POP MUSIC REVIEWS : Suicidal Tendencies Hits Hard-Core Note

It has been years since Suicidal Tendencies has played its home town of Venice, so crowds of avid fans in the customary Suicidal garb--head scarfs, tube socks and tattoos--infiltrated the neighboring Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Friday in a show of undying support.

The legendary hard-core band, one of the few survivors from the ‘80s to break big on the mainstream level, crossed over into the larger metal arena a few years back, but kept its menacing street attitude and, therefore, its respected edge.

Friday’s show didn’t reveal any new twists in the band’s sound, but confirmed that Suicidal is more of a bad-ass institution than a trailblazing rock act.

Singer Mike Muir, who seems to get more muscular with each passing year, screamed, rapped and rambled old and new material through an annoyingly distorted and echo-heavy sound system--moving in a stealthy, evil skip across the stage. He whipped the audience into uniform shouts of “S-T, S-T” between songs, then had the band back his anthem shouts during more charged numbers.

The outfit’s mix of fist-pumping metal riffs and speedy hard-core satisfied both metal head bangers and punk moshers, but dress codes aside, it was Suicidal’s low-down attitude that hit a true dysfunctional chord and drove the show home.