Thrash Unreal

Last night I took my niece Jennie and her friend Kelsey to see Against Me! For those of you that don't know, and judging by the looks I've gotten when I've told most of you about going that's pretty much all of you, Against Me! is a punk band whose current single is Thrash Unreal, I was gonna post a video but they have all been disabled. I love there sound, especially lead singer Tom Gabel's voice. Being a punk band, I guess it goes without saying that they are anti-establishment, and really what better time to be than during the Bush era. Songs like White People for Peace, From Her Lips to God's Ears, and Baby I'm an Anarchist are more than just junk by a group of misfits trying to be cool by being against everything. They have lyrics that make you stop and think, and that is really what I look for in an artist. The thing that astonished me wasn't Kelsey being the second person during their set to stage surf it was that all they did was play. Here's this very political band and they came out and played 14 songs straight through. No Hello Cleveland, no were Against Me!, and no Eff George Bush. They just let the music do the talking. Then they did a 3 song encore and show over.

The Show was at the House of Blues, if you remember my Fake Journey experience you remember me saying how intimate the stage is. I just stood in the back with my 16 oz Pabst and let Jennie and Kelsey do their thing. We ate at the Hard Rock before the show and walked from Tower City down Euclid in the cold. When we left the temp had gone up 20 degrees.
So I went knowing I'd like Against Me! but there were 3 opening acts. that's a lot of bands to stand alone and listen to if they are no good. The first was Cobra Skulls, they played loud and fast and I enjoyed their set but they were basically a club band.

The next band blew me away, World Inferno Friendship Society, check these guys out! I don't even know how to describe this guys, so I'm going to stick in this video, just watch a little bit of it, they sound like no one else, and their musical ensemble was really different. Super high energy, pounding drums, and lyrics at the speed of sound. Check out the chick standing up playing percussion, she kicks arse.

The 3rd act was just a guy that looks like Terry and his prerecorded music. His name is Sage Francis and he is a Punk Poet/Rapper. This guy was great, and I've already downloaded a bunch of his stuff, but will probably buy an album, because he is original enough that he deserves it. He's been around a little while so if you have heard of him great, I hadn't.

If you could see any of these acts for a reasonable price, you should, you won't be disappointed.