Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Generators plug in at Shakedown

USA Today once identified the Generators as one of America’s most underrated of punk bands. In truth, a punk-revival band from late 1990s Los Angeles, the Generators owe much to the Britpunk of the 1970s. But then, what punk band doesn’t? Great Britain was the mother ship of punk. That ancient sound, hybridized with U.S. bands such as the Dead Kennedys (and maybe the Minutemen and Bad Religion) is more or less what the Generators chose to bring. They avoided the cheery music one could sing along to that we called pop punk, which bands and clones of bands brought to the nation’s airwaves and arenas in large numbers in the ’90s.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But one wonders about punk as a career choice: pop punk in its day was lucrative, while true punkers seemed generally to have a short life span. To wit, three records into a deal with Warner Brothers as Schleprock (this is the band that more or less became the Generators), and the members were burned out. They broke apart, they regrouped, and they returned as something bigger and better. At the center of both bands is a singer named Doug Kane who goes by the pseudonym “Dagger.”

When Dagger was a teen, he weaseled his way into L.A.’s best post-punk rock clubs of the day: Godzilla’s, the Vex, Cathay De Grande. Cathay de Grande was where bands like the Knack gigged before gaining fame. The club shuttered in 1986. The Circle Jerks were among those who played the farewell show. Consider the club a training ground for the fiercely competitive climate that would eventually spawn the Generators, which, after better than 15 years, is still generating. These days, the Generators may be aging guys with sleeves and attitudes and mortgages, but the band has a new record due out in May and a Euro-tour in the works. Good times while you can get them.

Smogtown and Wooly Mammoth also perform.

The Generators: Shakedown, Friday, February 1, 9 p.m. 619-804-9523. $8

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Memories of bonfires amid the pits off Palm

Before it was Ocean View Hills, it was party central

USA Today once identified the Generators as one of America’s most underrated of punk bands. In truth, a punk-revival band from late 1990s Los Angeles, the Generators owe much to the Britpunk of the 1970s. But then, what punk band doesn’t? Great Britain was the mother ship of punk. That ancient sound, hybridized with U.S. bands such as the Dead Kennedys (and maybe the Minutemen and Bad Religion) is more or less what the Generators chose to bring. They avoided the cheery music one could sing along to that we called pop punk, which bands and clones of bands brought to the nation’s airwaves and arenas in large numbers in the ’90s.

Sponsored
Sponsored

But one wonders about punk as a career choice: pop punk in its day was lucrative, while true punkers seemed generally to have a short life span. To wit, three records into a deal with Warner Brothers as Schleprock (this is the band that more or less became the Generators), and the members were burned out. They broke apart, they regrouped, and they returned as something bigger and better. At the center of both bands is a singer named Doug Kane who goes by the pseudonym “Dagger.”

When Dagger was a teen, he weaseled his way into L.A.’s best post-punk rock clubs of the day: Godzilla’s, the Vex, Cathay De Grande. Cathay de Grande was where bands like the Knack gigged before gaining fame. The club shuttered in 1986. The Circle Jerks were among those who played the farewell show. Consider the club a training ground for the fiercely competitive climate that would eventually spawn the Generators, which, after better than 15 years, is still generating. These days, the Generators may be aging guys with sleeves and attitudes and mortgages, but the band has a new record due out in May and a Euro-tour in the works. Good times while you can get them.

Smogtown and Wooly Mammoth also perform.

The Generators: Shakedown, Friday, February 1, 9 p.m. 619-804-9523. $8

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Hockey Dad brings UCSD vets and Australians to the Quartyard

Bending the stage barriers in East Village
Next Article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader