We might be entering a golden age of music festivals in the USA. Sure,everywhere you turn fans struggle to afford tickets, and some tours are tanking. Even a few festivals have had disastrous results. At the same time, the destination festival is beginning to thrive here, as we are trying to copy the model from Europe that has reigned for nearly four decades. So throngs of people descended on the Los Angeles area `burb Pomona, known best for Citrus and good colleges, for what could be the one Punk Rock festival to rule them all; No Values Fest! 

Named for a Black Flag song, No Values was overall great looking on paper. You will read a lot of conjecture online about the day of the festival being a shit show, and some of it is true. After showing up early in the morning to pick up our credentials for press my PIC and partner in Ghost Cult, Omar Cordy, and I were just 9 minutes away from The Fairplex by car but it took us hours and hours to get into the festival once we tried to drive back just a short time later. This is a disaster and blame is being spread around. This is an area that has to be addressed next year. Also, the staff overall at the fest seemed overwhelmed and unhappy to be there. I had heard Vans Warped Tour was held at this venue many times in the past, which makes the difficulties odd. I am unsure if this is the first event here in a few years, but many security staff seemed checked out. On the other hand, some others were excellent at the checkpoints, at the stages, and all the vendors were super nice. We missed a bunch of bands we wanted to see and it definitely affected us the rest of the day, even though we had fun doing what we love. That being said once we finally got to the parking and the show itself things took a turn for the better. Some other things that could be addressed for next year would be more merch available throughout the festival and perhaps the DJ hanger and the second two stages be closer together if this festival returns. I’d also like to see the half pipe expanded to a larger area, since this really brought everything full circle with skating and punk being intrinsically tied in the culture. 

That out of the way you would be hard-pressed to find a better lineup at any punk festival in the world than this one, especially at the very top. The four stages and the DJ area were packed with talent both legends from years of your, and some current bands that are incredible, and a few bands back from the dead that make this a very special exclusive event. In addition, generally, the food options were amazing, there was free water, adult bevys, and beer choices was a plenty, and paying for water was as little as $2, which is a value you will never see at any other festival Cheers!

 

Putting aside the fact that Cro-Mags going on first just felt insulting to me personally, but no one else local would feel this way. Adolescents, Vandals, The Bronx, and Soul Glow also played relatively early, we missed them, and I think these bands should have been higher up on the bill. That being said the first band we actually got in to see was Black Flag, in his current iteration with singer and former pro skateboarder Mike Vallely, who does a spot on Henry Rollins impersonation. Great to see legend Greg Ginn up there just rocking out and the entire band killed with a spectacular setlist, featuring the song that gave this festival his name. Just a belter of the way to get going. 

After getting our bearings following a terrific set and you settled in to see the first ever comeback show from The Dillinger Escape Plan, after they retired late in 2017. This is their comeback with the original frontman Dimitri Minakakis and they are celebrating 25 years of Calculating Infinity album. That being said this completely rocked! The band was stellar on every level, but there was an air of your normie punk rock fans not knowing what was going on here with this weird Math Rock band. A fun thing happened when someone connected to the and pulled Omar out of the photo pit and let him shoot from the side stage. It helps to know the band sometimes. Guest spots include legends like Jello Biafra and Mike Muir jumping on stage with the band to perform some clutch cover songs. The band was jubilant on stage and you could see all the diehards that were in attendance just here for this moment, this lineup, and this setlist. 10/10, no notes. 

Starting to explore starting to explore The Fairplex a little bit more and making your way around the grandstand and pass the halfpipe with tons of true legends and new stars of skateboarding, which to a certain sect of fans, might have been enough to bring them in alone. The entirety of the fest brought back the old-school Warped Tour Vibes that only exist now at Riot Fest, Camp Punlsylvania, and Punk Rock Bowl, but a few other places. Catching a little bit of The Garden and Dead Milkman, I got lost looking for the press area which was nestled under the grandstand. And I got pretty overheated so I needed to take a chill for a minute, drink more water, and missed a few more bands. I did manage to catch a little bit of Joyce Manor and Fidlar on the 2nd Street Stage, and they were stupendous. Fidlar in particular was rocking, with the most crowd-surfers of the dead,  and I’m super excited for their new album coming soon. 

Heading back over to the main stage the Holt Avenue stage I caught a little bit of The Damned who were great. I had an interesting moment with the band as they were coming in the artist entrance earlier and they were pretty surprised they were padded down in search pretty heavily for a bunch of old geezers. Still, it’s great feeling to say that I saw them one last time. They mirthlessly wore all black in their goth rock best, along with their fans. 

Then popping over to the other stage to cash the full set from Suicidal Tendencies. They were amazeballs with their new lineup. This is my second time seeing them with Jay Weinberg on drum, formally of Slipknot. Following last fall’s back-to-back 40th anniversary shows in the Bay Area, and tours, the band has been playing a mostly old-school set with a few Crossover Thrash hits. The band was on fire, although their setlist is pretty standard for a fest appearance, it’s great to hear these jams, and the crowd went ape-shit.  I am looking forward to new ST music with this lineup at some point in the next year. 

 

I did manage to catch a bit of Jesus Lizard’s first gig in a while over on the Gary Ave. stage Again, some of these set time overlaps could have been avoided. I think the number of bands is fine, but a two-day event next year seems like the appropriate move. I also caught a bit of Sublime with Jacob Nowell in one of their first gigs back with him as the new permanent vocalist, relacing Rome who is no longer with the group. It was pretty surreal seeing Jacob perform his father’s music. I only saw Sublime once in a small club and never once they attained fame. Nice to hear the crowd lap it up and the classics go over well. 

Then it was time for one of my favorites, Bad Religion. The band has never let me down live in many years as a fan, than they really are the ultimate American punk festival band! The music was all bangers! Fifteen tracks were played this day and its all the jams you know if you love the band. The current lineup is one of their best and the band just knows who they are as one of the longest running still active bands from the SoCal scene. My personal favorites in the set list were “Los Angeles Is Burning,” “Fuck You,” “Generator,” “Do What You Want,” “Were Only Gonna Die” and “American Jesus!” Seeing them today along with Suicidal and Misfits made my entire year. 

Hustling over to the Garey Ave stage agin to the final strains of Bad Religion it was time for L7! I love this band more than you can imagine and seeing them last year in Berkeley was sick. The band has been one of the best comeback stories in punk. They took a minute to come on after a long changeover, and the sound mix was unkind to several bands, but the band delivered a great set anyway. I had heard several people complain about the live sound today, but for the most part, it was solid. L7 meanwhile just ate up their time with killer tunes and super smart stage banter from Donita Sparks. They were just perfect from start to finish. 

This was the most brutal overlap of the day for me. Turnstile playing around the same time as L7, and Iggy Pop overlapping one of the first comeback shoes from Power Trip. No way to see them all so Iggy Pop and Turnstile (seen both several times, and love both) were skipped mostly. I caught a bit of Iggy grabbing some food for the rest of the night. He seemed great, and I was bummed I missed his mostly Punk show, a rarity these days with his recent Jazzy pop albums. Several people told me his set was the highlight of the day. 

I managed to catch the end of The Dickies and the first half of Fishbone. This is festival life as we know it, with tough choices. Fishbone, despite their recent turmoil and a new lineup, sounded huge and triumphant. Angelo Moore is one of the best frontmen ever and the bands Neo Soul, Ska Punk, Funk, RnB, and even their metal side all showed. Great job and continued success!

Finally, it was time for Power Trip. They had already done a few shows without Riley Gale (RIP) with Seth Gilliam (Fugitive) on vocals, but this is their first high-profile gig in front of a large festival crowd. I talked with some die-hard fans who had already given their seal of approval to them after seeing them live at The Glass House. The band just ripped their set of modern classics. Many chants of “Riley! Riley” went up during the set.
The best moshing and circle pit action of the entire fest this day. The band was pretty flawless and it seems like they took a lot of care to honor their legacy and Riley at all times, and I feel like it’s OK for them to carry on now. Another proud moment for me as a fan. 

Heading towards the end of the night, we next caught Social Distortion! They have been on a co-headlining tour with Bad Religion, and like most of the bands today, this was a hometown-feel type of show as Social D is from the area. They played a long set of hits and there were more heads in the crowd for this band than any other today, except for Misfits. Closing with their cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” their crowd left very satisfied. 

 

I would like to have caught more of Viagra Boys or Steve Ignorant (Crass), who are often can’t-miss artists live, but again, the clashes hurt. Viagra Boys sounded strong from what I could tell. The Original Misfits were next and it was a who’s who of famous folks hanging out waiting for them to go on. We got to talk to Steve Zing (Danzig, Mourning Noise), Jamie Miller of Bad Religion, Rita Haney, and peers like photographer Maurice Nunez a.k.a. Devilman138. No rockstar vibes, just cool people and music fans vibing, getting ready to see their favorite band. 

 

Tons of people had told me all day they had never seen the Misfits at all, let alone thought they would have a chance. Credit to Glenn Danzig for keeping these shows spread out enough to make them still feel special. I am pretty surprised he hasn’t taken this overseas yet. Tons of people were packed in to see the long, 25-song set, kicking off with the great “Death Comes Ripping!” 

In 1978, Misfits shows on the East Coast were small, sweaty affairs. Packed in kids fishing, dancing, and screaming. In 2024, it’s both kids and their parents who are enjoying this “legacy” band who have been around for almost 50 years. The show was a spectacle of lights, scary props, and creepy fog! The entire band was on fire, especially Glenn Danzig who was outstanding vocally. It’s also always a thrill to see Dave Lombardo killing it on the drums, no matter which band. He seemed to run around a little less, maybe due to the day’s heat, and maybe that had him singing his absolute best.  It was great to hear the biggest singalongs ever for “I Turned Into a Martian,” “Horror Business,” “Vampira,” “Mommy, Can I Go Out and Kill Tonight?,” and my personal favorite “London Dungeon.” It was a stellar end to the festival. 

No Values Festivals presented some challenges that need to be fixed in time for next year, overall it was a great experience for die-hard music fans. but if the lineup is anything like the debut, we will be back! 

 

Follow the fest here:
https://www.novalues.com/

WORDS BY KEEFY
PHOTO BY OMAR CORDY
Follow Omar’s work here:
https://www.instagram.com/ojcpics/