Concert Reviews

Descendents at House of Blues: Concert Review and Photos

Photographer Brooks Robinson covers Descendents show at House of Blues on March 5th, 2026.

by Brooks Robinson

Updated March 08, 2026

Punk legends the Descendents played Thursday night at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA, and aside from the stellar music and performances from all three bands, there were two things of note regarding the crowd. The first was despite the listed 2200 standing capacity of the main room, there appeared to be way more than 2200 people crammed inside the venue. By the time the Descendents took the stage at 9:45pm, there was zero room to move on the floor, by the bars, by the merch booth, in the aisles, or anywhere else, much less trying to get from one place to another. I’ve been to hundreds of shows, and I can’t recall ever being so pressed in, with no options for moving or escaping the humanity. The second interesting note was the demographic of the audience – there seemed to be two distinct camps – teenagers and kids in their early 20s who made up most of the population pressed up against the front barricade, and people in their 50s and 60s on the edges and slightly farther back who grew up and came of age with the band. There were zero issues between the generations, and it was the first time I’ve seen a band that could attract such a varied audience, made up entirely of devoted fans – both old-schoolers and kids who wanted to be there for the music’s merit, not because their parents made them tag along.

Descendents

The Descendents are a punk rock institution, formed in Manhattan Beach, CA, in 1977 - they are one of the true originals and an inspiration to countless groups that followed. I’d never seen them live before and didn’t know what to expect. Selfishly, as a photographer, there was something about punk songs I hadn’t anticipated – they are short. There are rules to shooting concerts, and the main one is that you are allowed three songs to do your work in the photo/security pit between the barricade and the stage. Twelve minutes is enough time to cover all of the band members adequately from various angles while staying out of other photographers' shots and dodging crowd surfers landing on you from behind, but with punk rock, the songs are shorter, as was the allowed time in the pit. The studio versions of the first three songs in the set are two minutes or less, so it was a bit of a surprise when the eight of us shooting photos got a tap on the shoulder to indicate that our time was up after only six minutes or less…

The fervent crowd was losing their minds all night – the mosh pit never stopped spinning, and people came prepared and gave it their all. Crowd surfers were everywhere, and people fed off of both the music and the energy of their tightly packed neighbors. Milo, Bill, Stephen, and Karl were in top form, and the completely sold-out show was an utter success. This was the first of a two-night stint in Anaheim, and it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to maintain this kind of energy night after night, but the Descendents really brought their A game, and my only regret was that I couldn’t be there the following night. All told, they played 34 songs from nine albums, with a large portion of the material coming from 1982’s Milo Goes to College, 1996’s Everything Sucks, and 2016’s Hypercaffium Spazzinate. Songs aside, the crowd was in a fever pitch all night, and the energy level was extremely high – people were genuinely excited to be there and witness a great band performing at a really high level. As an observer and participant, the Descendents and their fans were the perfect blend of band and receptive audience, and witnessing how one fed off the other made for the perfect night of music and celebration.

Frank Turner

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls came on before the Descendents. I hadn’t heard of Frank prior to February 24th, when a friend saw his show in Florida and sent me a text raving about it. As proof, he sent along a link to a song which he said was his current favorite – “Love Ire & Song”. He’s a good music resource, so I checked it out…and didn’t really get the buzz. To my ears, it was a little reminiscent of Flogging Molly, which I like, but isn’t something I’d consider to be my favorite thing. Then Frank took the stage five feet in front of me, and my stance changed completely. He held the audience captive from the first note, and while acoustic guitar-driven anthems aren’t usually the stuff of mosh pit madness, the pit was as strong as any I’ve seen. After the first song, I could understand why my friend was so enthusiastic, and I too became a fan.

There were four highlights to Frank’s set for me. He dedicated “Be More Kind” to the people of Minneapolis, along with a message that echoed the song’s title – essentially, be kind to your fellow man. The next song was a NOFX cover of “Bob”, and Fat Mike came out and played harmonica while Frank sang. Lastly, Frank conducted a sing-along with the song “Do One”, with the audience instructed to sing along with the “Do Do…” chorus. We were given a trial run before the song, and it was deemed to be “A bucket of shit”. Frank then stated that the assembled audience was worse than Texas. And Florida. And Pittsburg. After hearing this, the audience upped their performance and screamed out the chorus, finally achieving the desired effect, while having a blast doing so.

Nobro

The first band of the night was Nobro (as in zero bros/dudes in the band), an all-female band out of Montreal, Canada. I didn’t know them, but much of the audience who showed up early did. The doors opened at 6:00pm, and Nobro hit the stage at 7:00pm. Usually, when a band goes on two hours and forty five minutes before the headliner, they are playing to a sparsely populated room – not Nobro – the venue was already ¾ full, and those that were there were stoked to be treated to an enthusiastic performance of hard-hitting girl-power at its finest. With songs like “Set That Pussy Free”, “Let's Do Drugs”, and “Where My Girls At”, Nobro came out of the gate full-throttle and didn’t let up to the delight of the crowd.