Bad Religion, Less Than Jake, Hot Water Music. 7pm Sat, Bronco Bowl, 2600 Fort Worth Av, Dallas. $19.50. 888-597-7827.

It was front-page news in the punk papers: Brett Gurewitz is back. In 1980, guitarist/songwriter Gurewitz founded the hardcore punk band Bad Religion with vocalist Greg Graffin and established the record label Epitaph to release the group's first e.p. Over the decade, Bad Religion outlived the hundreds of other garage bands formed by "disaffected" suburban SoCal teenagers to become, for 15 minutes in the late '80s, the most popular and influential band in its genre. Suffer, from 1988, still stands as a classic of L.A. punk.

In 1994, after seven albums on Epitaph, the band released the slick, commercial Stranger than Fiction with major-label Atlantic. That same year, one of Epitaph's signees, the Offspring, had a Smash hit; with labelmates Rancid, Pennywise, and NOFX preparing to follow the Offspring into national-rock godhood, Gurewitz left Bad Religion to focus on his now-legendary punk label. Bad Religion soldiered on through three more Atlantic albums, each to less acclaim. When the watered-down The New America (2000) flopped, Atlantic dropped the band.

Last summer Bad Religion returned to Epitaph, Gurewitz returned to Bad Religion, and Bad Religion returned to its old bad self. The Process of Belief, released in January, is a homecoming for Graffin and Gurewitz's musical and political formulas: relentless, manic melodies as backdrop for provocative sociology lessons. The lessons cover classic cerebro-punk ground: "The media parading disjointed politics / found in all petrochemical plunder / and we're its hostages" is a typical polemic. The tempos range from slap-in-the-face to storytelling pace.

For the Bronco Bowl show, look for a set list divided between old and new songs, though only an aficionado will be able to tell the difference. Aging punks who loved the old Bad Religion are going to love it again. Kids raised on Blink-182 will be blown away.