Watch Christian Punk Icons The Altar Boys Tear It Up in 2005

Inspired by The Ramones and The Clash, The Altar Boys were one of the first Christian punk bands. Led by Mike Stand, they emerged from Orange County, California in the early ’80s with a string of albums that included When You’re a Rebel and Gut Level Music. Mixing punk rock’s intensity with explicitly Christian lyrics, The Altar Boys quickly became alternative Christian music icons.

Although the band has officially been on indefinite hiatus since 1992, they’ve reunited on several occasions and even released a new album, titled No Substitute, in 2018. In 2005, The Altar Boys reunited to play at a concert celebrating Broken Records, a seminal Christian indie/alternative label that released music by The Altar Boys as well as Adam Again, Crumbächer, The Choir, The Holidays, The Seventy Sevens, Undercover, and many others.

To mark the reunion’s 20th anniversary, The Altar Boys released the above video of their full performance, which features such classics as “GLM (Gut Level Music),” “I’m Not Talking About Religion,” and “When You’re a Rebel.” Watching Stand strut, jump, and bounce around the stage while singing emphatically of God’s love for the outcasts and the broken-hearted, it’s easy to see why The Altar Boys are so beloved.

On a related note, my wife’s dream as a high school youth group kid was to have The Altar Boys play at her wedding. We actually got married just a few weeks before the band’s Broken Records reunion, so in another world, our wedding reception could’ve been a whole lot more rockin’ than it actually was.