Punknews.org | Anti-Flag / A Static Lullaby / Darkest Hour

Review Navigator

Features

Reviews

Anti-Flag / A Static Lullaby / Darkest Hour

live in New York City
2003
live show

Review by: Brian
See others by this writer

A-F Records (link)

Only registered users
can post comments

Published on July 4th 2003

With the Warped Tour now in full swing but not visiting New York for another month, I have still managed to find, and thus, attend, a show that displayed this amount of diverse bands and sounds, in the early-summer tour collaborated by Anti-Flag, albeit the size, number of bands, and venue. Nonetheless...

I was just about wrapping up my merch line activities when Tabula Rasa took the stage. I'd be lying to you if I told you they saved their best songs for last, because from where I was, they sounded great at first. So great in fact that my cousin (whom some of you may know as thriceequalsgod) yelled from eight feet away to buy "this band's CD"...for him, anyway. So, after picking up their A-F full length Role of Smith, I hauled a bit of ass back to some of the limited space in the middle to hear the rest of their set. Once again, I'd be lying to you if I told you this is "just the type of band Anti-Flag would sign to their label." This is not Destruction Made Simple, nor is it The Code. Instead, Tabula play an inexplicable melding of rock 'n roll, punk, and - I hate this term but I'll have to say it anyway - math rock; people might hate me for this comparison, but think Recover listening to a lot of Mars Volta. Great at first, and just sort of faded a little from there. Nonetheless, they closed out their set with some decent numbers.

Darkest Hour got the crowd clapping along to the Diff'rent Strokes theme before they blasted into their brand of flesh-searing metalcore. Fists flying, feet mid-air, DH played a half-decent dose of fury of good riffs and screaming that never let up. And let's get one thing straight, I hate metalcore, but for the genre, Darkest Hour are great at what they do.

Sometimes I think I take my New York/Long Island scene for granted because it's so good. When A Static Lullaby (a band I can't enough of) took the stage, I wasn't sure how responsive the crowd would be. Oh, they were responsive, and I imply in the positive notion. ASL jumped right into "Annunciate While You Masticate," and followed it up with "Charred Fields of Snow." The crowd's movements, finger pointing, it was all there. ASL praised us for how great the crowd was being several times, with Joe even swearing to us he was on the verge of tears. Eh, I couldn't give a shit either way, the band was rocking and not being dicks like a lot of rumors I've heard. As for the ego thing, yeah, Joe gave off a little bit of that with the constant mic raises and hi-fives to the crowd. But I mean, who can blame him, he's totally hot. Besides, what else is there to do when your job description basically just includes "occasional screaming?" I have no clue what the majors are gonna do with this guy when they eventually sign...and they definitely will. Love or hate them, you know it's inevitable. As for the rest of their set, they played their "This is Spinal Tap" tribute, "We Go to Eleven" (I did not know that), and made a "Saving Silverman" reference later on. All comedic movie dictations aside, "A Sip of Wine Chased With Cyanide" helped me and the rest of the crowd go apeshit, and they closed with "the Shooting Star that Destroyed Us All."

Now, from what I can understand, a lot of people dislike Anti-Flag, whether it be for what they think is hypocritical reasoning, their political views or whatever. Tell you what, Justin Sane and co. are no Jello Biafra or Noam Choasky, that's for sure, but when it comes to pointing out the simplicities of government fallacies, Anti-Flag are some of the best at such. The band gave me the realization that I've never had so much fun singing along at a show, as they opened with "No Borders, No Nations," which I'm sure couldn't have been a better opener, after hearing some static-induced GW quotes and world affairs. From there, they used their usual in-between banter to explain some things to us about social security, social structure issues, and the like. However, it was their music that really fueled the rest of the show. Fists pumping continuously, AF played the whoa-oh-spectrums of "Tearing Everyone Down" and "Angry, Young, and Poor." And they of course included the classics, like the rising vocal harmonies of "Die for the Government" and "Underground Network." The encore had them doing a cover of the Clash's "White Riot" (something else to sing along for even the parts of the crowd that had never heard the song) and finisihing up with "911 for Peace."

One of the better, more diverse shows I've been to lately, and for all the right reasons. This is definitely a trend being picked up as of late, whether a lot of people like it or not (see: Rx Bandits/No Motiv/Fairweather). It helps reflect the diverse tastes inhabited my many people, and finally these tastes are being fulfilled.

Login to rate this album

People who liked this also liked:

Please login or register to post comments.

What are the benefits of having a Punknews.org account?

Share your opinion by posting comments on the stories that interest you
Rate music and bands and help shape the weekly top ten
Let Punknews.org use your ratings to help you find bands and albums you might like
Customize features on the site to get the news the way you want.

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2003 at 3:28 AM (EDT)
My Score:

by the way, i didn't mean to give it a ten.

hate, Jesus

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2003 at 3:27 AM (EDT)
My Score:

if you ask me they have gone downhill since New Kind of Army. That is just what i think.

hate, Jesus

Posted by Anonymous on Tuesday, July 8, 2003 at 2:35 AM (EDT)
My Score:

when asl sign? they signed to columbia months ago...

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 6, 2003 at 3:11 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Anti-Flag sucks, I think they know it. Most people are fed up with them and the fact that they're straight edge fuckups

Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, July 6, 2003 at 1:26 AM (EDT)
My Score:

yep porno indeed.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 9:58 PM (EDT)
My Score:

hey, what the hell is wrong with the buddy icons link on local-felons.com? it takes to a bunch of porno pages, but i see no buddy icons.

~Zäk

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 8:04 PM (EDT)
My Score:

This score is for Tabula Rasa.

- Scott
http://www.local-felons.com/
(PITTSBURGH!!!)

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 1:50 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Hmmm...but, for Anti-Flag, their message is equally important as the music...or so I was led to believe.
-J

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 9:23 AM (EDT)
My Score:

to the person below, it was a pretty good review but i didnt see the need to really get into the specifics of anti-flag's rants. and it played out more like an introduction to each band then a show review, but hey however you see it is the way it gets put to ink.

inagreendase

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 7:54 AM (EDT)
My Score:

http://www.rebelnoise.com/photoalbum.php?r=sf&show_id=39
Hey hey hey everybody...link to photos of the show and an alternate review...
-Janelle

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 4:03 AM (EDT)
My Score:

i have to take a leak. This score is for taking a leak.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 2:48 AM (EDT)
My Score:

to the kid below me: i didnot believe you at first, but then you said it again. And now im convinced.

ACD

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 2:05 AM (EDT)
My Score:

Rumor has it that the diverse bill was somewhat intended to help bring out an audience that might be openminded to the sounds of The Vacancy and Tabula Rasa, two of AF Recs least-likely signings. You may not like antiflag, but you gotta admit, they sure do support their bands even when it means doing a tour that their fans hate.

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 2:05 AM (EDT)
My Score:

Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, July 5, 2003 at 1:30 AM (EDT)
My Score:

i would've gone to see darkest hour but couldn't make it. i'll catch them next time with atreyu, they're pretty cool live.

Ramo

Posted by inagreendase on 2003-07-05 00:50:52
My Score:

forgot to mention a few things.

1) Anti-Flag also played "Spaz's House Destruction Party" and "Watch the Right," and deemed a guy in the crowd Johnny Wifebeater before they played "Fuck Your Flag and Fuck You." They designated this guy the leader of the cirlce pit for the song, and I swear to you, 65-70% of the room must've been participating.

2) ASL are one of the very, very few bands who change things up a bit from their studio sound. Different pitches on vocals and chords and the like, even occasional change-ups in the verses; I used to get dragged to classic rock shows from my parents like five/ten years ago and these guys were doin' just that. Of course, it was probably because they had recorded those songs twenty-five years ago; but still, new bands never do that type of stuff and it was nice to see some who still like to.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 11:42 PM (EDT)
My Score:

I'd never heard of Anti-Flag until I saw them (it was like my first show). I got a good kick out of it. It sounded to me like Peewee Herman getting all sappy punk rock on us and telling us to fuck the fascists as a family. Love those bastards

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 9:57 PM (EDT)
My Score:

A-F are fun (not too smart, but fun live), but what the hell type opening bands are these? I mean, every time I try and go to see two punk bands at once, I have to sit and watch two emo/bland pop-punk bands beforehand. It's real annoying. I mean, if Madcap and Catch 22 are headlining, chances are the crowd isn't gonna care for Count the Stars or Rivendale (crappy KC pop-punk who pay their way on to bills).

-BugsizedDick

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 9:06 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Um no. That crowd was not some of the punkest I've seen...see below for the comment about the kiddies all agog (a-gag?) for A Static Lullaby...disappointing to say the least. Not many people over 18 there methinks...I don't even know if the bar was "open."
-felix

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 8:16 PM (EDT)
My Score:

"that's very surprising. i mean, anti-flag's crowd are some of the punkest i know."

I can't tell if you're being serious or not, but I'm really hoping that that was sarcasm.

Anyway, seems like it was a good show. Anti-Flag is fun live. ASL have some good songs, as do Darkest Hour. Too bad it's not coming here.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 8:01 PM (EDT)
My Score:

"The encore had them doing a cover of the Clash's "White Riot" (something else to sing along for even the parts of the crowd that had never heard the song"

that's very surprising. i mean, anti-flag's crowd are some of the punkest i know.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 6:16 PM (EDT)
My Score:

Yeah, Darkest Hour were good...but A Static Lullaby...what the fuck?
I was disillusioned the moment I saw/heard the entire crowd singing to this bullshit. I was left dumbfounded and when the singer said he was a-gonna cry b/c it was their first NYC show?...Ahem, I'm sorry if anyone stepped in my puke.
-felix

Posted by StratManX on 2003-07-04 17:50:40
My Score:

It's great going to anti-flag shows, I mean there's nothing like being told to kill the whales, save bush, don't eat the war, no vegans, etc. Why can't they just pick one subject and stick to it? I mean I'm pretty god damn liberal but they are just annoying.

Posted by Anonymous on Friday, July 4, 2003 at 3:50 PM (EDT)
My Score:

i saw the detroit show. i wish a static lullaby and anti-flag wouldve played longer sets, but they didnt. the vacancy played at our show. they were badas. i talked with the guys after thier set. they were cool. not much else to say. anti-flags only encore song was 911 for peace, i woulda like to hear whit riot. but nonetheless, they put on a good show.

~Zäk

Posted by slippy on 2003-07-04 15:31:33
My Score:

i saw this tour in detroit, minus darkest hour who didnt play...it was a very good show, one of the best ive been to in a while. joe from a static lullaby may seem a little ego-full on stage, but i got to meet him after the show and he's a really nice guy. as for anti-flag, they played a great set and so did tabula rasa.

Posted by MrOhio on 2003-07-04 15:23:35
My Score:

Is it just me, or is Anti-Flag not a very good band? They're like bad political punk. I would take one Dead Kennedys song before I took all of Anti-Flag's music.