This week I got to see the iconic punk band, Descendents playing in Bournemouth. They were more or less done with regular touring when I got into them around the time of their 2004 release Cool To Be You. The idea that they’d be playing 20 minutes from my house, 21 years later was inconceivable.
This is a band who will celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2027. They’ve been and gone five times during their tenure, taking lengthy breaks to account for frontman Milo Aukerman’s other vocation as a molecular biologist.
Now retired, Milo has opted to revisit the band he started as a teenager as a full time gig. What an incredible life story.
14 years ago, and 7 years into my fandom, a rare opportunity came up for me to see the band for the first time. It didn’t go quite as planned. Here’s one from the archives for you…
Fortunately I went onto see the band play, uninterrupted sets, twice later in 2011. Those are both stories for another time.
Back to the present day(ish), this Bournemouth show was first scheduled to happen in summer 2023. It was cancelled indefinitely days before when Milo suffered a mild heart attack.
Almost two years later he and the band were back, with Circle Jerks in tow and on top form for a 29 song set. I think this was the best I’ve seen them.
Liam Toms 