Descendents bring South Bay punk to French heavy metal festival
The Descendents’ Milo Aukerman reminded French heavy metal fans of where punk music began by wearing a Hermosa Beach T-shirt during the Descendents’ performance Friday night at the Hellfest Summer Open Air concert in Clisson. The music festival is one of the largest in Europe. This year, over 180 bands are performing, including Whitesnake, Def Leopard, and Kiss, which is on its final world tour. Joining Aukerman in the Descendents’ first return to France in 22 years were Bill Stevenson, Stephen Egerton and Karl Alvarez. The Descendents’ first album was engineered by punk pioneer Spot at Total Access Recording in Redondo Beach in 1982. The band’s logo is a caricature of Auckerman wearing his nerdy glasses by former Mira Costa classmate (today, the Mustang’s cross country coach) Jeff Atkinson.
The Descendents’ performed during a prime Friday night time slot. Photo