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Against Me! is Saving Rock & Roll

3/15/2017

6 Comments

 
Anthropology is the biggest, baddest science on the planet. Humans, human societies, and human cultures are far and away the most difficult things one can try to understand: they're complex, chaotic, layered, and historically and environmentally contingent. They're a pain in the ass to study. They're also a whole lot of fun.

I've been meaning to write a post about Against Me! since the summer of 2015. That July, I took my daughter to see them in Grand Rapids, Michigan (you can see a photo of me with Laura Jane Grace after the show here). I knew next to nothing about the band at the time, but was blown away by what I saw and heard. I became an instant fan. Two of their albums went into heavy rotation on my walk-to-work soundtrack. 

I never found the time to write the original post.  I wanted to write about the binary oppositions/tensions/categories (life/death, male/female, etc.) I heard embedded in the lyrics, the influences I detected in the music, and the extraordinary energy I felt in that room in Grand Rapids. In case you don't know, Laura Jane Grace was born Thomas James Gabel, coming out publicly as a transgender woman in 2012 (you can get an outline of the band's history here). Listen to 2014's Transgender Dysphoria Blues with that history and context in mind, comparing it what you hear on 2010's White Crosses. If you just want to dip your toe in the water, listen to "White Crosses" and "Bamboo Bones" from 2010 and then "Transgender Dysphoria Blues" and "Black Me Out" from 2014.  Compare "Because of the Shame" (2010) with "Dead Friend" (2014). 

There is something amazing, unmistakable, and unfakable about artistic honesty. I've been listening to music, playing music, and going to concerts for much of my life. Against Me! is the real deal. Period.
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Against Me! performing at the Throne Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina (3/11/2017).
I took my daughter to see them again last weekend, this time at the tiny Throne Theater in Wilmington, North Carolina. Because of that, I now "get" the appeal of the communal energy in live punk music in a way that I never did before. Near the stage all night, I was simultaneously shoved and supported, lifted up and pushed down. There were strange hands holding on to my shoulders and resting constantly against my back. Everything was moving, all the time. In the interconnected crowd, you can physically feel the ripples of energy because you're a part of it, as is everyone else. And once I got used to the culture, once the touch of strangers was no longer strange, it was exhilarating. Someone always, literally, had my back.  I knew I wouldn't fall down because I could feel an anonymous hand there to hold me up. 

As a person who grew up on hard rock and heavy metal, this sense of community was new to me. The crowds at the big concerts I went to as a kid (AC/DC, Metallica, Guns & Roses, blah blah blah) skewed hostile. To me, it seemed like most of the people there were angry and hoping to take it out on each other. You passed time before the show watching people get hauled out by security. I tried not to look anyone in the eye. I'm pretty sure the guy behind me at an AC/DC concert flicked his cigarette ashes on my hair -- I wouldn't know, because I didn't turn around for fear of getting punched in the face.


Being in that crowd at the Throne also helped me understand why there's so much bad punk music: because it doesn't matter. As long as there's a beat, the crowd takes care of itself. It does its own thing, even if there's no melody, even if there's not a catchy hook, even if the lyrics are a bunch of shouted garbage. This has always been a mystery me. I've watched a lot of documentaries about punk music, and I never "got" the appeal until I was in a crowd myself. That's anthropology for you. (See that? Participant observation -- get in there and experience it to learn about it -- this post actually is about anthropology.)

If you liked rock music in the 90's but have checked out, I urge you to check back in for a few minutes and give this band a try.  Against Me! is bigger than the sum of its parts. The energy is there, but so is the music, so is the honesty, so is the bravery.  It's not a sob story or a pity party. It's a force for good.  It's gender, it's anger, it's tenderness, it's human, and it kicks ass. Rock and roll isn't dead.

Here are some videos I took of some of my favorite songs. The camera moves not because I'm unsteady, but because the whole crowd is in motion. Enjoy!
6 Comments
Day Late and Dollar Short
3/15/2017 12:48:10 pm

Against Me! is one of the most interesting bands in punk rock. There is a hard line contingent that used to love them and now abhors them. Their gripe occurs before Laura Jane Grace's transition when there was a shift in the political message of their music. They went from staunch anarchists (Crime EP, Acoustic EP, Reinventing Axl Rose) to promoting MTV's Rock the Vote movement (New Wave). Every punk has a very strong opinion about the band.

I'm very glad you got to enjoy that type of atmosphere and community. I think you paint an accurate picture of the energy and mentality that permeate most punk shows. If you fall in the pit you can expect hands from multiple people to pull you up, pat you on the back, and make sure you're okay.

Reply
Andy White
3/20/2017 06:49:08 am

I've been avoiding listening to their earlier (i.e., pre "White Crosses") material. I'm not really sure why, but I think I might be kind of "saving it" for a time when I need a rabbit hole to go into. "Thrash Unreal" is the only older song I really know, and I only know that one because it's kind of unavoidable. Oh, and there's the "FM Waves" song that YouTube likes to play for me, which I like.

Reply
Peter Geuzen
3/15/2017 04:13:54 pm

Greg Graffin of Bad Religion has a PhD in Paleontology and teaches at Cornell. Bad Religion have been in the top tier of seminal punk bands since the 80s. The PhD doesn't necessarily mean anything, but it's a good bit of trivia to throw at anyone who turns their nose down on punk, especially U.S. punk.

Reply
Andy White
3/20/2017 06:49:51 am

I did not know that.

Reply
Ken Lefew
3/16/2017 02:16:31 pm

Great article, Andrew. And it was a great show in Wilmington. I was there with my daughter too. Do you have The Ocean on video? LJG gave my daughter a shout out in the intro. Please post it if you have it. I would love to share that special moment with her again.

Reply
Andy White
3/18/2017 07:05:55 am

Thanks for the comment, Ken. Glad you were at the show! Unfortunately, I don't have that song. I was trying to get some "souvenir" recordings while still mostly just trying to enjoy the show. I bet someone out there has it, though. I hope you can get it - that's pretty cool!

Reply



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