Thanks to a lucky phone call to WRPI, my roommate and I ended up with free tickets to the Anti-Flag show on Thursday, April 9, at Clifton Park’s Northern Lights. The evening lineup consisted of Set Your Goals, Big D and the Kids Table, Alexisonfire, and Anti-Flag. To be honest, I had never attended a show where I wasn’t a fan of at least one of the bands. I had seen Big D play at another ska show, and I had heard Anti-Flag blasting from my roommate’s stereo, but I was by no means a follower. My personal preference is something slightly more vivacious, folksy, or organic. Nonetheless, the Anti-Flag show surprised me. I went to Northern Lights expecting to be disappointed, and ended up mostly impressed.

Anti-Flag opened with “War Sucks, Let’s Party!” (also the name of the tour), which immediately brought the audience into unison. Fans sang along word for word from the first song out. The band obviously had a dedicated following within the crowd. Prior to numerous songs, the band played recorded political messages against the Bush administration, the war in Iraq, and the frailty of life, urging the crowd to take action regarding the problems facing the United States today. Based on my prior impressions of the band from posters on my roommates’ walls, I expected an incredibly rigid, tough performance from the band. However, Justin Sane, the lead guitarist, clearly enjoyed performing for the crowd, often inviting the audience to clap in unison, sing along, and form circle pits. Pat Thetic (co-founder and drummer) made hysterical faces, proving that he too was critical to the band’s loud political message.

Being that the show at Northern Lights was for people aged 16 and up, I ended up feeling like a senior citizen at the ripe old age of 22. At the beginning of the show, I had stood in the middle of the crowd waiting to embrace the moment. However, as soon as the music started, I quickly changed my mind and backed out, no longer wanting to deal with the shoving and (relatively) friendly abuse that goes on in the middle of the audience. In my age group, I was clearly the exception and not the rule at this show. The political message Anti-Flag put out really impressed me and I watched in awe as teens basically ate up everything that their role models told them to believe.

I was happy to see that people younger than I am showed really energetic concern for the issues facing their future. At the same time, I realized that it’s incredibly easy to make young people (and people in general) think a certain way, just because it comes in a great package. To some extent, it amounts to people not thinking about the issue, and simply regurgitating a message because it’s cool or punk or whatever everyone else is doing. Given the choice, it would be better to have Anti-Flag constantly spewing political messages just because it might cause some degree of change, rather than having them keep quiet. Whether or not you agree with the message, I would encourage all listeners and even current fans to actually think about the issues the band brings up, rather than accept or reject them as the “be all and end all” of political arguments.