I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: August 1, 2024] D.O.A.

I was never really a fan of D.O.A.  I had nothing against them, they were just slightly off of my radar.  I have their album that they recorded with Jello Biafra, but I had no real reason to investigate them further.

I was surprised to see that they were still around (after dozens of lineup changes). They have broken up and reunited a few times and as of 2014, they have had a stable lineup with original guitarist/singer Joey “Shithead” Keithley and Mike Hodsall on bass and Paddy Duddy on drums.

I didn’t know this, but, Joey Shithead was elected a city councillor in Burnaby, BC in the 2018 municipal elections as a member of the Burnaby Green Party. He was re-elected in the October 2022 municipal election.  He is 68 and has a lot of on stage energy and presence.  I was also surprised by his little showoffy moves–playing guitar behind his head and playing with his teeth (?) I think.  Those aren’t really punk moves, but they were fun to watch.

Their last album was 2020’s Treason which took direct aim at trump and his ilk.  They even re-recorded one of their old songs, Fucked Up Ronnie as Fucked Up Donald, just for him.

But they focused mostly on their older songs.  With 6 songs from the Hardcore 81 album (13 songs in 18 minutes).  Their songs are sort (obviously) but catchy and a lot of fun.  Joey Shithead played some ripping guitar solos and Hodsall jumped all around the stage.  They also played four songs from their debut album 1980’s Something Better Change.

I was really surprised when they played “Fuck You,” because I had always thought it was a song by Overkill.  I guess I never read  the liner notes of that album to find out it was a cover of a song by The Subhumans.  Sounded pretty much the same, though, which was cool.

The Kenny Blister Song was hilarious–an a capella song that was 16 seconds long, sung to the tune of Davy Crockett, the lyrics:
Kenny, Kenny Blister
The man who ran away

There were a couple more songs from their 1982 EP.  After “I Hate You” Joey made sure to tell us that he actually loved us.  Up until the encore, the most current song was 1992’s Already Dead–which was rocking and pretty heavy.

I was delighted with their heavy rendition of War (good god, y’all) what is it good for.  Seeing that it is a Temptations cover blew my mind (the story behind that song is interesting too).

After one more song (about a half an hour of music), they finished up.  But they did come back out for an encore.

Paddy Duddy asked if anyone knew what was happening in 1978 while Hodsall played a disco bassline.  Then Joey run onstage to play Disco Sucks, an amusing if utterly untimely song.

That’s when Joey told us that he was an elected official and he had called up trump to play “Fucked up Donald” at him.  Hilarious.

They ended with “Race Riot”

Race riot, don’t buy it
We don’t want that shit

And they were done.  Joey and  the guys happily hung out with fans and took pictures and signed stuff, but I was ready to head home.  It was a fun night of surprisingly mellow punk rock.

1. D.O.A. ⊗
2. Unknown ⊗
3. The Enemy ⇔
4. 2+2 ⇔
5. World War 3 ⇔
6. Fuck You (The Subhumans cover)
7. The Kenny Blister Song ⊗
8. Smash the State ⊗
9. I Hate You Ψ
10. Already Dead ♣
11. America the Beautiful Ψ
12. Waiting for You ⊗
13. War (The Temptations cover)
14. The Prisoner ⇔
    encore
15. Disco Sucks $
16. Fucked Up Donald ≅
17. Race Riot ⊗