"We grew up with Goldenvoice punk flyers on our walls, so it's an absolute honor to be here playing with these bands," Ceremony guitarist Anthony Anzaldo declared at No Values, the biggest punk/hardcore festival in American concert history, which took place Saturday, June 8 in Pomona, Calif.
Goldenvoice is now a subsidiary of AEG Worldwide and best known as megafest Coachella's promoter. However, it lanched in 1981 as a DIY company, booking scrappy, now-legendary punk gigs at now-defunct SoCal venues like Fender's Ballroom, the Olympic Auditorium, and Perkins Palace. So, as AEG/Goldenvoice recruited old-school acts like the Adicts, the Adolescents, Agent Orange, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Cro-Mags, the Dead Milkmen, the Dickies, the Exploited, Fear, Fishbone, the Jesus Lizard, Social Distortion, Suicidal Tendencies, the Vandals, and the original Misfits — along with newer bands like Ceremony, Fidlar, the Garden, Joyce Manor, and Viagra Boys — for the first-ever No Values fest, it was indeed a full-circle-pit momentfor everyone involved.
Goldenvoice co-founder Gary Tovar, who named the company after a strain of weed, even came out early in the day to introduce T.S.O.L., the band that headlined the first-ever Goldenvoice show on Dec. 4, 1981.
This “Punkchella” also featured a Goldenvoice Lounge wallpapered with faded '80s punk flyers; a "Jello-a-Go-Go" dive bar, with former Dead Kennedys leader Jello Biafra spinning vintage vinyl; a Vans-sponsored half-pipe skating showcase with surprise guest Tony Hawk; a ska-centric stage graced by bands like Hepcat, the Selecter, the Skeletones, and the Untouchables; and limited-edition ska T-shirts designed by Simpsonsanimator Eric Stefani, whose famous former band No Doubt got their start playing Goldenvoice shows.
But, just as Coachella had its pain points when it debuted in 1999, the No Values festival was plagued by chaos... and notthe good, punk-rock kind. Never mind the agonizing set-conflict choices that fans faced (Turnstile vs. Iggy Pop vs. Fishbone, the Damned vs. the Selecter, L7 vs. the Dickies, Sublime vs. Bad Religion, etc.) across the day's four constantly rotating stages — many attendees never even sawthose bands, missing out on half of the festival as they idled in gridlocked parking lot traffic for hours. Parking was probably much easier back in 1981.
Outraged festivalgoers griped on Xand Redditthat they waited three hours or longer to park (and some who'd paid in advance for preferred parking reported that they were actually turned away because by the time they arrived, the oversold VIP lot was supposedly full). One driver even tweetedthat their car overheated during the interminable wait. Exiting the lot at the evening's end was equally excruciating, with seemingly hardly any security on hand to direct the rush/crush of traffic. Cars literally did not move an inch for two hours before drivers finally went rogue and began zig-zagging all over the two GA parking lots, demolition-derby-style, like an automotive moshpit or something Eric Stefani might have drawn for The Simpsons' "Truckasaurus" episode. The festival's parking situation in general was such a "traffic nightmare" that it made the local news.
Those among the 40,000 fans lucky enough to make it inside the Pomona Fairplex in time to catch their favorite bands had an easier time of it, with swiftly moving concession lines, a nice array of tasty and often vegan food, a like-clockwork show schedule, and quick walking routes from stage to stage. The biggest issue was figuringwhichstages were worth their time, because, as mentioned above, attendees were spoiled for choice.
The day's two biggest surprises came when Jello Biafra left his air-conditioned '60s speakeasy to join both Agent Orange (for a cover of the Dead Kennedys' "Police Truck") and the Dillinger Escape Plan, who were playing their first gig in seven years (for "California Über Alles"). Suicidal Tendencies' Mike Muir also surprise-guested with Dillinger Escape Plan on a rendition of Minor Threat's "In My Eyes." Sublime, fronted by the late Bradley Nowell's eerily soundalike son Jakob, covered Bad Religion and the Descendents and performed four Sublime songs for the first time since 1996: "Ball and Chain," "Pool Shark," "Right Back," and "New Thrash."
The above paragraph alone demonstates that No Values was a very bro-heavy event (the lines for the men's restrooms were nearly as long as the lines to get into the parking lot, while the ladies' rooms were amusingly empty). So, one of the day's most refreshing highlights was the set by L.A.'s all-female punk/grunge trailblazers L7, who were in fierce form and whose flying-V-brandishing co-frontwoman, Donita Sparks, proclaimed, "We are proud to be some rare p--sy on this stage today!" before launching into their feminist anthem "Shove."
Along with L7, the Selecter's Pauline Black, and Scowl's Kat Moss, also bringing some much-needed estrogen energy to a festival lineup that was only 3.2 percent female were keyboardist Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Police Woman) and guitarist Sarah Lipstate (aka Noveller) — both looking unflappably, impeccably cool as they played for punk elder statesman Iggy Pop. Wasser and Lipstate were part of Pop's super-tight supergroup that also comprised the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner, Matt Sweeney of Skunk/Chavez/Zwan fame, and session drummer Urian Hackney (whose father and uncles play in Iggy & the Stooges' protopunk Detroit peers Death). The grinning Iggy seemed delighted to entertain No Values' multi-generational audience — earnestly shouting, "F---in' thanks!" several times, dancing with a giddy fan during "Lust for Life," and cranking out the Stooges' "1970" solo for the first time in 35 years.
But perhaps the most enjoyable, 35-years-in-the-making No Values set was by the day's other elder statesmen, the Damned. Reuniting their iconic early-'80s lineup of Dave Vanian, Captain Sensible, Rat Scabies, and Paul Gray, and (as the good Captain himself worded it) coming "all the way from nineteen seventy f---ing six" to entertain all the "young whippersnappers," the first-wave U.K. punk pioneers smashed it up with classic after classic... including "New Rose," which Sensible cheekily introduced as "the song the Sex Pistols wished they'd written."
So, No Values was not a total smashing-it-up success. But, with more convenient and organized parking (and with more women on the bill), it could keep the voice of punk golden, when and if it returns with another all-star lineup in 2025.
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