Local skate-punk legends the Boneless Ones play Bay Area shows

CBS News

07-02-2025

Legendary Bay Area skate-punk band the Boneless Ones take the stage with their brand new line-up when they play shows in Santa Cruz and Albany this weekend.
Inspired by the classic Thrasher Magazine punk compilations of the early '80s, the band contributed a pair of tunes -- "Keg Kept a Flowing," a parody of the oft-covered, blues-rock staple "Train Kept a Rollin'" -- and the original song "Love to Hate" -- to the Bay Area punk imprint Boner Records' seminal collection Them Boners Be Poppin' alongside such hardcore greats as Tales of Terror, Fang, Verbal Abuse and Bl'ast.
In 1986, the group released it's debut album, the landmark skate-punk effort Skate for the Devil that stands as one of the Bay Area's great contributions to the crossover movement. While the band would split up the following year, Boneless Ones reunited in 2019 with original singer Max Fox and bassist Troy Takaki teaming up with a local metal and punk legend for their new line-up featuring drummer Chris Kontos (Attitude Adjustment, Machine Head, Verbal Abuse and many others) -- who briefly played in the Boneless Ones during the last six months before the split.
The band played the 2019 Haight Street Fair and a few other shows with a couple of guitarists before hooking up with talented six-string hero Craig Locicero (Forbidden Evil/Forbidden, Manmade God, Dress the Dead and more), who has ably filled the sizeable shoes of original guitar player, the late Luke Skeels.
In addition to reissuing the long out-of-print Skate for the Devil on Beer City in 2020, that December the band put out it's first new tune in decades just before Christmas with the hilarious seasonal punk anthem "Santa Stole My Skateboard." With the pandemic shutting down touring and live music in general, the Boneless Ones teamed to write new songs to go with four tracks from a long-lost demo that was originally recorded in 1987, coming up with material for the group's first new album in over 35 years, Back to the Grind.
Capturing the same mix of irreverent humor and blistering punk-meets-metal skate anthems that made Skate for the Devil a timeless classic, the self-released album that came out in 2022 delivered neck-snapping musical mayhem ("We Ride The Night," "Church Of Violence," "Crossing Over the Bridge") that longtime fans will readily embrace while delving into new territory on the Beatles-esque lament for lost lust "I Wish You Were Beer" that manages to be both heartfelt and hilarious. Since the album came out, the band paid its first visit to Europe, playing the Dynamo Festival in Eindhoven, Netherlands in August.
While Kontos and Locicero would amicably part ways with the group to focus their energy on the reunited Forbidden, the Boneless Ones have stayed active, issuing a long-lost 1987 demo tape last year and announcing a new line-up featuring East Bay punk veteran and skater Ken Van Hamm (Them Creatures) on guitar and onetime DRI drummer Rob Rampy (who has also played with Denial Fiend, No Fraud and the Spears among many others).
That version of the Boneless Ones plays two Bay Area shows this weekend, providing support for Oakland punk band Oppressed Logic at the Blue Lagoon on Saturday night along with Santa Cruz hardcore surf/skate punk band Nuisance in Public, punk outfit Crap skate punk/metal crew Paint the Town Rad. The later band will join the Boneless Ones at the Ivy Room in Albany for an all-ages Super Bowl Sunday skate-punk festival that starts at around game time at 3:30 p.m. Cement Eaters, Vacant and costumed bass-and-drums punk duo Lost Puppy Forever also appear.