Here are two fliers, one from the show last night at Sam Bond's, where I played some trombone and guitar with Testface on a couple of songs. One for the show tonight in Portland with my friends Norm and Jeff, AKA The Eagles of Freedom. I'll also be appearing on KZME between 5 and 6, just before the show. so I had better get off the internet and put some new strings on my old acoustic guitar and figure out what songs I am going to play!
I'm psyched to be going to Punk Rock Bowling on Memorial Day Weekend, in Las Vegas, with Scott K, Arial, and Snider. I've never been there, and the Flag show really grabbed me, along with Devo and many other bands. We also bought tickets to a cool punk rock club show after the main events: Angry Samoans, TSOL, and 7 Seconds. Holy cow, that sounds like a vintage lineup at The Outhouse in Lawrence.
I wish there weren't the bad blood and weirdness in the Black Flag scene, and that there weren't multiple reunions and all that kind of classic rock cornball stuff. But overall, seeing the vintage lineup without Greg Ginn sounds one single eyelash more fun than seeing his version of Black Flag with a semi-new lineup. I'd LOVE to see that one, too, of course. (The Facebook invites to the show in Lawrence make me misty and homesick.)
I have to say, Greg Ginn is one of my heroes, and his sound is one of the greatest thing about pop culture from the years 1913-2013. He continues to put out weird records and I get the sense that he is as devoted to his instrument now as he was at 14 years old, playing playing playing, recording recording recording. Some of it doesn't hit with me but I have the utmost respect for the way he moves it forward.
I guess my ideal Black Flag reunion would be a hippie daydream: all those who contributed involved in a three-set blowout modeled on a Grateful Dead set, with instrumental space and the whole nine, using the discography as a map. That would be really punk, but would involve alot of logistics, and the hardest logistic of all: being in the same room together, and reconciling old wounds.
The weird thing is that much of this was triggered, I bet, by the amazing sounds of Off!, who advance the Black Flag legacy in a cool way, writing original material and kicking major butt every chance they get. At the end of the day you have to tip your Black Flag baseball cap to the band that writes new material, plays shows on a regular basis, and fits this into the logistics of everyday adulthood, considering most everyone in Off! is well into middle age, has families, and is part of other bands, too. We all live in the present, after all. It is not easy to have a functioning rock and roll band. Not easy at all.
