Good Riddance's final show in Los Angeles, Ca. 5/25/07 w/Smoke Or Fire and No Trigger

The below pictures are from the following night 5/26/07 at Soma in San Diego, Ca. Check our pics section for photo coverage of the entire show in chronological order. Some of them are blurry and have people's heads in frame, but that's because they were all taken from in the crowd while getting pushed around and singing along at the top of my lungs. I had a blast taking them and I hope you enjoy 'em.

Photos and words by Joe D'Altilia

I first heard Good Riddance in late 1994 when I heard 'United Cigar' on the first Fat Music For Fat People compilation. I soon bought Good Riddance's first Fat Wreck Chords release 'For God And Country' and instantly fell in love with them. My first time seeing them was in the summer of '95 at The Aztlan theater on Denver, Co. They put on a great show to a medium sized crowd and I was hooked forever.

I ended up seeing them about 8 or 9 times in the next 12 years and they never ceased to amaze.

When I found our they were officially breaking up I almost felt shell shocked. It's a very strange feeling when a band that you grew up with suddenly breaks up. I realized that I sort of took them for granted and also realize that I'm getting old and I better get used to the bands I love also getting old and moving on with their lives. My feeling of shell shock faded when I found out that they would be playing three final shows in California. Los Angeles, San Diego, and their hometown of Santa Cruz. Living in San Diego I wanted to try to make all three, but Santa Cruz turned out to be too far away and time and money wouldn't allow it. Luckily I did manage to see the L.A. and San Diego shows.

My co-editor and I headed for L.A. in the early afternoon on Friday, May 25^th and managed to hit some heavy Memorial Day traffic. After about 4 hours we hit L.A. We showed up at the El Rey theatre a bit early and hit up the nearby La Brea tar pits, which stink really bad, but are very interesting. When we eventually went inside we were just in time to catch most of opener 'No Trigger'. They played a very energetic set of aggressive melodic hardcore in the vein of 'Strike Anywhere'. Up next was Richmond, Virginia's 'Smoke Or fire'. I had seen them once before on the Fat Tour a couple years ago and they were good then, but they are fucking great now. They've been touring almost non-stop for a long time and it really shows. The whole band has this incredible energy and conviction that you can't help but get sucked in by. They played an equal mix of new and old songs and the crowd loved them.

Up next was headliner Good Riddance. After about a half an hour wait, the lights went down and we were treated to almost all the samples GR have ever used on their albums. The crowd of mostly older fans ate it up and were chanting along with the samples. They were frothing at the mouth when GR walked out on stage. The whole band looked about as energized and happy as I'd ever seen them. They started with 'Heresy, Hypocrisy & Revenge' (I think… I had a few drinks so, ya know…) and the place went nuts. The band was putting 200% into their performance. Bass player Chuck Platt was rocking out and having a blast, while making his usual goofy faces. Drummer Sean Sellers was exceptional as usual and I was very happy he rejoined the band for their last record and played these shows. Singer Russ Rankin was all over the stage and seemed more energetic than usual. He made sure to give the crowd the mic for the sing-a-longs. Guitarist Luke Pabich almost stole the show, playing his guitar and singing along with a ferociousness I don't recall him having before. He was playing like a man with nothing to lose and one last chance to leave his mark. What a helluva mark he left. GR played for almost 2 hours making sure to include songs off almost all their releases, even their first 7". Chuck kept joking that they were playing 300 hundred songs and the show would end around 6AM (if only that had been true…). The whole band had a take no prisoners approach, really giving their fans more than they could have expected. The fans kept right up with them, showing a positive attitude sadly missing from a lot of shows these days. They ended with the anti-meat anthem 'Waste'. I will never forget when the show ended and Luke Pabich threw his arms up like a victorious boxer while screaming along with the crowd. Toward the beginning of the set, Russ told us he wanted us to remember this show for the rest of our lives. I know I will.

(The band played an equally amazing set, with a slightly different set list, the following night at Soma in San Diego. The crowd was a little bit smaller and Soma is a very shitty venue, so the overall experience was not quite as great as the L.A. show, but the bands actual performance was on par, if not better than the previous night.)