{"id":11975,"date":"2016-05-02T10:32:27","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T17:32:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=11975"},"modified":"2016-05-06T14:52:30","modified_gmt":"2016-05-06T21:52:30","slug":"anti-flag-brings-spirit-of-punk-to-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/05\/02\/anti-flag-brings-spirit-of-punk-to-victoria\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Flag brings spirit of punk to Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWelcome to the goddamn punk rock show,\u201d sang Anti-Flag bassist Chris #2 during the bridge of their song \u201cFabled World\u201d at their April 29 show at Victoria\u2019s Distrikt Nightclub. And it made sense: Anti-Flag is a band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that embodies the very essence of punk. The band members sport mohawks and black skinny jeans, play punk with pummeling power chords, and have lyrics with a progressive political message; when Anti-Flag took the stage, they would have been right at home beside The Clash or the Sex Pistols.<\/p>\n

What makes Anti-Flag so memorable compared to other punk groups is how they deliver their music. While many of their hardcore contemporaries focus on being as heavy and loud as possible, and their pop-punk brethren are often overly saccharine, Anti-Flag knows how to hit just the right spot when it comes to making quality punk rock. Like a well-made cocktail, Anti-Flag’s sweet melodies and catchy riffs make the bitterness of their message go down easier.<\/p>\n

\"Anti-Flag<\/a>
Anti-Flag brought the punk sound, and ideals, to town (photo by Megan Thompson).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Unfortunately, the bass-heavy setup typically used for club music didn\u2019t do any favours for the intricate guitar work found in many of the band\u2019s songs. The relentless wall of sound walloping from the amplifiers drowned out much of what was being played on the higher end of the register. Still, this was used to great effect on some songs, such as the hammering guitar riffs and bass lines on a cover of Fugazi’s \u201cWaiting Room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Anti-Flag for the show were Portland punks Lee Corey Oswald, who will be touring with them for the rest of their dates in western Canada, and locals No Liars, who rocked their hearts out as concertgoers trickled into the venue. One of the openers provided the second-funniest part of the concert: Lee Corey Oswald drummer Corey Ciresi pranced about the stage in his underwear searching for a sundress to wear.<\/p>\n

The most amusing part of the night was the chiding a local mosher received from Anti-Flag\u2019s Chris #2 after hitting his head on the wall. The bassist complimented the fan on his exuberance, but added, \u201cI’m not questioning whether you\u2019re a good or bad moshpitter, just that when you hit your head against the wall, you should probably say to yourself, \u2018I\u2019m not gonna do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting the politics behind Anti-Flag\u2019s music was the speech of an Amnesty International activist, who was seeking signatures for a petition to end child labour. He was holed up in a corner of the venue for the rest of the evening, and he certainly saw a fair share of visitors.<\/p>\n

Anti-Flag capped off the show with \u201cDrink, Drank, Punk,\u201d which the band played in the pit, surrounded by fans. It drove home\u00a0the message the band had been stressing throughout the evening: despite all the evil in the world, when it comes to music, \u201cWe\u2019re all a family of punk rockers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWelcome to the goddamn punk rock show,\u201d sang Anti-Flag bassist Chris #2 during the bridge of their song \u201cFabled World\u201d at their April 29 show at Victoria\u2019s Distrikt Nightclub. And it made sense: Anti-Flag is a band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that embodies the very essence of punk. The band members sport mohawks and black skinny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11984,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11975\/revisions\/11984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}