In a nutshell, Bored & Dangerous says: “Sometimes, I just need something light and fun from my punk rock. Sometimes, I just need the Vandals.”
Picture it, Brisbane Australia at the turn of the millennium, a young Pete Laurie gets obsessed with Bad Religion, and very quickly sees that obsession spread to their So-Cal contemporaries. Snot nosed teens in the 80s who kept their bands together long enough to perfect their craft and become punk rock elder statesman in the 2000s. What that meant was literally dozens of records to catch up from bands a like NOFX, Guttermouth and The Vandals. While Bad Religion tackled the big issues, Guttermouth focused on giving society an adolescent middle finger long after their own adolescence were over, and NOFX graduated from finger giving to tackling big issues. But The Vandals focused more on keeping it light, fun and tight. With a constantly changing line up over their first few years and albums, things began to solidify with Fear of Punk Planet.
The Vandals have always specialised in the mundanity of life. They’re not system fighting, issue driven, machine against raging punk rockers. They’re much more interested in giving the small moments of everyday life a kick of punk energy. Like having a crush on a local Vietnamese pizza delivery girl in a song like Pizza Tran. It’s A.D.D, frantic pace never gets in the way of its punk edge. An edge that still somehow manages to shine through on the mix of glam rock, hair metal and disco that is The Rodge. (more…)