-minute DVD features 16 tracks including ST classics “Institutionalized,” “War Inside My Head,” and “Possessed To Skate.”

Elaborated ST founding vocalist Mike Muir: “The band started getting emails from some crazy guy that always said, ‘I know you’ll probably think I’m crazy, but I’m not. I’m wanna book ST for a show and I got this idea…’. Well, one by one we shot down the ‘unique’ ideas until one time he emailed and said the Olympic Auditorium was being bought by a Korean Church. Shouldn’t it be sent off with a special last gig? The band agreed and then the work began. The promoter — Evel Dick Donato who went on to win Big Brother — tells a bit about the show, making of etc. on the intro. Lots of drama, none more than the day before the show when I woke up and couldn’t walk. But the show must go on and the back surgery would have to wait till afterwards. Suicidal recorded live at the Olympic Auditorium in front of 4,000 Cycos…but now you can enjoy it in the safety of your living room.”

Fontana Distribution has announced “Live At The Olympic Auditorium”, Suicidal Tendencies’ first-ever DVD release.

Since their beginnings in Venice, California in the early ’80s, SUICIDAL TENDENCIES have led the charge in the skate punk/thrash metal movement, consequently influencing an entire generation of bands along the way.