WEEKEND REVIEW : Pop : Punk Rock, Skateboard Connection at ‘Board’

To much of the world, the connection between rock music and skateboarding begins and ends with that wistful example of perfect Southern California maidenhood floating in slow motion against a perfect Southern California sky in Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” video.

The rock-skateboarding connection made over the weekend in the Olympic Velodrome at Cal State Dominguez Hills involved nothing quite so elegant. Punk rock, not Petty’s stately, chiming Rickenbackers, is the real soundtrack for skateboard culture.

“Board in Orange County” is what it said on Saturday’s tickets, but the event T-shirts read, “Banned From Orange County”--the show having been moved hastily from UC Irvine when officials there had second thoughts about inviting in 10,000 punk fans.

Saturday’s affair was followed by Sunday’s scheduled “Board in South Bay,” another 10-hour punk program with bands (30 in all on the main stage over two days), mosh pits and a towering skateboarding ramp where helmeted riders soared or tumbled through the daylight hours.

Saturday’s show, dominated by bands from Orange County and the historically allied Long Beach punk-alternative scene, was essentially a mellow, friendly and well-staged event. But it also had instances of the idiocy that threatens to send major punk concerts the way of major rap concerts--into the realm of the uninsurable and the nonexistent.

Campus police reported that two males were stabbed at the concert in separate fights; one refused treatment, while the other was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center with cuts on one arm. Also, police said, a woman who fell during the show was taken unconscious to the hospital. Details were not available.

The day also was marred by a bizarre and sickening episode on stage. As singer-guitarist Trever Keith of Face to Face performed the band’s song, “Disconnected,” a man, whose identity could not immediately be confirmed, charged him from behind and sent the unsuspecting rocker sprawling from the high stage. Keith emerged bruised but not seriously hurt from his steep fall. Face to Face stalked off in anger, but re-emerged to complete its set after a five-minute delay.

All that scary weirdness did set the stage for the Victorville-based band to make a grand recovery. Its ability to rise above adversity made the embattled affirmations of its catchy anthems all the more convincing.

Social Distortion, which hails from the first Orange County punk boom of 1979-1981, made a persuasive case that the new punks--Face to Face or anybody else--are still a long way from supplanting this particular band of old ones.

Social Distortion’s set was the longest and by far the finest of the day--55 minutes of dark majesty powered by a new drummer, Randy Carr, who played his first major gig with the band and helped the group churn and drive with impressive force and fresh suppleness. The band’s five new songs held out promise that Mike Ness, while not changing his customary direct, plain-spoken approach, is probing more vulnerable regions beneath the proud, swaggering surface he typically has presented.

Jack Grisham, another hero of the Southern California punk scene’s early days, led his new band, the Joykiller, through a blitzkrieg set of 12 strong, hook-filled songs from its new Epitaph album. But in running the show at breakneck speed, the T.S.O.L. veteran missed a chance for the intros and dramatic acting-out needed to make unfamiliar material come alive.

Finishing the long day for a thinned-out crowd, Sublime was a puzzler, offering sharp musicianship, but a scattered way of deploying it. In “Date Rape,” Sublime has been saddled with that curse of blessings, a novelty hit. The group’s Brad Nowell seemed to want to move beyond that phase, flatly denying requests for the song--and going along with many a shouted plea to omit it.