Holiday traditions are something that are cherished by many of us. They bring us comfort and joy during this time of year and allow us to pass something unique along to the next generation. In Southern California, there is a holiday tradition that many locals hold dear; it’s The Vandals Annual Christmas Formal, which happens to be celebrating its 28th anniversary this year with two shows, one at The Majestic Ventura Theater on December 22nd and one at The House of Blue in Anaheim on the 23rd.
The tradition originated in 1996 when The Vandals released their pioneering punk Christmas album Oi to The World. In December of the same year, they hosted their inaugural holiday concert, “The Christmas Bash,” at Crawford Hall at UCI, featuring Blink-182 and Save Ferris as opening acts.
Now, nearly three decades later, the event has become synonymous with Christmas for many, with classics like “Grandpa’s Last Christmas” and “My First Christmas as a Woman” being holiday staples. Having attended for several years, I can vouch for the event’s warm, familial atmosphere, reminiscent of a holiday party and a family reunion. It’s a time when hugs and greetings abound.
Before the show started Vandals, guitarist Warren Fitzgerald’s mother came down to the front to warmly greet long-time friends, fans, and family. The attendees often embraced the festive spirit, donning their favorite holiday attire, complete with Santa hats and vibrant holiday-themed suits.
Getting the night’s celebrations started was Manic Hispanic, a band renowned for their entertaining performances. With the sad loss of founding members Mike “Gabby” Gaborno in 2017 and Steve Soto in 2018, many might have anticipated the band’s dissolution. However, the remaining members persevered, continuing the legacy.
They are kind of like the Chicano Weird Al of punk rock. Taking a well-known punk song and reworking the lyrics to a Latino-centric perspective. Such as Rancid’s “Ruby Soho” becomes “Ruby Cholo,” They kicked it off with “Wasted” from 2003’s “The Menudo Incident,” as a blue and white-dressed Santa Claus clutching a brown paper bag-clad bottle and dancing around on stage.
They followed that song up with a more recent tune, “I Want Some Chon Chon,” a playful parody of Suicidal Tendencies. Their rendition of NOFX’s “The Brews,” was reimagined as “Cruise,” and energized the audience, sparking an enthusiastic circle pit.
The set concluded with a satirical take on Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” transformed into “Mexican Girl,” and their latest hit “Paisa,” a humorous twist on Rancid’s “Time Bomb” with lyrics like “brown horse, white boots, six pack, cowboy hat… the boy’s a Paisa.” Manic Hispanic’s live performances remain as entertaining and humorous as ever.
The curtains were pulled closed for the headliners which just added to the overall excitement and anticipation. The recorded track “Overture” from “Oi to the World” began to play out over the PA and the crowd cheered as they knew that signaled that the moment was near.
With a thunderous beating of the drums, the curtains parted open to reveal the festively decorated stage and Josh Freese pounding on the skins as we were all treated to The Vandals’ instrumental take on Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies” Large inflated Christmas ornaments were thrown out into the crowd and singer Dave Quackenbush slowly walked out and to take center stage as they segued into the classic opening track “Gun for Christmas” with the crowd singing along to every word.
They played some of the best-loved – and slightly naughty – punk Christmas songs around, from “Grandpa’s Last Christmas” and “Nothing’s Going to Ruin My Holiday,” to “My First Christmas as a Woman.” Every year founding member and bassist Joe Escalante gets his moment in the spotlight, and when he sings the traditional Christian hymn “Here I Am, Lord,” his out-of-tune rendition is always a highlight for me.
With the song “C.H.R.I.S.T.M.A.S.” concluding the Christmas songs portion of the show, Quackenbush approached Fitzgerald and asked him “What he was getting for Christmas,” and Warren’s humorous response was “Diarrhea.”
With that they went into the classic “Live Fast, Diarrhea,” and the crowd went nuts!
A collection of fan-favorite songs from over the years followed, including “The New You,” “Pat Brown” and “Flowers are Pretty.”
Many fans were very happy to have Josh Freese back on the drum throne tonight after his much-publicized joining up with the Foo Fighters last May.
It’s well-known by fans that Freese’s birthday occurs on December 25th so “for The Birthday Boy” they played “Happy Birthday to Me” changing the final line from Happy Birthday to Me to Happy Birthday Josh Freese.
Eric Wilson from Sublime walked out from where he had been standing in the wings, wearing a bright red “Hocus Pocus” wig, which he placed on Escalante’s head, making him look a little like Carrot Top in the process. Quackenbush proudly pointed out that there were members of Green Day and the Foo Fighters playing with them tonight as Josh’s younger brother Jason was there and regularly lends his exceptional talents on keyboard and saxophone for many songs and is a traveling member of Green Day.
During some playful stage banter, Escalante and Quackenbush started pointing out that there were special guests in attendee in the audience tonight, including Jose Maldonado, The Mexican Morrissey, Caleb Santos, the Ukulele Kid, legendary composer, singer, and actor Paul Williams, Chuck Platt from Good Riddance, and the aforementioned Eric Wilson from Sublime. They then played the banger of a song “I Know huh?” which is all about how Escalante courted his beautiful wife Sandra back in the day.
Following their big hit “My Girlfriend’s Dead,” Quackenbush said, “Thank you and goodnight.” They all walked off stage, and the large Vandals banner was lowered and taken down as though that was the actual end of the show. But thank goodness Fitzgerald came back out a short time later, already strumming his acoustic guitar and said, “This is a take on one of our songs.”
What followed was amusing mash-up of “I Don’t Believe in Santa Claus” sung to the tune of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” with the “Lie-la-lie” becoming “Spend and buy.” Afterward, he joked that “after playing this guitar tonight, it was now a tax write-off.”
Next up was the depressing, sad, and a little tongue-in-cheek “Hang Myself from the Tree,” an acoustic number with Warren joined by Jason Freese on saxophone. Afterward, Warren explained its a “little showbiz trick.” Calling it “dynamics,” he said if you do something really sad, what immediately follows will look so happy that you really don’t have to put much effort into it. “Just try it… come in low and go out high.”
And to demonstrate that, their final song absolutely went out on a high note, Quackenbush put on Fitzgerald’s electric guitar and suggested that “Warren does one more song” and as they play their energetic cover of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Know,” Fitzgerald became a man possessed as he ran all over the stage and proceeded to destroy all the decorations.
At one point he gently puts his arms around a paper mache Toy Solider Pinata before violently twisting its head off before collapsing on stage briefly to catch his breath. He soon resumed his rampage on the stage and started throwing just about everything he could get his hands on out into the audience from small stuffed animals to smashed stage props, prompting Quakenbush to hurriedly grab some of his personal items to save them from being lost to the crowd.
The chorus of “Don’t stop me now, I’m having such a good time, I’m having a ball” couldn’t be more appropriate as the sold-out venue was definitely having a good time.
As the dust settled and with my ears ringing, my fellow fans and I said our goodbyes, Merry Christmas, and best wishes for the New Year.
We’ll just have to look forward to next year and the 29th-anniversary show to keep the good times and traditions going.
