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A new hope
For fans of Anti-Flag, the end of the show is only the beginning—when the music stops the real work begins. Cut from the same cloth as political-minded bands like Suicide Machines, Propagandhi and Rage Against the Machine, Anti-Flag doesn't just sing about politics, doesn't just encourage activism among their faithful—the music itself is activism, reminding that political dissent doesn't just occur at preplanned rallies and marches, but at every moment of every day. Together for a decade and a half, these punks from Pittsburgh finally broke through in 2003 with The Terror State and were very active leading up to the 2004 election. On March 21 they will release their most mature album to date, For Blood and Empire, which tackles issues such as globalization, the corporate media, genocide and America's war crimes in Iraq. Offstage the group has backed up its punk polemics with direct action, in particular through the founding of Military Free Zone (MilitaryFreeZone.org), a program that educates high school and college students about their right to opt out of military recruitment. This summer Anti-Flag will play on Warped Tour, but prior to that the group is doing a short headlining stint in support of For Blood and Empire, including a stop at Denver's Gothic Theatre on Tuesday, March 14. In anticipation of the show, drummer Pat Thetic spoke with Boulder Weekly about the new record, the band's politics and how activism is totally punk. High Decibel: I think For Blood and Empire is somewhat different than your earlier records. It's still socially conscious and heavy, but there is more attention to melody. Pat Thetic: Do you think so? I know the sound quality of it is better than the other records, and the performances are better than the other records. That's obviously our goal, to become better at what we do as time goes on. HD: There is more work involved in being an Anti-Flag fan than with other bands. While other groups may have political messages in their music, you guys use your music as a form of activism, really encouraging people to get involved. It's not as simple as just coming to a show and singing along. PT: That's true. We believe that music is activism. We think life is activism. At the same time, our job is to play shows and to talk to people and make people realize that activism isn't always a hard fight and isn't always a shitty time. Activism is a lot of fun. There's a lot of great people involved. That's what we try to get out there. There are battles that you can win. At the same time, if you're not completely down for the cause, you're welcome to come out to the show and be exposed to things that you might not have thought about before. HD: What are the winnable battles? What are the battlegrounds for you? PT: We put together an organization called MilitaryFreeZone.org. In the No Child Left Behind Act—that the Bush regime put through in the early part of their administration—there was a provision that said all schools that receive federal funding need to hand over their students' records to military recruitment. We put together an organization to try and get that section of the law taken out. We've been collecting signatures. Not only is this a privacy issue, but we feel that schools should be places where people are taught to find solutions other than violence and war. If our schools are only funnels to put people into the military, then I think that's a very bad situation, a very bad direction for our schools to go. That's a battle that we're fighting actively. HD: It seems like this is a second front line against the war. The military has had to insidiously find people to fight this war because not too many people want to do it. PT: Exactly. That's the problem. I feel bad for the guys who are the good military recruiters who are trying to do a job. They're not being helped by the Bush administration, which put the military into an unwinnable war with faulty information. These guys are caught in the middle. The only way of getting this to stop is to have soldiers who are not willing to fight in it. One way of doing that is reducing the number of soldiers who are involved. Then they're going to have to start a draft. Hopefully at that point it will hit middle America, and hopefully people realize that it's no longer some poor kid or somebody-else-who-I-don't-know's son or daughter who is going to be drafted. At that point, hopefully, the war will stop. HD: What are some other causes that are really big with the group right now? PT: The war in Iraq is a big thing... Obviously, we would have liked to have not gone into Iraq. Many people saw that you cannot have a democratically elected government in a place where religious fundamentalists tend to control the power. That's a recipe for disaster. I'm not a political scientist, but I could have seen that way before we went into Iraq. However, there were a lot of people who thought that it would work. Unfortunately, they were wrong. HD: You could make the case that we have a democratically elected government being run by religious fundamentalists. PT: I would go there. I was trying to avoid that, but, yeah, that's the problem. We have religious fundamentalists controlling democracies, and that's obviously a problem. People are like, 'Well, they're just crazy over there. They're religious fundamentalists.' Well, Bush thinks that God is guiding his hand in his decision-making. I think that's pretty much a religious fundamentalist. That's scary. HD: What are the big issues for 2006? PT: I think that for 2006, the fact that Bush has taken power unto himself and then stacked the Supreme Court in a way that will never convict him of doing that is a major issue. Hopefully we can get people into Congress who will stand up against that. HD: What do you think about focusing on local issues? PT: As far as local politics, they're not glamorous, but that's where things can actually happen. If you could put together a contingent of young people who were energized, intelligent, thoughtful and progressive, I think you could do very well in local politics. Jesse Luscious, who is in the band The Criminals, ran for public office—I believe it was in Berkeley. He was not able to get elected, but he was able to talk about real issues in the election. A lot of times people in the elections don't want to talk about certain issues. We need somebody out there who is willing to take the risk and talk about those things. HD: That's a great point. So often the real issues are lost in the dialogue that's given to us. It's a matter of creating the dialogue, bringing up the issues that need to be discussed. PT: I think that's exponentially true in the national elections with the Republicans and the Democrats controlling the debate. They only will talk about things they feel will keep them in power. With the whole Ralph Nader/third-party issue, they don't want to allow other people into that discussion because then their power will be diminished. HD: Are there any politicians out there who you really admire or to whom we should be looking as a model of a quality politician? PT: Sure. Congressman Jim McDermott [D-WA] from Seattle is actually on our record talking about the problems with depleted uranium. He has been amazingly helpful to us and is just an all-around good guy. I would support him in virtually anything he does. To take the risk and see the value in talking to people from our community through our music I think is an amazing thing. I think we're the only punk band that's ever had a sitting member of Congress on their record. I think that's pretty neat. HD: What can we expect from this upcoming show? PT: We're going to rock your ass off. One of the things that we've done with this tour is put together a number of activist organizations. In the past we would just bring out some literature. This time we're bringing someone to talk about the literature and the issues. We're excited to have more ideas to express to the people. We're not asking people to come to an Anti-Flag show and automatically become global activists. But we are asking people to come to the show and have an open mind and see what types of activism are going on in the world. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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It's not always easy being a fan of Anti-Flag. Like most
punk bands, their music is spawned of frustration and anger—specifically
of a political nature—and appeals to the pissed-off and disenfranchised.
But unlike many of their peers, the utility of Anti-Flag's music doesn't end
with blood-and-sweat catharsis in the mosh pit.
