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DOA in Long Beach: Canadian punks D.O.A. are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Hardcore ‘81 album by playing the whole thing in Long Beach. The Death Set, Sweat, and the Mainliners also perform.

This writer chatted with frontman Joey Shithead in 2015, and he told us about his new album at the time.

“It’s called Hard Rain Falling,” he said. “I just tried to write some songs that, rather than adding extra guitar riffs I was thinking of old DOA that was quick and to the point. When you think about really early punk rock, from the English stuff to DOA to Bad Brains to Black Flag, it’s pretty um-tempo, quick and to the point. I made it topical, about street gangs and racism.”

They’ve released two more albums since then, the most recent being 2020’s Treason. But even back then, they were focussing on the oldies.

“One of the things we’re doing on this tour is playing the Hardcore 81 album from start to finish,” Shithead said. “There’ll be still be time for more songs, because that album’s only 29 minutes long. If I get a beer, that’s 30 minutes. There’s that, and then we’ll play a few new ones. Songs like “Police Brutality,” which is pretty important when you think about what’s going on in places like Ferguson.”

Shithead concluded with: “I think everyone can look forward to a wild, unbridled show, no holds barred, trying to maintain that reputation on stage. Every time we go to a town, especially because we’ve been around for so long, I just go, ‘You know what? I’m just gonna put everything into the show because who knows, this might be the last time I’m here.’ That’s important. People can tell when you’re going through the motions. It takes a while, but eventually they figure out that it’s lame. DOA has always been loud, upbeat, political and funny. That’s really what we are so we try to keep doing that.”

DOA in Long Beach: The event takes place at 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 14 at Alex’s Bar.

 

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