Adolescents Balboa Fun Zone

Adolescents 'Balboa Fun Zone' (Triple X 1988)

When I was at university, during term time, I was lucky enough to receive £400 a month from my Dad to cover rent etc. I must admit it was good of him and I lived a pretty good life for four years. Every month, as soon as the cheque was cashed I would head up Great Western Road to Lost Chord, then Missing, then Byers Road and De Courceys Arcade on a quest for vinyl.

Missing was a brilliant record shop, with an instantly recognisable logo, that started off in Brown Street, opened branches in the West End, then opened a megastore style outlet in West Campbell Street I think. At one point they may have had two stores in Great Western Road, one near to Clatty Pats and one further up near to the Botanics. Unfortunately, it was a case of expanding too soon, too quickly and the empire crumbled in the early 2000s. They still exist, but only in a wee shop on Argyle Street under the bridge at Union Street station.

I loved Missing, they always had the best of metal, hardcore, punk, indie and dance at very reasonable prices and the second hand section was amazing. The stock was constantly turned around and I was guaranteed at least new three records a month. This one was purchased in 1996, the sticker inside says it was sold to missing on 03/05/96, so maybe I bought it for my birthday, and cost £1.99. The cover has the top right hand corner cut off which often meant the record was a reject and I was surprised, upon placing it on the deathdeck, to note that it is on fetching green vinyl. This was the second time I had listened to the record.

Adolescents were a band I had heard about due to their excellent pedigree; Rikk Agnew and Steve Soto were in Social Distortion and Agent Orange respectively, and the fact that all the Fat Wrecks and Epitaph bands were always mentioning them as major influences.

I was still in a bit of a Face to Face and Bad Religion phase so I thought this was worth picking up for a bargain price. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

The band had split and reformed and gone through a second phase of major changes by the time this was committed to vinyl. The original singer, Tony Cadena, had left and Rikk and Steve decided to split vocals.

Balboa Fun Zone is named after an amusement park in Orange County where the band were from and the opening track is like a less fun 'Rockaway Beach' with kids going down to the park and having a riot on the beach during their school break.
Steve can sing a bit, Rikk can't. 'Just like Before' is an abomination that could have worked with Dave Smalley (Dag Nasty/Down By Law) on vocals but the attempt at a soaring chorus falls flat with weak vocals far too high in the mix.

A terrible cover of 'Instant Karma' should've resulted in their immediate inability to ever make music again, 'Alone against the World' sounds like an Oi Motley Crue trying to do a Dead Kennedys cover version with seriously awful vocals and 'Balboa Fun Zone ( It's in your Touch)' starts like a retarded Journey ballad and gets even more demented as it goes along.

'Modern Day Napoleon' is probably my least disliked song on the album and boasts a semi thrash riff in the verse and a bit of a mosh riff, as Anthrax would call them, towards the end of the song. It's not a million miles away from Nuclear Assault, yet Agnew fails miserably again when trying to hold a tune.

Apparently you should check out their earlier albums. After this I didn't.

Thanks to adolescent zombie freak Dylan for posing so well!

Peace