Huntridge Theatre set to be Vandalized

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Nov. 8, 2002 | 10:44 a.m.

Who: The Vandals with Tsunami Bomb and Audio Karate.

When: 7 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Huntridge Theatre.

Tickets: $12.

Information: 678-6800.

Take one spin through "Soccer Mom," a track from The Vandals' latest album, "Internet Dating Super Studs," and it's readily apparent that the resilient 21-year-old punk rock band has not lost its unusual sense of humor.

"Gliding across the lawn, oranges and Evian. And pizza right after the game. Just tell me where and when, Volvos and collagen. Hope you might feel the same. My soccer mom, it's on," begins the tale of a young man's unrequited love for an older woman.

But guitarist Warren Fitzgerald, who writes most of the group's songs these days, realizes there's a fine line between silly and stupid. He and his bandmates refer to it simply as, "The Weird Al Factor."

"Don't get me wrong, I like Weird Al (Yankovic); he's great," Fitzgerald said in a recent phone interview from his home in Seal Beach, Calif. "But the world doesn't need any more Weird Als. We try to present lyrics in a humorous context, but also maybe with some insight or some point of view sprinkled in there, so it's not a straight-up joke.

"A joke is funny when you hear it once, but the second time around it's not as funny. So it's a difficult thing to do."

The Vandals play Sunday night at 7 at the Huntridge Theatre with opening acts Tsunami Bomb and Audio Karate.

Based in Southern California, The Vandals have been working humor into their music since punk's early 1980s heyday, when The Clash, Black Flag and The Ramones dominated the scene.

The Vandals have outlasted those acts, though not without an almost complete lineup overhaul. Joe Escalante is the lone holdover from the early days, and even he switched instruments along the way, from drums to bass.

Fitzgerald, vocalist Dave Quackenbush and drummer Josh Freese all joined between 1985 and '89. The quartet have become the group's most prolific combination, releasing a steady stream of albums starting in 1991.

"We don't have the weird kind of pressure a lot of bands feel when they're trying to make it and sell records and have a hit," Fitzgerald said. "We've found our niche, and we're comfortable with that.

"The casual approach really is what has made us last."

Though the early Vandals' incarnations left behind almost no recorded evidence of their existence, the unofficial roster of former band members includes one name that will be familiar to even the most casual music fan: actor Keanu Reeves.

"We played a New Year's Eve party in someone's living room that Joe, for some reason, couldn't make," Fitzgerald said. "Keanu was there, and he plays bass, so we taught him a couple of songs in one of the bedrooms. I'd sort of forgotten about that."

The Vandals' latest album is the band's first on Kung Fu Records, a label owned and operated by Escalante and Fitzgerald. Initially conceived to house up-and-coming punk outfits, Kung Fu eventually became a natural choice for The Vandals' own music as well.

"This time we decided to do it in-house and have an opportunity to do things the way that seem to be the most sensical," Fitzgerald said. "I like the new record. It's a fun romp, and that's exactly what we were going for."

Fitzgerald, one-time guitarist for New Wavers Oingo Boingo, journeyed even deeper into the realm of comedic rock last year, playing on Tenacious D's self-titled debut album.

"I've been a huge fan and friends with (Tenacious D members Jack Black and Kyle Gass) for a few years, and when they did their album I got the privilege of taking the reigns on the electric guitar," Fitzgerald said. "Comedy rock is a tricky genre, but they do it perfectly. They have enough musical credibility that it's funny but thoughtful."

The Vandals also have musical credibility these days, something that could be said about few punk bands in the late '70s and early '80s.

"We're playing punk by choice, not by default of going, 'Well, we know a couple of chords, so we'll be a punk band,' " Fitzgerald said.

And improving their musical skills has allowed the four members of The Vandals to continue far longer than their guitarist ever thought possible.

"Being in it for over 10 years is not something I anticipated," Fitzgerald said. "When I started, it was a different era in punk rock. There was no potential career in it.

"But it's something that still attracts people for whatever reason, the music or the lyrics or the do-it-yourself vibe. Or maybe it's just the fact that you get to dye your hair blue and make your parents angry."