Local skate-punk legends the Boneless Ones play Great American Music Hall
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Legendary Bay Area skate-punk band the Boneless Ones play songs from their first new album in over 35 years when they support outlandish punk-metal group Cancer Christ this Saturday night at the Great American Music Hall.
Inspired by the classic Thrasher Magazine punk compilations of the early '80s, the band contributed a pair of tunes -- "Keg Kept a Flowing," a parody of the oft-covered, blues-rock staple "Train Kept a Rollin'" -- and the original song "Love to Hate" -- to the Bay Area punk imprint Boner Records' seminal collection Them Boners Be Poppin' alongside such hardcore greats as Tales of Terror, Fang, Verbal Abuse and Bl'ast.
In 1986, the group released it's debut album, the landmark skate-punk effort Skate for the Devil that stands as one of the Bay Area's great contributions to the crossover movement. While the band would split up the following year, Boneless Ones reunited in 2019 with original singer Max Fox and bassist Troy Takaki teaming up with a local metal and punk legend for their new line-up featuring drummer Chris Kontos (Attitude Adjustment, Machine Head, Verbal Abuse and many others) -- who actually played in the Boneless Ones during the last six months before the split. [Full disclosure: Chris and I met while in elementary school and later reconnected as teens and later still as adults going to metal and punk shows.]
The band played the 2019 Haight Street Fair and a few other shows with a couple of guitarists before hooking up with talented six-string hero Craig Locicero (Forbidden Evil/Forbidden, Manmade God, Dress the Dead and more), who has ably filled the sizeable shoes of original guitar player, the late Luke Skeels.
In addition to reissuing the long out-of-print Skate for the Devil on Beer City in 2020, that December the band put out it's first new tune in decades just before Christmas with the hilarious seasonal punk anthem "Santa Stole My Skateboard." With the pandemic shutting down touring and live music in general, the Boneless Ones teamed to write new songs to go with four tracks from a long-lost demo that was originally recorded in 1987, coming up with material for the group's first new album in over 35 years, Back to the Grind.
Capturing the same mix of irreverent humor and blistering punk-meets-metal skate anthems that made Skate for the Devil a timeless classic, the new effort set for release in May delivers neck-snapping musical mayhem ("We Ride The Night," "Church Of Violence," "Crossing Over the Bridge") that longtime fans will readily embrace while delving into new territory on the Beatles-esque lament for lost lust "I Wish You Were Beer" that manages to be both heartfelt and hilarious. More recently, the band paid its first visit to Europe, playing the Dynamo Festival in Eindhoven, Netherlands in August.
The Boneless Ones provide support for demented theatrical punk-metal crew Cancer Christ this Saturday night at the Great American Music Hall. The Los Angeles-based band has been making waves with the over-the-top spectacle of their live self-described "reptilian Christian power violence" that features most of the band decked out in lizard masks backing charismatic berobed lead singer/preacher Anthony Mehlhaff. While the band's profane and highly entertaining shows feature pyrotechnics and fans getting baptized in fake blood, Mehlhaff insists the message of their frenetic music is one of love and all-embracing inclusion. The group's reputation for unhinged performances recently earned Cancer Christ spots on tours supporting Eyehategod and Goatwhore as well as like-minded theatrical metal band Gwar.
Opening the show will be North Bay thrash-metal favorites Hellbender. Founded over a decade ago by guitarist Greg "Clee" Clecak and bassist Eric Lee (who were both in late '90s North Bay alt/punk band Wingnut), the group is fronted by onetime Indulgence and Seeds of Hate singer Bill "Dollar Bill" Scheffler and currently rounded out by former Victims Family and Closing In drummer Eric Strand. The band issued its first full-length album -- the politically charged American Nightmare -- on No Life 'Til Metal Records in 2020. The quartet recently competed in a national battle of the bands for a slot playing at Wacken Open Air metal festival in Germany.
Cancer Christ with the Boneless Ones and Hellbender
Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. $19.99-$26.66
Great American Music Hall
