Against Me! has some real balls.
Not only are they one of the few punk bands that have managed not to completely break up or become a flash in the pan (fourteen years and counting!) Not only have they had multiple studio albums, but rare 7”s, EP’s and mixtapes that have managed to circulate their way around to all of their die-hard fans. Not only have they been covered by everyone from other punk bands to Australian folk singer Ben Lee, who put out his own version of New Wave titled Against Lee! which is adorably excellent.
But, they have two attributes that clearly stick out when seeing them on their current headlining tour with Lemuria and Screaming Females: They have excellent stamina, and despite maturing their message, they have not lost fans but gained them instead.
Playing for almost straight through their hour and a half set, lead singer Tom Gabel maybe uttered four or five sentences between songs and the band maintained a solid block of punk rock for the entire set. Dripping with sweat, Gabel had a wide grin on his face during most of the songs and it was clear he enjoys getting up on stage and playing with his band every night.
Any band that has been around for a number of years risks maturing to a musical phase which loses its original fan base entirely. (Case in point: my fifty-something church-going mother listens to American Idiot! Green Day, you’re doing it wrong!) Against Me! has only managed to make their fan base grow with time.
White Crosses is definitely a well-produced and somewhat clean sounding album, but their messages of uncertainty and confusion about the world today still come through in a youthful way—reaching out to the insecure “still figuring it out” thoughts we still have in our heads years after middle school or high school. And yet, the track “I Was A Teenage Anarchist” states not so subtly, “the revolution was a lie!” almost going head to head with Against Me!’s classic song, “Baby, I’m An Anarchast!” from days of yore.
But regardless of your opinion on their current message, seeing this band live brings no doubt that they are still raging—and still loving every minute of it.
Opening acts Lemuria and Screaming Females bring an interesting juxtaposition to the tour, as they both have female lead singers but can vocally and instrumentally hold their own next to Tommy Gabel. By the end of Screaming Females’ set, it was clear more than one scrawny punk rock boy was in love with lead singer and guitarist Marisa Paternoster.
Against Me! has played with everyone from Cursive to Mastodon, but if you want to see some straight-up, guitar-driven punk rock, this is the tour to see.
