One of the hardest things for the band Pennywise was to keep going after one of its founding members died in 1996. "When Jason (Thirsk) died, we had to look at ourselves and see what we were all about," said Pennywise co-founder and guitarist Fletcher Dragge.
"We had made a career of singing about facing adversities and standing strong during trials," Dragge said during a telephone interview from his home in Los Angeles. "And we were in the middle of our own. Our own songs gave us that energy and confidence to keep going. Because if we would have quit after Jason died, then we'd be a bunch of hypocrites."
Pennywise — with Dragge, drummer Byron McMackin, bassist Randy Bradbury and vocalist Jim Lindberg — will play the Ice Village, 150 S. 550 West, on Saturday, Feb. 16, at 9 p.m. Tickets will be available at the door for $15. Hot Rod Circuit will open the show.
Pennywise began back in 1988, when Thirsk and Dragge got fed up playing in a bunch of cover bands in Los Angeles. "We had been in bands since about 1980," Dragge said. "We got together because we wanted to do something other than covers. We meshed the East Coast and West Coast punk sound and came up with what we do now."
For 14 years, Pennywise has been a player in the L.A. punk scene. And the band has seen its fans' attitudes change. Just last year, Pennywise released an album titled "Land of the Free?" as a statement against corruption, especially within the ranks of high authority. "We were tired of the police and politicians abusing their power," Dragge said. "We had just lived through the presidential election controversy and we heard on the news about the scary scenes that were going around, with the police using their authority to hurt people. So we wanted to let our voice be heard."
Then came Sept. 11, when the whole world changed. "That hit us hard," Dragge said. "The attacks happened because a person with authority in another country was abusing his power. And it call came full circle for us."
Dragge said Pennywise immediately agreed to have some of its songs pulled off the radio, because in the context of the tragedies, the songs might sound disrespectful. And they're still off the radio. "We love our country, and we don't want to do anything that would bring it down. The songs we wrote and sang were supposed to be a wake-up call. Our music was a campaign to fix the broken system. But after the World Trade Center tragedy, we all agreed that we needed to pull the songs. We hope the best for the victims' families."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com