There are always those legendary bands that were the catalyst and inspiration that came first and inspired some of the biggest bands in the world. That’s the case when the legends The Descendents came to the House of Blues in Anaheim. The Descendents have been cited by almost every pop punk band in the industry like Green Day and Blink-182 as highly influential in their careers. As big of a pop punk fan as I am, I somehow have never seen Descendents yet. So, I was excited to finally see the band that truly inspired some of my favorite bands. This was a co-headlining tour featuring the Descendents and Frank Turner. This night sold out so quickly that a second date was announced, just showing how much this band is loved and how much the fans support them when they come through town.

Opening the show was Canadian garage punk band Nobro. These guys had an in-your-face style of music, fused with vocal harmonies and loud audience participation chant-style choruses. Whether you were familiar with the music or not, you were sucked into the bombastic beats that got your head banging and made you want to thrash your body into someone else’s. Co-vocalists Kathryn McCaughey and Karolane Carbonneau sing with a melodic bite that you can feel the energy and aggression in. Nobro assaulted us with songs like “Where My Girls At,” “Marianna,” “Let’s Do Drugs,” “Set That Pussy Free,” “Till I Get It All,” “Eat Slay Chardonnay,” “Delete Delete Delete,” “Better Each Day,” “Bye Bye Baby,” and “LALA.” Nobro was a feisty start to the night that warmed people up to the mayhem that was to come.

Up next was the first of our co-headliners with Frank Turner taking the stage, alongside him was his band The Sleeping Souls. This was my first time seeing or hearing of Frank Turner and his music, but I was drawn in instantly. Frank is an English punk and folk singer, and armed with his acoustic guitar and English accent, the music has a fiery intensity to it. His music sounds like a rallying cry to arms of the common man. Not to be stuck behind his microphone, Frank would constantly run around the stage, acting as his own hype man making sure the crowd was along for the ride with him. But Frank wasn’t just this one tonal expression, as he could slow things down and turn his acoustic aggression into a romantic candlelit dinner as he serenaded the entire audience. Frank Turner flowed through these musical moments with a setlist comprised of some of his fan favorites like “I Still Believe,” “Try This at Home,” “Never Mind the Back Problems,” “Photosynthesis,” “Girl From the Record Shop,” “1933,” “My Bad,” “Plain Sailing Weather,” “Be More Kind,” “The Ballad of Me and My Friends,” “Love Ire & Song,” “Do One,” “Punches,” “Non Serviam,” “Get Better,” and ending with “Four Simple Words.” Frank Turner came across as a man of the people, and this person here is now a follower.

It was then time for the trendsetters known as Descendents. Vocalist Milo Aukerman walked on stage wearing a fan-made hat. Showing the band’s mascot Milo sitting on a toilet checking off his to-do’s. It was perfectly ridiculous and fitting to the band. Kicking things off with “Everything Sux,” Milo immediately jumped onto the barricade singing right in the faces of the fans and passing the mic around to let the fans scream-sing with the band. You could see and feel the passion and love that all of the fans were giving to the band right from the start.

Descendents features Bill Stevenson on drums, Stephen Egerton on guitar, and Karl Alvarez on bass. Along with Milo’s vocals these guys were here to play loud and fast. Cramming 33 songs into about an hour and fifteen minute set time. The crowd made the most of this time by making sure that the circle pit never slowed down, and sending bodies over the barricade constantly. They knew they were here for a good time, not a long time.

This explosive set of hard-hitting music featured classics like “Hope,” “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up,” “I Like Food,” “’Merican,” “Myage,” “My Dad Sucks,” “Marriage,” “Without Love,” “Global Probing,” “When I Get Old,” “Silly Girl,” “No, All!,” “Van,” “Talking,” “Good Good Things,” “Coolidge,” “I’m the One,” “Thank You,” “Smile,” and coming back for a four-song encore with “Jean is Dead,” “Feel This,” “Sour Grapes,” and “Descendents.” If you didn’t walk away from this set covered in your own, and other people’s, sweat you didn’t go hard enough to the Descendents.

Now finally having seen Descendents, I can completely understand why they were such a huge inspiration in the pop punk genre. As well as highly influential to the pop punk bands of the 90s and early 2000s. The tone, the live energy, the lyrical content, Descendents put it all together and made it accessible to teens of the era who just wanted to break out from the norm of suburban life. This wasn’t just a concert experience, this was a history class in the revolution of my favorite genre of music.