greg graffin tour

SOCIAL DISTORTION And BAD RELIGION Announce April/May 2024 U.S. Tour

Southern California punk legends SOCIAL DISTORTION have announced an epic co-headlining tour across the U.S. with Epitaph labelmates BAD RELIGION that kicks off in Bakersfield, California on April 9, 2024. With additional support from THE LOVEBOMBS , the two iconic bands will join forces to bring their signature sounds and beloved catalogs to stages across the continent, showcasing their enduring legacy and influence on the punk rock movement.

SOCIAL DISTORTION frontman Mike Ness comments: "It gives me great pleasure to announce that in April we will be going on a nationwide co-headlining tour with our friends in BAD RELIGION . Yes, we are back in action and can't wait for this tour!! We did this with them in Australia in 2022 and the shows were amazing!"

He continues: "We have also decided in celebration of the 40-year anniversary and re-release of 'Mommy's Little Monster' that we will be playing the album in its entirety. This should be a very special tour and we are all looking forward to it."

" BAD RELIGION and SOCIAL DISTORTION first played together in 1980," BAD RELIGION singer Greg Graffin adds. "Though we evolved in different directions, we both carried the torch of Southern California punk all along the way. Now we're so excited to be on the same stage again."

Formed as rebellious teenage punks in the working-class suburb of Fullerton, California, SOCIAL DISTORTION survived their tumultuous youth to pioneer an undeniably honest and fiery brand of rock ‘n’ roll that would incorporate outlaw country, classic seventies punk and primal blues. Seven studio albums and countless electrifying live shows have earned the band a dedicated worldwide fanbase and catalog of timeless anthems, including "Story Of My Life" , "Ball And Chain" , "Prison Bound" and more. The band's last release, "Hard Times And Nursery Rhymes" , entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4 and in 2019 they celebrated 40 years as a band.

SOCIAL DISTORTION also share rescheduled dates for their previously postponed tour with follow SoCal rockers THE BELLRAYS . Ness enthuses: "I am also happy to announce the tour with THE BELLRAYS from last summer will now be happening in September and October 2024. I'd like thank the fans who bought tickets for their patience while we worked on the rescheduled dates. Words can't describe how happy I am to be back onstage doing what I love. See you all soon."

Artist pre-sale tickets are live today at 12 noon local time with codes BALLANDCHAIN or SUFFER. The general on-sale will be December 15 at 10 a.m. local time.

SOCIAL DISTORTION tour dates with BAD RELIGION :

April 09 - Bakersfield, CA - Mechanics Bank Theater April 10 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl April 11 - San Diego, CA - PETCO Park April 13 - Las Vegas, NV - Virgin Hotels Las Vegas - The Theater April 14 - Mesa, AZ - Mesa Amphitheater April 16 - Lubbock, TX - Lonestar Amphitheater April 18 - Irving, TX - The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory April 19 - San Antonio, TX - Boeing Center at Tech Port April 20 - Austin, TX - Moody Amphitheater at Waterloo Greenway April 22 - Houston, TX - Bayou Music Center April 23 - New Orleans, LA - The Filmore Harrah’s New Orleans April 26 - St. Augustine, FL - The Saint Augustine Amphitheatre April 27 - Fort Lauderdale, FL - Revolution Live April 28 - Clearwater, FL - Coachman Park - The Sound April 30 - Atlanta, GA - Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre May 01 - North Charleston, SC - Firefly Distillery Lawn May 03 - Oxon Hill, MD - The Theater at MGM National Harbor May 04 - New York, NY - Pier 17 The Rooftop May 05 - Philadelphia, PA - The Filmore Philadelphia May 07 - Boston, MA - MGM Music Hall at Fenway May 10 - Pittsburgh, PA - Stage AE May 11 - Detroit, MI - The Masonic Temple Theatre May 12 - Cincinnati, OH - The Andrew J Brady Music Center May 14 - Milwaukee, WI - The Rave/Eagles Club - Eagles Ballroom May 15 - West Des Moines, IA - Val Air Ballroom May 17 - Indianapolis, IN - Everwise Amphitheater May 18 - Chicago, IL - Salt Shed - Indoors May 19 - Columbus, OH - Historic Crew Stadium

SOCIAL DISTORTION tour dates with THE BELLRAYS :

Sept. 13 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox Sept. 14 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox Sept. 15 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox Sept. 18 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom Sept. 19 - Vancouver, BC - Commodore Ballroom Sept. 21 - Edmonton, AB - Midway Music Hall Sept. 22 - Edmonton, AB - Midway Music Hall Sept. 23 - Calgary, AB - Macewan Hall Sept. 25 - Winnipeg, MB - Buron Cummings Theatre Oct. 01 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom Oct. 02 - Buffalo, NY - Town Ballroom Oct. 04 - Guelph, ON - Guelph Concert Theatre Oct. 05 - Toronto, ON - History Oct. 06 - Montreal, QC - M Telus Oct. 08 - New Haven, CT - College Street Music Hall Oct. 09 - Hampton Beach, NH - Casino Ballroom Oct. 11 - Huntington, NY - The Paramount Oct. 12 - Stroudsburg, PA - Sherman Theater Oct. 13 - Sayreville, NJ - Starland Ballroom Oct. 15 - Norfolk, VA - The Norva Oct. 16 - Charlotte, NC - The Fillmore Charlotte Oct. 17 - Raleigh, NC - The Ritz Oct. 19 - Memphis, TN - Minglewood Hall Oct. 20 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom Oct. 22 - Albuquerque, NM - Rio Rancho Event Center Oct. 23 - Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theatre

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Greg Graffin

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Great show! Greg was as always, witty and interactive with the crowd and his new songs sounded great. through in a version of Sorrow and everyone's happy. Please do not go see Greg expecting a Bad Religion show. This is on an entirely different wave length. Great stuff but not the same.

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Bad Religion Greg confirms book tour

Singer plans spoken word and acoustic jaunt in support of Population Wars

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin has announced a short tour in support of his upcoming book.

The singer releases Population Wars on October 13, along with a companion 7-inch vinyl featuring acoustic versions of four Bad Religion tracks.

The six-date tour will see Graffin discuss his book, play songs related to the work, and take part in a Q&A with fans.

Population Wars examines the collision between religion and evolution. Publishers Thomas Dunne Books say: “For readers of Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, and EO Wilson, Populations Wars is a paradigm-shifting book about why humans behave the way they do and the science that explains their behaviour.”

GREG GRAFFIN POPULATION WARS TOUR

Sep 18: Washington Rock N Roll Hotel, DC

Sep 19: Philadelphia Coda, PA

Sep 20: New York Gramercy Theater, NY

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Sep 23: Portland Hawthorne Theater, OR

Sep 25: Los Angeles Bootleg, CA

Sep 27: Santa Ana Constellation, CA

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022. 

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Bad Religion 'Feel That Same Outrage We Felt As 15-Year-Olds When You See A Moral Decline'

"I mean, we know our place - we'll do this for as long as it's fun. For the most part, we do feel like those same anxiety-driven teenagers we were when we started the band; we just have a lot more knowledge, I hope."

(Source: Supplied)

Bad Religion - vocalist Greg Graffin , lead guitarist Brett Gurewitz , bassist and backing vocalist Jay Bentley , drummer Jamie Miller and guitarists Brian Baker and Mike Dimkich  are punk rock legends. 

You could assume that from their name - it's a brilliant name for a punk rock band, let's be honest - but with timeless staples Generator, Suffer, American Jesus , 21st Century Digital Boy, You, I Want To Conquer The World, Infected, Do What You Want  and countless more, Bad Religion have defied the odds and expectations of an ever-changing industry, remaining as innovative, influential and important as ever. They've earned a high status in the ranks of rock stars alongside Green Day and The Offspring. 

Let's be honest, though: are Bad Religion a little bit underrated? How often do you hear someone talk about them with the same fervour of conversations around blink-182? They may not feature the same jokes about body parts, but the music is awesome and pulls from influences as distinctive as The Stooges and The Beatles.

Over the last 43 years, Bad Religion have become synonymous with the sound, spirit and enduring legacy of Californian punk rock. Retaining their underground credibility while building a staggering punk empire, the band's storied career includes 17 studio albums and the status as one of the best-selling punk bands of all time. 

Tonight, fans will watch the band at the Powerstation in Auckland. On Friday, the band begin their Australian tour alongside Social Distortion - the first Social Distortion headline tour of Australia in their history, travelling through Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth. 

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The tour with Social Distortion marks Bad Religion's first headlining tour of Australia in over a decade.  

Bassist Jay Bentley has been babysitting baby Dragon with his wife, Natalia Fabia. It was a difficult birth; Dragon was "born with a rare heart defect known as an interrupted aortic arch and needed surgery on august 1 to repair the anomaly and save his life. The operation was successful, and he is recovering. We are recovering," Bentley wrote on Instagram in August last year. Since then, he's posted gorgeous photos of a healthy Dragon alongside the family dog, Salad . A family man first, the Bad Religion muso prepares his itinerary from home.

"I am super excited to get down there [to Australia], especially like you talked about with this touring package because I don't think we've played a show with Social Distortion since 1982," Bentley says from his home study. The two bands are good mates and see each other all the time, but their schedules haven't lined up together until now in Australia and New Zealand, which shows how lucky we are to score these shows.

"Whether Mike has a solo project, or Greg has a book, or we have an album, or we don't have an album, our schedules have always not lined up. This was the first time where it was like, yeah, we can do that together. It's kind of a miracle. I don't know if it will ever happen again," Bentley admits. "I think that's what makes this magic. Conceptually, we're bringing Southern California in 1980 right to your front door."

Bad Religion celebrated their 40th year as a band in 2020 and released their 17th album, Age Of Unreason , in 2019. Of course, the band's plans to celebrate the anniversary and an excellent new record were unceremoniously halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, so Bentley feels like the band is making up lost time now. Although, he does acknowledge that it's challenging to put together a Bad Religion setlist when you have 17 albums and 300+ songs.

"I think there's always a handful of songs that we're going to play because Greg will say, 'hey, how many people are seeing Bad Religion for the first time ever?' And so many people raise their hands that, you know, a song like American Jesus or Digital Boy has to stay in the setlist," Bentley shares. "Maybe that's how someone even found us. So, you know, if I'm going to get somewhere between 25 and 30 songs into a setlist, I pretty much know that between six and nine of them are going to be the standards that I already know."

After being in a band for 40 years, does Bentley feel like Bad Religion have become a legacy act, or do the guys still feel like a bunch of kids playing punk rock music? "Yeah, a bunch of dudes hanging out making music. I mean, we know our place - we'll do this for as long as it's fun. For the most part, we do feel like those same anxiety-driven teenagers we were when we started the band; we just have a lot more knowledge, I hope," he laughs, and that same anxious energy reverberates throughout Age Of Unreason .

"A very popular person's opinion, because they're popular, can actually be more important than a fact. Those concepts are what sort of drove this album in the sense of our inability; maybe it's our inability to deal with the fact that we have all of the information available to us at our fingertips and we're being led around by opinions.

"This is a fairly new dilemma for humankind because things are travelling so quickly," he continues. "Misinformation travels at the speed of light. And once it's out there, it's hard to put that back in the bottle and say, 'well, that wasn't true.' It doesn't matter anymore." And that's why Bad Religion still raging against the status quo is so important and why we still need punk music.

Punk, to Bentley, is the antithesis of whatever you think it is. "Punk to me is just it's obviously rebelling against whatever is expected. But it's also rebelling against whatever is expected of you as a punk," he says, not going into the musical side of things - it's an attitude, not just picking up a guitar and shredding, after all.

Fans still approach the guys in Bed Religion to tell them that they found the music through  T ony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (You), Tony Hawk's Underground (Big Bang)  and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland (We're Only Gonna Die) . "It's cyclical; it kind of comes in waves," Bentley comments about the resurgence in popularity of early-2000s video games and pop-punk. "Something that we talked about in the very early 80s was we felt that our style of music wasn't respected as a true art form. People would call it 'punk crap, three chords and screaming', and we kept saying, 'there's more to it than that.' 

"Punk got much bigger with that presentation of a Southern Californian sort of lifestyle. And that's what keeps cycling around is this whole skateboarding and video games punk rock life. To us in Southern California, and I'm sure you feel the same way in Australia - we live to surf and skate and listen to music."

Bad Religion are touring with Social Distortion across Australia. Age Of Unreason is out now; listen to it here .

SOCIAL DISTORTION & BAD RELIGION 

Australia/nz tour dates.

WEDNESDAY 15 FEBRUARY 2023 – TRUSTS ARENA, AUCKLAND

FRIDAY 17 FEBRUARY 2023 – RIVERSTAGE, BRISBANE

SATURDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2023 – HORDERN PAVILION, SYDNEY

SUNDAY 19 FEBRUARY 2023 – MARGARET COURT ARENA, MELBOURNE

WEDNESDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2023 – RED HILL AUDITORIUM, PERTH

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Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin Reveals Book Tour for ‘Population Wars’

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin recently announced plans for the release of his latest book,  Population Wars,  that will come with a 7" featuring four acoustic Bad Religion songs for those who pre-order it. And if you were wondering if Graffin might be playing some dates to go along with that, we can let you know the answer is "yes."

Graffin has booked a series of six live shows -- three on the East Coast and three on the West Coast -- that will offer those in attendance a unique and unprecedented perspective into the relationship between Graffin's academic and musical spheres.

The appearances will examine the correlation between song lyrics and the topics expressed in his latest book. Graffin will also perform acoustic renditions of songs related to the book interspersed with spoken word and followed with a question and answer segment.

Graffin penned Population Wars to examine the collision between religion and evolution. He digs into issues of ecology, population management, natural history and human nature all while challenging certain aspects of evolutionary theorythat converge on ideology and promote conventional human warfare.

To pre-order the book and get your hands on the limited-edition 7" EP, check this location . As for the dates of his Population Wars book tour, look below.

Greg Graffin, Population Wars 2015 Book Tour

9/18 -- Washington, D.C. -- Rock N Roll Hotel 9/19 -- Philadelphia, Pa. -- Coda 9/20 -- New York, N.Y. -- Gramercy Theater 9/23 -- Portland, Ore. -- Hawthorne Theater 9/25 -- Los Angeles, Calif. -- Bootleg 9/27 -- Santa Ana Calif. -- Constellation

Bad Religion Talk True North and Religious Views, Part 1

Bad Religion Talk True North and Religious Views, Part 2

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Bad Religion's Greg Graffin on cramming 40 years of punk-rock chaos into one book

Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion, explores the band's founding and rise to fame.

After 17 albums, 350-plus songs, multiple lineup changes, and all the punk-rock chaos you can imagine, Bad Religion is finally getting the book treatment their legendary career deserves. The forthcoming autobiography Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion, co-authored by writer Jim Ruland, explores the band's early days, from starting out as teenagers in a San Fernando Valley garage (appropriately nicknamed “The Hell Hole”) to battling for radio play to having run-ins with the police.

"I think the moment when my passion for punk rock and the challenge of writing a biography clicked was when I realized very few people know the whole story of Bad Religion," Ruland tells EW. "There are so many moments when I thought, 'How on earth did this band stay together?”

With insights from lead singer Greg Graffin, guitarist Brett Gurewitz, bassist Jay Bentley, and an all-star cast of punk rock legends, Do What You Want sheds light on the 40-year career of a band who worked their way into history by doing things their own way.

Graffin, who has been spending most of his quarantine time teaching classes remotely at Cornell University, took some time to briefly about the new book, Bad Religion's continued influence, and keeping in touch with an evolving audience.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How did you guys decide that now was the time for a Bad Religion biography?

Greg Graffin: We got to give due credit to Jim Ruland, the author of the book. Even though we are listed as the authors, Jim really did the work. [He] had a herculean task. He had to put 40 years of history into a readable and enjoyable narrative. I think he did a fantastic job. But the original nugget of an idea came from the fact that there've been a lot of punk histories written and punk documentaries [released]. They all sort of had the following narrative: Punk got started with the Sex Pistols, then it moved to New York. In New York, the punk scene got big. Then by 1982 punk died. Then in 1992, Nirvana was born. OK, there's like this 10-year history between '82 and '92, where very little was written about. Those were the years that Bad Religion was extremely industrious. Our formative years started in 1980... Squarely in the middle of that period, Suffer was recorded [and] has proven to be extremely influential to a lot of those bands that were part of the sort of explosion of punk that happened in the '90s. That story was interesting to tell.

As one of the main figures of this story, what kind of emotions and memories went through your head when revisiting it?

Well, the most important thing of course is to not give up. I think anything that is worthy of a long history and worthy of a story that should be read is because the people in it felt passionate about what they were doing. I think the drive was there from the beginning. We wanted to open people's minds and make them aware of the world that they were living in. It was, I think, an honorable journey that we started on — and we're still on it today. [It's] absolutely stunning and shocking to me that there's still people who want to hear our story and hear our music. That's never far from my mind. But the other thing is that none of it could have been achieved without the people and without our fans and also without the mutual support that we give one another.

Bad Religion's music was always able to tap into younger audiences. H ow do you continue to do that after 40 years?

I see a lot of the younger kids in the audience and that's deeply meaningful. It's not as meaningful as how often I get told by people and fans "Because of you, I went to college." I have professors now who come up to me and say, "I went into academics because of this album." Or something like that. That's very meaningful to me. I've always approached being a lead singer like being a professor. There's a lot of professors who want to be more like rock stars, which is kind of bizarre to me because I always wanted to be a professor. The thing is, you never think like, "Oh, I'm not going to take that class because that professor is so old. He can't relate to me."

You guys did the box set for your 30th anniversary, you are doing the book for your 40th. Anything planned for a 50th yet? Or are you just going to play that card when you get there?

We always joked about this, but if we reach 50, I do want to do something that we've been talking about since our 20th anniversary: a Bad Religion roast. We would basically have to rent out the Hollywood Palladium because [and] give tickets to everybody who was important to the band. We'd talk about them and show a big presentation and bring them up on stage. When you've been around that long, you've been in partnership with a lot of people. I just think that would be so much fun and we've always joked about it, but that would be my goal.

Anything else coming up for you or the band?

We've been working on some music, just as we're socially distant from each other; each of us has home recording studios. I always write music acoustically. There's a lot of that coming out. In terms of big releases, the main thing is the book and then hopefully getting out there and honoring all the tickets we sold in 2020.

Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion is out Aug. 18.

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Interview with Greg Graffin of Bad Religion from The Ithaca Journal.

Punk, politics and passion Greg Graffin and Bad Religion take a stand with 'The Empire Strikes First'

Entertainers often catch criticism for mixing their art with politics. The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Maines caught flack for criticizing President Bush during a concert. After Linda Ronstadt's commended Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11" from the stage of a Las Vegas casino, she was booted off the premises after the show. But there seems to be a sense among many musicians, especially those who are opposed to the current administration, that this year's election is so important that they can't remain on the sidelines. Hence, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Pearl Jam and others are headlining the Vote for Change tour this fall.

In that sense, Bad Religion's new CD, "The Empire Strikes First," couldn't be any more timely. Released earlier this summer, the longtime punk band's album has songs like the title track and "Let Them Eat War" that contain some pointed statements against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration, and the state of American society.

"Because of the title of the album, it's been getting lots of press," says Bad Religion singer and songwriter Greg Graffin, who lives in Lansing. "And, let's face it, I do like making a statement that in this political year we don't support the Bush administration, so in that sense it's a good self-affirming statement."

Bad Religion also contributed "Let Them Eat War" to the compilation CD "Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2," which hit record stores this week.

"It's no mystery that Bad Religion and most punk and pop bands are similar in that they are liberal, and they all love to encourage people, more than ever this year, to get out and vote against the Republican party," says Graffin. "That's the marketing angle, anyway."

Actually, Graffin says that while the new album does have some politically charged songs, the bulk of the 15 songs are still in keeping with the band's usual approach, which mixes provocative topics with accessible melodies, anthemic choruses, and aggressive instrumentation.

"Bad Religion albums have a philosophical undercurrent, and aside from the three political tunes, there are a dozen other songs that are about that philosophical undercurrent, and of course a lot of that revolves around religion, which is keeping with our tradition.

Many of Graffin's songs were influenced by his dissertation research examining the relationship between evolution and religion; he earned a Ph.D. in zoology last summer from Cornell.

"Songs like 'Sinister Rouge,' 'Atheist Peace' and 'God's Love' (go to www.ithacajournal.com/badreligion to hear a sample) -- these are songs that are still intimately tied with their polemics against the right-wing ideology," he says. "They're also in keeping with Bad Religion's older records in addressing this absurd idea that we are a Christian nation, and the incorrectness of that kind of a view. Because whatever religion you are, it should not have any bearing on who you choose as president. That's the greatest thing about America, I thought."

A Warped view

Bad Religion is currently headlining the Vans Warped Tour, which comes to Darien Lake Wednesday before concluding in Boston next week. It's the band's third time on the tour. While Graffin sometimes felt like he was preaching to the converted during the 1998 tour, in 2002 he realized the band was reaching a whole new audience of younger fans. It's a trend that has continued on this year's tour.

"An interesting statistic is that there has never been more American school-age children than there are right now, which pretty amazing," Graffin says. "So what that means for Bad Religion is that every year in 1990s, there'd be a new generation of punkers to discover us. Now it's a larger population than ever that's discovering us every year. I ask at every show for how many is this their first Bad Religion show, and over half the people have never even heard us.

"It just shows the punk-pop boom in schools is a snowballing effect," he continues. "Every year, the pop-punk bands make punk acceptable and mainstream to kids, and there are more of them every year who are just learning about Bad Religion. They've read about us, they view us as kind of the godfathers of punk movement, and they want to see us play."

Graffin, who turns 40 in November, says he doesn't worry about not being able to connect with a younger audience. "I've said it before, there was never any question when I was an undergrad about the age of my professor. No one said, 'Professor, how can you relate to those kids? You're so much older than them.' The way you relate to them is by having something relevant to say.

"That's how I see being on stage with Bad Religion. If you got something relevant to say, it doesn't matter how old the audience is, as long as the audience consists of people who want to hear something relevant and are willing to learn. Luckily, the punk rock audience always want to hear something relevant. So that's how I justify it."

Of course, he admits it's not getting any easier, given the demands of touring. The band spent six weeks in Europe this spring, and when the Warped Tour winds up, will gear up for its headlining tour in North American. Then it's off to Japan, Australia and South America.

"How do I feel? I'm very tired," he says. "The fact is, there's such a demand for Bad Religion. We've always operated on a independent budget and independent way of operating, so it takes a lot of personal commitment.

"Sometimes, I've often thought if I could franchise Bad Religion out to all the different cites, and have a cover band in every city playing concerts," he says with a laugh. "I'd pick the singers, and we would actually let them call themselves Bad Religion, like a true franchise."

Looking ahead

Last summer, Graffin finally finished his Ph.D. in zoology, which he had been working on since 1990, completing his dissertation titled "Monism, Atheism, and the Naturalist World View: Perspectives from Evolutionary Biology." (You can read about his research at www.cornellevolutionproject.org .)

"It cleared one academic project off my plate and opened the world for another one," says Graffin, who plans to start working on a book related to his research. "I am very excited about getting going on that. I knew this year was booked up with shows, so it will be slow going. But next year is going to be an academic year."

Another goal is to record his second solo album; his first, "American Lesion," came out in 1997. Bad Religion guitarist and fellow songwriter Brett Gurewitz "has expressed a lot of interest in producing it, so I know he's going to encourage me to get some more songs written," says Graffin. "I've been writing a lot of songs the last two years."

After living in Ithaca for 14 years, Graffin has no plans to relocate. "I really like it here," he says. "The more I travel, the more I reaffirm my love for Ithaca. I also have a place in Los Angeles, and spend a lot of time out there. I like it there, but I love Ithaca, and it's a great place to come back to. I have a family here, and the kids (Graham, 12; Ella, 10) love it. Who needs to uproot?"

By JIM CATALANO Journal Staff

Originally published Thursday, August 12, 2004 href='http://www.ithacajournal.com/entertainment/stories/20040812/music/1029245.html ' target='_blank'>ithacajournal.com

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Bad Religion, the ‘McCartney and Lennon of punk,’ to make Spokane debut

When the pandemic brought everything to a halt in March 2020, Bad Religion vocalist Greg Graffin wasn’t surprised that his band would take a live performance hiatus.

In 2015, Graffin wrote “Population Wars: A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence.” Graffin was ahead of his time detailing what pathogens can do to a society.

“I was five years early on the pandemic,” Graffin, 57, said while calling from La Quinta, California. “I wrote about the fate of different populations and how they would have to deal with pathogenic organisms. I covered it in an observational manner to try to inform.”

It wasn’t such a stretch since Graffin’s lyrics have enlightened fans for more than 40 years. Graffin has belted out his philosophy while Bad Religion backs him with visceral punk rock with occasional bits of hard rock and occasionally psychedelia. The common denominator has always been strong melodies and rich harmonies.

“I’ve tried to give people information they can use,” Graffin said. “That’s part of what I do and have enjoyed since this band began.”

After being weaned on such prog-rock bands as Yes and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Graffin embraced punk rock and formed Bad Religion when he was 15.

“I thought it was cool to be political and start a band when I was 15, but I didn’t know what the ramifications of being political meant then,” Graffin said. “I decided that I didn’t want to be a political band, but I wanted to deliver information in order to have an impact on people. I don’t care what your political parties are.”

Bad Religion emerged from the underground during the early 1990s and signed a deal with Atlantic Records. Its initial major label release, “Stranger Than Fiction,” included a number of singalong hits such as the title track, “Infected” and “21st Century Digital Boy.”

Graffin, along with guitarist Brett Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley, formed Bad Religion in 1980 while attending high school in Los Angeles.

“It’s been incredible doing this all of these years,” Graffin said. “Brett and I became bonafide songwriters. We didn’t set out to be the McCartney and Lennon of punk, but that’s what happened.”

But what Bad Religion, who headlines Wednesday night at Knitting Factory, values more than its music is friendship.

“That’s the legacy of this band more than anything else,” Graffin said. “Few people can say that they have lifelong friendships like we have. It’s a special thing. We’ve done this for fun, not business.”

However, Gurewitz has been the CEO of Epitaph Records, Bad Religion’s home. Epitaph became the blueprint of how to run a successful independent label.

“It’s funny how that turned out,” Graffin said. “But it’s worked out for Brett with Epitaph and for myself (as a college lecturer and author). All of that has helped the band.”

Graffin and Gurewitz are working on new material, but don’t expect anything more recent than tracks from 2019’s “Age of Unreason.”

“We have plenty of songs to play,” Graffin said. “We’re working on new stuff, but we’re fine with playing songs fans are familiar with – we’ve covered a lot of ground over the years.”

More ground will be covered when the band, which also includes guitarists Brian Baker and Mike Dimkich and drummer Jamie Miller, plays the Knitting Factory since it will be Bad Religion’s Spokane debut.

“We haven’t played everywhere, but it seems like we have,” Graffin said.

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Greg Graffin talks acoustic guitars, alternate tunings and Millport

Bad Religion frontman on his third country effort

Introduction

Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin takes an unexpected left turn into acoustic country music... and it works! “I’ve had this music in my blood the whole time”, he tells Joel McIver

Millport, the third solo album from Bad Religion founder and singer Greg Graffin, is a thing of sonic beauty by anyone’s standards. Widescreen acoustic guitar vibes permeate the songs, alongside layered vocals that pay obvious tribute to the Laurel Canyon sound of 1970s Los Angeles – a time when the radio and TV airwaves were dominated by smooth country, folk and Americana groups such as Crosby, Stills & Nash. It’s a lovely album, all right.

It’s very important that I get the message across that this is in fact the third country-rock-influenced album I’ve done

Artists specialising in this particularly luscious sound crop up on a regular basis, but what makes Graffin unusual in this context is that arch-punks Bad Religion - on the surface at least - have always been the antithesis of such mellow sounds. It reminds us of Stuart Maconie’s amusing theory about how all men get into country-rock when they hit their 40s.

“That’s wonderful!” laughs Graffin when we put Maconie’s theory to him. “I’ve been waiting for those questions. Another great cliché is the one about the aging rock legend who hits his 40s and 50s and makes a country record... but in my case, I feel it’s very important that I get the message across that this is in fact the third country-rock-influenced album I’ve done, and that they’ve been released over a 25-year period. My first one, American Lesion, came out in the 90s.”

Bad Religion's Greg Graffin: the 10 records that changed my life

Still, Bad Religion were and remain one of the most anti-establishment bands ever formed, forging the pop-punk template for bands such as Green Day to exploit, and railing against authority with apparently inexhaustible venom. Where do the cheerful Laurel Canyon vibes come from, then?

“You know,” observes Graffin, “a lot of people don’t realise that Bad Religion was started when I was 15. My singing style back then was usually described as really aggressive, but quite a few music writers commented on the fact that my approach was also ‘rootsy’ or ‘folksy’. I didn’t know what they were talking about at the time, but I realised many years later that what they were getting at was my background in what we call old-time music. 

“It’s the predecessors of country, stuff like Doc Watson and Woody Guthrie and the Carter Family: the stuff that Johnny Cash evolved from. It’s music that you can sit on your front porch with your family and sing along to, and that’s what we did in my family. 

“We sang music with pianos and acoustic guitars. I brought that style to Bad Religion, which is well known - but what is less known is that I’ve had this music in my blood the whole time.”

Got an example, Greg?

“Sure. If you listen to ‘Suffer’ [1988], which became a famous record - but not at the time it was released, because it was coming out of a void at the time - the chords are really nothing more than Cowgirl In The Sand [1969] by Neil Young, but at 250 beats per minute. The musicians whose influences you can hear on Millport are the exact same artists who we tried to sneakily camouflage in Bad Religion.”

Asked about the musicians who helped him hit those vintage-sounding notes on the new album, Graffin explains:

Most of the instruments are vintage. I reluctantly buy new instruments. You’ll hear some Gibson J50s from the 1940s and 50s on there

“We’ve got David Bragger, who's my friend and my partner in my solo music. He also appeared on my last record, Cold As The Clay [2006]. David is a virtuoso on banjo, fiddle and mandolin and he handles all of those on the new record. I wrote the music on those instruments, although I’m really very shabby at mandolin. 

“One day maybe you’ll hear the demos, and think ‘Ah, that’s what it was supposed to sound like from the songwriter’s perspective!’ David adds a real layer of virtuosity. Also, Johnny ‘Two Bags’ Wickersham from Social Distortion played some of the acoustic guitars. I played some too.”

So what’s the gear we can hear?

“Most of the instruments are vintage,” he explains. “I reluctantly buy new instruments, I usually buy vintage stuff. You’ll hear some Gibson J50s from the 1940s and 50s on there. 

“The really expensive ones stay in the studio, though. On tour I’ll bring out a Martin 000-28 from the 1970s, which is considered vintage now. It’s still very valuable, but it’s not like the older ones.”

Readers of a more cotton-pickin’ persuasion will be interested to hear that Graffin has considered the other acoustic instruments with care, as he tells us.

“The banjos are old too. There are some very good banjo makers in the US who make them in the old tradition, so it’s not as important to get an old one, although I guess some people might say that the wood is better. Banjos aren’t about the wood as much as guitars are. 

“We use Bart Reiter for banjos, and the fiddle is interesting, too. The one David uses wasn’t some famous old brand, it was an inheritance from his family that has been around since the 1920s. Finally, the mandolin I have is a Gibson from the 1920s. It’s in great shape. Imagine that - companies used to build things to last!”

Instrumental

What is it about vintage instruments that Graffin admires so much? Is it the tone, the playability or the heritage?

“It’s mostly because of the social circles that I move in,” he says. “Guys like Johnny ‘Two Bags’ and David Bragger are students of this stuff. They’ll tell you straight up, ‘Listen, they don’t make these instruments anymore and you can’t get that sound from the new ones.’

One of the tunings that David showed me is a famous one here in America called ‘sawmill tuning’. Some of my favourite oldtime songs are in this tuning

“That said, I do have a guitar from the 1990s, a handmade Jubal by a guy named Aaron Cowles from Michigan, who died a few years ago. He used to work at the Gibson plant at Kalamazoo, where they built all the 1940s jumbos that sounded like the ones you heard on the radio. 

“He knew how to make them, because he had the know-how, so the pickguard on my guitar is from the 1940s. It’s a cherrywood guitar and it really does sound like one of those old guitars, so you can get the vintage sound from luthiers who know what they’re doing, but the way to really get that sound is to buy an old instrument.”

Does Graffin like to try alternate tunings on these amazing instruments, we ask? “I like that question,” he chuckles, “because normally I couldn’t answer it! Normally I use straight tuning, but the banjo can probably be tuned in 127 different ways, or something. 

“One of the tunings that David showed me is a famous one here in America called ‘sawmill tuning’ [D, G, D, G, C, D, low to high]. Some of my favourite oldtime songs are in this tuning. Look up Clarence Ashley Walkin’ Boss or Doc Watson’s The Cuckoo Bird. I love that tuning so much that I wrote a song called Sawmill on the new album. 

“There’s some depth to it, philosophically: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about reducing my carbon footprint and trying to heat my house with more wood, so I’ve spent time learning about and milling my own firewood.”

Punk professor

Is Graffin planning to tour the Millport album?

“Yes, I’ll be touring. I really want to get some shows in the UK, and I really hope that the people reading hear that call, because it’s been a dream of mine for many years to bring my solo act over there. 

“Bad Religion has a fairly busy year ahead, but I’ve built my life around juggling my music and academic lives.”

The time on campus takes away from my time making music. I just wrapped up my last semester in evolution in December

Ah yes: as well as balancing his band and solo careers, Graffin is also the only punk musician we can think of who also lectures in evolution, in his case at UCLA in California and Cornell University in New York. He’s also a published author on evolution and related subjects, although as he tells us: 

“I’ve started to scale my commitments in the academic world back a little bit, but I still have projects going on: it’s just that the time on campus takes away from my time making music. I just wrapped up my last semester in evolution in December.”

We can’t help but make a semi-funny joke about the current regime in America (apologies to any Trump fans reading this), and suggest that Graffin’s work in evolution may well soon be replaced on the academic syllabus by a course on creationism. He laughs, thankfully, and says:

“Optimism doesn’t come from my president... that’s usually the way it works! Politics are always a drag, so if you can actually find anything valuable that’s being spewed about in the media right now, that’s good. Otherwise you’ll have nothing but a disheartening view of the future. You’ve got to focus on what’s right in front of you, day to day.”

Amen to that.

Millport is out now.

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Science Vs. Religion: The “Punk Paradox” of Bad Religion’s Greg Graffin

Science meets religion in the form of greg graffin, the evolutionary biology professor and co-founder of the californian punk band bad religion, jade kennedy, jade kennedy's most recent stories.

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Greg Graffin is a man of science. With a master’s degree in geology and a Ph.D. in biology, Graffin has taught subjects like evolutionary biology at University of California Los Angeles and Cornell University, where he wrote a dissertation entitled “ Evolution, Monism, Atheism, and the Naturalist Worldview. ”

Like many academics, Graffin has authored multiple books, including  Evolution and Religion , Anarchy Evolution: Faith, Science and Bad Religion in a World Without God , and Population Wars: A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence .

Unlike other academics, however, Greg Graffin is also the front man for one of the world’s longest-serving punk rock bands , Bad Religion.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, punk was an emerging subculture on the streets of Los Angeles. Graffin, in his early teens at the time, recalls some of the transition from child to teenager in his recent memoir, Punk Paradox .

“I wasn’t the best cultural anthropologist at the time, because I was only 15 when we started the band,” he laughs. “Bad Religion formed my first I guess ‘excursion’ into being part of a subculture… But I was still basically a kid, not qualified to comment on the implications of the subculture.”

Describing the Los Angeles punk scene as chaotic, Graffin says Bad Religion’s arrival on the scene in 1980 was nothing new, with punk bands already performing in clubs around Hollywood.

“We didn’t really ‘arrive’ on the scene,” Graffin corrects himself. “We rehearsed in my mom’s garage – that was our ‘scene’ – and we tried to go out into Hollywood to go to concerts or go to clubs, and half of them we didn’t get in, so we just hung out outside.

“We didn’t really ‘arrive’ on the scene… We rehearsed in my mom’s garage – that was our ‘scene’.”

“But on the streets of Hollywood it was everything you’ve read about. Everything you’ve heard: a lot of violence, and lot of crime, a lot of sleaze… and a lot of drugs and alcohol.”

Graffin and co-writer Brett Gurewitz and himself listened to a lot of progressive rock and classic rock in the 1970s, but when punk music emerged, there were bands they wanted to emulate the look and stage presence of when creating their own band.

“Brett was a really big fan of The Ramones, and I loved all the LA bands like The Gears and Black Flag and the Circle Jerks,” Graffin says. “And likewise, we were just part of a scene with a lot of contemporary bands, like Agent Orange and The Adolescents, so we were forming a culture of our own and borrowing from each other – liberally.”

Although Bad Religion was so named because the then-teens thought it would cause distress to adults, there is a deeper meaning behind the band’s name, which Graffin says they were lucky to grasp early on.

“Most teenagers don’t really know much about – or care much about – the future, and we didn’t necessarily care about the future, but we chose a name that you could talk about until you were old and grey, like I am,” Graffin laughs. “Religion is something that never goes away, it’s a conversation that you can literally carry to your grave. And the importance of religion in one’s life is a constant meander between significance and irrelevance, and I think we were very fortunate to touch on the as a theme because it has formed a thematic background for all of our song writing, too.”

Bad Religion’s memoir, Do What You Want , was written by friend of the band Jim Ruland, which was released in time for the band’s 40th anniversary – right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

“People who enjoy knowing every little detail of the band’s history are really going to like Jim’s book, because every detail of the band is in that book,” Graffin says. “From the time we started ‘til the last concert we played up until 2020 – Jim even came on tour with the band in 2019, when he was writing it.”

Referring to the book as “the Bad Religion chronology” Graffin explains his approach to writing his own memoir was more novelistic than encyclopaedic, where he treats himself as the protagonist of the story.

“I wanted there to be a story thread that could be mapped onto the chronology that Jim provided,” he says. “So, I say Jim’s book is like the skeleton, and my book is like the connective tissue and the muscles. They go hand in hand, but if you’re literary in your interests then I think Punk Paradox is a nice complement to Do What You Want .”

Do What You Want chronicles Bad Religion’s first show, which is referred to on the band’s Wikipedia page as their first “unofficial” show with Social Distortion, who is co-headlining the band’s upcoming Australian and New Zealand shows.

“It was official, in a sense, even though it wasn’t at a legitimate club – it was at some warehouse in Orange County,” Graffin says. “But yeah, that was our first show ever, so it’s pretty cool being friends with these guys for so long… we’ve sort of both gone off on our own trajectory, and it’s nice now to be coming back together.”

Graffin says the double billing is particularly special because, despite both bands being actively touring for most of the last 43 years, they have rarely billed together.

“I don’t think there’s ever been a co-headlining tour with Social D and Bad Religion, so that is why this is a remarkable occurrence – and we’re kicking it off in Australia.”

“I don’t think there’s ever been a co-headlining tour with Social D and Bad Religion, so that is why this is a remarkable occurrence – and we’re kicking it off in Australia,” Graffin says. “For whatever reason we spent a lot of time touring in Europe over those decades, and they spent a lot of time touring in the States, and by the time we toured the States, which was usually in the fall, they would have already played all the venues over the summer. We played the same size venues, so we did more hopscotching, and we didn’t play together.”

Bad Religion had planned to do a retrospective show in 2020 to celebrate the band’s four-decade career, but plans were foiled by COVID-19 and the worldwide travel restrictions.

“So, this will be, essentially, the show that we were planning to do,” Graffin says. “Which is going to be a good look back at our history.”

Graffin says he divorces himself from the process of choosing songs to perform out of Bad Religion’s back catalogue of around 300 tracks, but bass player Jay Bentley takes great strides to catalogue each performance.

“He has a database of the last time we were in Sydney or something, and he’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, so this is the show we did then,’ and pays attention to that stuff and changes it up so that it doesn’t become redundant,” Graffin says. “With the number of songs that we have, it’s easy to make things sound fresh again – there are songs we have never played, so we can break something out and say hey, that’s the first time we ever played it.”

Having written so much material, Graffin says it is difficult to write new songs that are different but also great tracks.

“I speak on behalf of my co-writer Brett that we both have always felt the pressure to put out something great,” he says. “And sometimes we miss – as my friend Brian Baker, our guitar player, says: they can’t all be winners. But we try every single song, we think, is going to be great – and we wouldn’t record it or release it if we didn’t think that.”

The band’s most recent album, Age of Unreason , was their 17th studio release, and was eerily prophetic in some ways, thematically, to the pandemonium of the global epidemic that soon followed. It was also very political, in many ways.

“We always have insisted that we don’t write concept albums; it wasn’t an overarching concept album,” Graffin says. “There were songs on it that pointed to the absurdity of the democratic process that we’ve seen… I won’t say ‘ruined’, I’ll just say, ‘temporarily impaired’, so songs like “Candidate” are kind of a tongue in cheek parody of who we’re voting for these days.”

Then there are tracks like “Chaos From Within”, which suggests that maybe the chaos in the world today is really because of a flaw in human reasoning.

“Maybe it comes from up here,” Graffin says, indicating his head, “As much as our actions in the streets. So, it was very appropriate for what was going on – not only in the COVID epidemic, but in the crazy years leading up to it. And in many ways, it’s still very relevant today.”

Bad Religion with Social Distortion Australian/New Zealand Tour

Full ticket information available at badreligion.com

Wednesday, February 15th The Trusts Arena, Auckland, NZ

Friday, February 17th Riverstage, Brisbane, QLD

Saturday, February 18th Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, NSW

Sunday, February 19th Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne, VIC

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• Khokhlovka Art Center, where Russian hipsters and street artists hang out
• Samoskvorechye District where you can see beautiful streets and hear stories from old Moscow

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 2 hours Price: 21 $ Students and children: 17 $ Language: English Included in the price: the guided tour / tram ticket

Kremlin tour – daily (closed on Thursday)

With its 20 towers and high walls, the Kremlin rises imposingly over Red Square. This world-famous fortress with its area of ​​28 hectares is home to over 800 years of Russian history. Described as the eighth wonder of the world, this historic fortress complex is the principal symbol of Russia that sits on the banks of the Moscow River. Today the Kremlin still harbors numerous secrets and has palaces and cathedrals, surrounded by Kremlin Wall. The current wall was constructed between the 15 th  and 16 th  centuries, but the original wall was made of wood around the year 1147. The Kremlin Wall became an important symbol of Moscow’s importance in the Russian Empire. This top tourist destination attracts millions of people every year and there are various sights to see. With my Kremlin tour, you will see the oldest square in the city in the heart of the Kremlin, the once largest cannon in the world and the scene of numerous dramas – from Ivan the Terrible and Napoleon to Stalin. You cannot miss this unique experience.

An advance booking and prepayment for tickets are required.

Time: by arrangement, daily (closed on Thursday) Duration: 2 hours Price on request Students and children: on request Language: English Included in the price: Kremlin tickets / the guided tour

Moscow pub crawl – Friday / Saturday

Experience the real nightlife of Moscow with my Moscow Pub Crawl and enjoy 4 pubs/bars plus 4 welcome shot drinks. Move from one bar to another and get to know travelers from around the world as well as the locals. Play fun adventure games and contests in addition to getting perks in the bars. Between the bars, move from one place to another on foot. The routes are organized as such that you will walk no more than 10 minutes between the bars. Visit the most exciting events, parties, concerts, and dance in the bars. Moscow Pub Crawl is a tour that you will never forget.

This tour runs every Friday and Saturday evening at 8 PM and you need to bring along your passport or an ID card, comfortable shoes, and wear smart casual clothes.

An advance booking and a small prepayment are required!

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 4 hours Price on request Language: English Included in the price: the guided tour, 4 shot drinks

1.5-hour boat trip on the Moskva River.

Taking a boat tour in Moscow on the Moskva River is a very pleasant experience. It allows you to know the city from a totally different perspective and admire the beautiful bridges. In this 1.5-hour river trip, you will sail past many beautiful sites in Moscow, so you can take the best photos to commemorate this day. The ship makes several stops on the way. The trip starts from the Ustinskiy Bridge near Sarjadje Park and ends at the Kiev train station.

On this Boat Trip, you can see sights such as: the former Imperial Education House, Sarjadje Park, the “flowing”, “floating” bridge, the most beautiful view of the Kremlin, the Great Stone Bridge, the legendary House on the Quay, the Christ the Savior Cathedral , the monument to Peter the Great on the ship, the central sports arena Luzhniki, the Sparrow Hills, 240 meters high Lomonosov University, the numerous architecturally spectacular skyscrapers of Moscow-City, the Novodevichy Convent, the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.

Time: by arrangement, daily Duration: 1.5 hours Price on request Language: English

A military tour – riding on tanks in Stupino (Moscow region)

Russian Military is one of the largest military forces in the world formed in 1992. With my Military Tour experience what it likes to be in the Russian military, shooting guns, ride the Tank T-34 and various models of German tanks from the Second World War, as well as armored personnel carriers and vehicles. You will also shoot from the AK-47 and another combat weapon.

The tour will begin with your private tour guide Moscow in a Soviet army van accompanied with some tasty snacks and tea for a tasty start. Upon arriving, you will have to put on the army safety clothing and climb the Russian armored vehicles. The tour will take you on the noisy, smoky tank, driving through mud roads. All participants will get the chance to drive the tank which is coordinated by the Russian military.

Time: by arrangement, daily Price on request Language: English

Alexander Popov

Welcome to Russia! My name is Alexander, I was born in Moscow and I'm a passionate tour guide. I want to share my passion for Russia and my hometown with you. On my website you will find useful information to make your individual trip to Russia as interesting as possible.

Gorky Park and Sparrow Hills: Green Lungs, place to relax and meet

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No Cancellation Charges  up to 24 hours before the chosen travel date. 100% cancellation fee applied within 24 hours of travel date.

For groups of 12 or more, you may send us an inquiry at [email protected]. Although we do not guarantee bulk deals for all our tours, there are some tours for which we can offer discounted pricing. Ordinary hop-on-hop-off bus tickets are entitled to group savings. Attractions, pass items and combo tickets aren't.

Due the nature of this type of tour and varying demand, group travellers should be aware that there is no guarantee that the group will be able to travel altogether as the available seats vary from stop to stop and depends on demand each day. The group may need to split up and/or wait for the next bus(s).

As, we cannot guarantee that the group shall be able to travel together as one group, therefore we will reduce the group size down to 4-5 smaller groups per ticket (depending upon group size).

City Sightseeing: Moscow Hop-On, Hop-Off Bus Tour

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• The Bus Tour offers unlimited 360° panoramic views of main sights of Moscow.
• Access to audio-guide in 10 different languages which enables to know about Moscow’s history and traditions.
• The three-bus tour routes and 40+ stops around Moscow completes the trip. Draw an itinerary to explore the city on your own.
• There can be a boat tour and bus tour to enjoy panoramic views of Moskva River.
• Smartphone Voucher Accepted. (No need to print)

The City Sightseeing at Moscow begins at Bolotnaya Square with Hop-on-Hop-off bus service. The bus operates on the Red, Green and Orange lines. If you have limited time in Moscow, start your trip on the Redline and get yourself acquainted with the city’s 16 best attractions. The green line, however, covers 26 amazing spots so if you are staying for an extended period catch the green line.

• Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
• Alexander Garden
• GUM State Department Store
• Sofiyskaya Embankment
• Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
• University Square, Vorobyovy Gory Observation Deck
• Hotel Ukraina Pier
• Zaryadye Park
• Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics
• VDNKh Metro Station
• Cosmonauts Alley
• Ostankino Television Tower
• Red Route: Schedule: 10:00 - 18:00 , Loop: 60 Minutes , Frequency: 15 Minutes
• Green Route : Schedule: 10:00 - 18:00 , Loop: 120 Minutes , Frequency: 30 Minutes
• Orange Route : Schedule: 10:00 - 18:30 , Loop: 140 Minutes , Frequency: 30 Minutes
• 24 / 48-Hours Hop-on Hop-off Bus Ticket
• Red Line Audio Guide: Russian, English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Arabic, Portuguese, Farsi
• Green Line Audio Guide: Russian, English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Chinese, Arabic
• Orange Line Audio Guide : Russian English, German, Spanish, Italian, French
• Guided walking tour
• Boat Tour (If option selected)
• Hotel Transfers
• Entrance Fees (Unless Specified)

Redemption Info

You can board the bus at any stop and voucher can be exchanged directly with the driver. Printed vouchers required for this tour and are accepted at all stops. You will receive a ticket in exchange for your voucher, which you must keep until the expiry date/ tour. Please check your ticket to know when it expires. After exchanging your voucher for a ticket, your voucher will no longer be valid. In loss of voucher/ticket, company is not liable for any refund. Book Now! You can use your ticket any day within 12 months.

Know Before You Go

Wheelchair Access, Heating Please note that face masks must be worn on board the bus. Orange Route is temporarily suspended   

Operational Details: Walking Tour

• Daily at 10:45 a.m.
• Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
• Meeting point: next to the monument to Saints Cyril and Methodius (Kitay-Gorod metro station)

Capital River Boat Tour

• May - October: from 11:30am to 6:30pm (Subject to change)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Departure Point: Zaryadye Park Pier

Useful Downloads

Cancellation policy, other cities in russia.