Bad Religion’s Fire and Brimstone Still Converts

Even punk rock needs its institutions, and in sheer force and unexpected longevity Bad Religion certainly qualifies. In a 90-minute performance at the Whisky on Thursday, the hometown punk icons reignited their attack of action and intelligence, a still-urgent sound two decades on.

Bad Religion started as just another band of teenagers with loud guitars and went on to become a major player in the genre and a crucial influence on such later acts as Green Day and Rancid. The Whisky performance, opening three nights of shows at Sunset Strip clubs, also marked the formal return of founding guitarist Brett Gurewitz, who left in 1994 to battle a drug addiction and to run his Epitaph Records label. He was energetic, once even playing a solo with his teeth, but he seemed almost subdued beside Greg Hetson, who bounced and slashed at his guitar virtually nonstop.

Singer Greg Graffin remained the focal point, joking casually with fans between lyrics of charged geopolitical content. His songs were genuinely anthemic and clearheaded. Despite his role as a fist-pumping punk-rock lecturer, his mood was almost cheery, even during the angry new environmental diatribe “Kyoto Now.”

The mosh pit was predictably most active during the better-known material (“Suffer,” “Recipe for Hate,” “Infected”), but many fans sang along just as loudly to songs from the just-released “The Process of Belief.”

Proof enough that in 2002 Bad Religion is both reunited and rejuvenated.

Bad Religion plays tonight at the Key Club, 9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, 8 p.m. Sold out. (310) 274-5800.