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Los Angeles Times
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
FLAG once again proves that not all punk band reunions are created equal
There was something in the air at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas last weekend. No, it wasn't the sound of distorted guitars, punk rockers puking or Nazis getting punched in the face. Though there was plenty of all of that. It was the buzz surrounding FLAG, the most talked about band at the annual bowling tournament and music festival, now in its 25th year. FLAG is the hardcore supergroup composed of four former members of Black Flag — Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Dez Cadena, and Bill Stevenson — and Stephen Egerton, Stevenson's longtime bandmate in the Descendents. It had been six years since the last FLAG gig, which was also at Punk Rock Bowling. But this was more than a reunion show. It felt like history in the making. It started Saturday with a panel discussion led by Fat Mike of NOFX at the Punk Rock Museum. Surrounded by photos of their younger selves taken by the late Naomi Petersen, all five members answered questions from Fat Mike, who introduced FLAG as 'the best version of Black Flag I've ever seen.' Fat Mike asked each participant to name their favorite album or song, which became something of a referendum on the band's volatility on and off the stage, with musicians cycling in and out of the band. For instance, Henry Rollins, the band's best-known vocalist, was Black Flag's fourth singer. 'When people say, 'Oh, Henry is my favorite. Ron [Reyes] was my favorite,'' Cadena said, 'usually, that's the first gig that they saw.' 'Why is it a contest?' Morris asked. 'Each one of us contributed in the way we contributed. We each had our own personality.' That those personalities frequently clashed with the band's enigmatic guitarist and songwriter Greg Ginn is the story of Black Flag. Extreme music attracts extreme people. What's unusual about these clashes is that they continued long after Ginn pulled the plug on his own band in 1986. For instance, in June 2003, Rollins and Morris played Black Flag songs together — just not at the same time, Morris clarified during the panel — to raise money and awareness for the West Memphis 3. It's probably not a coincidence that later that summer, Ginn put together a Black Flag reunion of sorts at the Hollywood Palladium. The problem? It featured musicians who'd never been in the band and they played along to prerecorded bass tracks. The shambolic set wasn't well-received. These shows were also a benefit — for cats — launching a veritable cottage industry of CAT FLAG T-shirts. In December 2011, Morris, Dukowski, Stevenson and Egerton played together for the first time at the Goldenvoice 30th anniversary show at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, where they were introduced as 'Black Flag.' The old friends had such a blast playing together, they decided to keep it going. Cadena was added to the mix and they played Black Flag songs under the banner of FLAG. The coming-out party for this lineup was an incendiary set at the Moose Lodge in Redondo Beach in April 2012. Again, it's probably not a coincidence that Ginn subsequently 'reunited' Black Flag and initiated all kinds of legal activity against his former bandmates. At the heart of the issue was who could use the names FLAG and Black Flag. At the end of the day, the courts ruled that FLAG could continue. Mike Magrann, vocalist and guitarist for L.A. punk band Channel 3, saw both bands play that year. 'It was puzzling,' Magrann said of Black Flag's set, 'because they weren't honoring their legacy. When FLAG played, they played those songs the way they sounded back then. It brought back that feeling of being a kid on the side of the pit. The real threat of violence is right there. It was unbelievable!' That ineffable feeling of danger is what drew so many people to FLAG's Memorial Day performance. Fans came from all over the world just to see the show. Joey Cape of Lagwagon wrapped up a solo tour in Japan and flew directly to Punk Rock Bowling. Like Cape and Magrann, some of the most hardcore fans were musicians who'd been inspired by Black Flag when they were young. David O. Jones of Carnage Asada drove in from L.A. with Martin Wong, who organized Save Music in Chinatown, and Martin's daughter, Eloise Wong of the Linda Lindas. They returned to L.A. immediately after the show because Eloise, who is graduating from high school, had a physics test the following morning. FLAG made it worth the trip. The band ripped through 22 songs, starting with 'Revenge' and mixing crowd favorites like 'My War' with deep cuts such as 'Clocked-In.' Morris held the microphone with both hands like he was blowing on a bugle and urging the crowd to charge. It was easily the rowdiest pit of the festival, and it swelled to nearly the length of the stage with a steady stream of crowd surfers being passed over the barricade: old men, young women and even small children. During songs like 'Gimme Gimme Gimme,' 'Wasted' and 'Nervous Breakdown,' the roar from the crowd was almost as loud as the band. There wasn't any banter from the usually loquacious Morris. Toward the end of the show, he simply said, 'Thank you for your participation,' and launched into the next song. After the obligatory performance of 'Louie Louie' at the end of the set, the players took their instruments off the stage and were gone. Fans young and old looked at each other in disbelief, their lives changed, their DNA forever altered by punk rock. FLAG had done it again. They played the songs the way they were meant to be played. They honored their legacy. It will be a tough act for Black Flag to follow. In recent years, Black Flag has been much more active. Inevitably, that means more changes to the lineup. Earlier in May, Ginn announced Black Flag will be touring Europe this summer with three new members: all of them young musicians, including a young woman named Max Zanelly as the new vocalist. Once again, the internet flooded with Black Flag memes keying on the considerable age gap between Ginn, who is 70, and his new bandmates who look many decades, if not generations, younger. Wong, who knows something about the power of young musicians to change the world, is hopeful. 'Everyone wins when there's more good music in the world,' Wong said. 'In a perfect world, the new Black Flag lineup will get Ginn stoked on music and push him forward. But if that doesn't happen, we get FLAG, the best Black Flag lineup that never happened.' While Black Flag prepares for its new chapter, is this the end of the road for FLAG? 'I don't know,' Stevenson said after the panel at the Punk Rock Museum. 'We always have fun when we get together. You can tell we love each other. I'm sure we'll do more. At some point, one of us will be too old to do it, but so far that's not the case.' Jim Ruland is the author of the L.A. Times bestselling book 'Corporate Rock Sucks: The Rise & Fall of SST Records' and a weekly Substack about books, music, and books about music called Message from the Underworld.
Los Angeles Times
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
After 25 years, Punk Rock Bowling still strikes hard with the spirit of rebellion
Brothers Shawn and Mark Stern were already veteran punk rockers when they first started Punk Rock Bowling 25 years ago. But they had no idea they were in the midst of a seminal moment by launching what would soon become one of the biggest, longest-running and most important annual events the genre has ever seen. While they might be best known for forming multiple L.A. punk bands (the biggest of which being Youth Brigade) starting in the late '70s, the Stern brothers were also responsible for BYO Records, 1984's 'Another State of Mind' tour documentary with Social Distortion, a short-lived but influential Hollywood punk house called Skinhead Manor and a host of other DIY punk rock undertakings. So when Andre Duguay, a BYO employee at the time, suggested the duo start a bowling league for SoCal punk rockers in the late '90s, it made too much sense for them to pass up. What started as a bowling night (at Santa Monica's now-defunct Bay Shore Lanes) for local bands, labels and zines eventually grew to a weekend of partying in Las Vegas for the Sterns' punk rock friends all over the region. Throughout the 2000s, the event remained primarily focused on bowling and debauchery over President's Day weekend, but 2010 brought it to a new location that contained a huge outdoor space, opening up the possibility for a full music festival and rapidly turning it into a Memorial Day staple for punk fans around the world. But no matter how big Punk Rock Bowling has gotten, Shawn Stern has always made sure it's kept its community-first ethos. 'We arrange [Punk Rock Bowling] as musicians first, so we look at this as, 'If I go see bands, I want to have a good time,'' Stern says from the dining table of his Venice Beach home. The Sterns set out to create something that was the antithesis of the big corporate festival, where everything's overpriced and it's super packed. 'They're not trying to make this a communal experience of having a good time and enjoying the music and the message,' he said. 'It goes back to pagan times when we'd get together for the harvest and feasting. Humans don't really need much reason to get together and party, and this is our alternative to religion.' Despite leaving Los Angeles for Sin City decades ago, Punk Rock Bowling maintains its SoCal roots year after year. Not only is Mark Stern back as the festival's official booker this year alongside his brother, but both the lineup and audience always contains a heavy California presence. From legends like Social Distortion and FLAG to modern stars like FIDLAR and the Interrupters (all of whom are performing this year), the Stern brothers always make sure that multiple generations of their local scene is represented at the festival — and not just because it's the community they grew up in. Stern and his crew were surfers who got into punk rock because it was that sort of revolutionary music that the '70s no longer had. 'As much as I love Jimi Hendrix and saw a bunch of big concerts like Led Zeppelin, that music didn't really speak to what I was feeling. As soon as the [Vietnam War] was over, that music became co-opted by big corporate labels.' Instead, Stern and his friends would hang out in the very small punk scene in Hollywood while all the bands were coming out of New York and the UK. The scene was very close-knit, and they didn't have any pretension of getting signed to a major label or anything. Though it was totally grassroots, they knew that when the surfers really started getting into it, it was going to explode. 'In those days, there were certain rebellious things with surfing that would work well with punk rock,' he said. 'That's what happened in the early '80s, and it's changed a lot since then, but it's just kept growing.' Perhaps more than any other genre, the evolution of punk rock (both in Los Angeles and around the world) is never more apparent than in the age range of bands at music festivals. This year at Punk Rock Bowling, not only will the Stern brothers be performing in their mid-60s with Youth Brigade, but some of the British artists that preceded them like the Damned and Cock Sparrer will be gracing the stage alongside great modern artists who could be their grandchildren (like the Bay Area's Spiritual Cramp). And yet the fans — from teenagers to senior citizens — will flood the Downtown Las Vegas Events Center for them regardless of generation. That cross-generational appeal isn't found in a lot of other genres, but it's a distinction that Shawn Stern believes punk rock shares with one of its ancestors. 'It's all just folk music — protest music,' he says. 'A lot of people try to rewrite history as though somehow punk rock's not political, and I call bullshit. Punk rock for me has always been political and it always will be. That's really what makes this music last, and it's also what makes the blues last.' The music still reaches out to people, regardless of age, Stern said. 'The words that I was singing in 1980 are just as relevant now, if not more so. ... Sure, some bands that are considered punk rock just write poppy love songs — which is fine if that's what you're into — but that's probably why I don't really like some of that pop-punk and emo stuff.' As long as Stern is involved, Punk Rock Bowling will always keep that lineage of resistance. Particularly with today's political climate, the lifelong punk sees his platform as an artist and a festival host as a crucial way to remind everyone to stand up against authoritarianism and fascism even if it's not directly affecting you and your surroundings just yet. 'We were writing about Reagan [in the '80s], and now we've got someone who's much worse than Reagan ever could have been,' he said. Stern has already seen international bands have newfound trouble flying in and out of the U.S. this year, and as a Jewish immigrant from Canada, he's taking the current situation quite seriously. 'I think it's important for everybody that listens to punk rock and comes to Punk Rock Bowling to remember that every day you have to question everything and fight against the authoritarian bent that this country is on,' Stern said. 'They're disappearing people in the streets, and that may not be you right now, but if you don't stand up for those people, it could be you or someone you love in the future. A lot of my mother's family died in concentration camps, so you don't think it could happen to you or you always wonder what you would have done — I'm not saying we're facing that yet, but I think we're pretty close. But if enough people stand together, we can stop this — and I think the community of punk rock is just carrying on that tradition of protest from the beatniks and the hippies.'
