Anti Flag - Astoria, London, 13/5/2006

  by Andy Vincent

published: 25 / 5 / 2006

intro

At a gig at the Astoria in London, Andy Vincent finds headliners Anti Flag's politically-stanced punk rock starting to quickly grate, but support band A Wilhelm Scream on blistering form

Due to some altercations with the tickets I only saw the first and last bands of the night, but this, however, did not detract from an incredibly enjoyable evening and from what I've heard the middle support bands put on a relatively poor show. A Wilhelm Scream opened the show with a blistering set, tearing through both new and old songs with ease. New bassist Brian Robinson fitted into the band well and added to previous stage shows with his lively energy and very vocal performance. 'The King is Dead' was a clearly excellent song, showing off what A Wilhelm Scream do best, high octane punk. A wide array of songs from both their albums 'Mute Print' and 'Ruiner' made their way into what was an incredible live show from a band that are set for much bigger things in Europe. Anti-Flag too showed what they are best at, politically and socially charged tight punk. Although they're an incredibly well accomplished band who obviously know what they do well and stick by it, the songs felt a bit samey after a while, as did their diatribes between songs about the fantastically punk subjects of George Bush and Tony Blair, wars and anything else that was happening to upset the band at the time. Maybe it's because I'm not as punk as some, but it just grated after a while, and when you hear that once every 3 or 4 songs it grates even more than usual. Overall though a well played set technically and energetically played. The two top photos that accompany this article originally appeared on www.virtual-festivals.com

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