Anti-Flag

Death of a Nation (A-F)
by Grady Gadbow

Nineteen-year-old Mohawk boy scissor-kicks America out of Iraq in this detailed demonstration of radical youth gone mic-happy in many cities. If you like Anti-Flag, you’ll want to see all this live stuff, what with the leaping and making of silly faces. If you don’t like ’em, at least you can satisfy certain curiosities. For example, do these brats know what they’re talking about or do they just think “duh… fuck the president!” is safe, reliable content for their generic rebellious rock and roll image. Tune in next week to find out! Actually, they seem fairly well-informed and involved in genuine political activist organizing, not just posturing, which is rare for modern Poli-Sci-core bands.

The live tracks are shot from at least four different angles, which allows the home audience to get a good look at all the guys on stage, a lot of the crowd, and get a little woozy from motion sickness just like at a real show. The footage was culled from an entire tour, but most of it all looks and sounds about the same. The crowds are all huge and wild, but the sound quality is mediocre and so is most of the music, for that matter, but a few champion songs stand out.

Special features include a lot of footage of the guys participating in anti-war demonstrations. Say what you want about legitimizing the movement, but a bit more car flipping, bomb throwing, and bare-knuckle rioting would make a better show for the money. The interview section is pretty good. These guys aren’t afraid so say where they’re coming from, and that means a lot in these troubled times. There’s a war on, mate, no irony around here. There’s also a huge goof-off section that, even for a punk video, is extra stupid on account of these guys being, in effect, straight-edge. Funny, you’d think it would be the other way around.
(www.a-frecords.com)