Generacion Suicida Are Here To Depress The Punks

"We're here to depress the punks, I guess." That was Tony Abarca, frontman of the LA band Generacion Suicida, talking to a restaurant patio full of punks in Richmond on Wednesday night. During one of his infrequent moments of between-songs patter, Abarca admitted to being "not much of a talker," but "depress the punks, I guess" is a pretty accurate summary of Generacion Suicida's mission. They're definitely a punk band. Their fans are punks. (I'm taking a moment here to acknowledge that I skipped this column last month and that this month's installment is about a punk show, not a hardcore show. It's OK. We'll get through it together.) But Generacion Suicida's version of punk is relatively slow and atmospheric, full of heavy sustain and gothed-out guitar-twinkles. The only problem is that you can't really get too depressed while listening to Generacion Suicida. They're too good for that.