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Posted on 05/26/2004 1:08:16 AM PDT by weegee
I had to take an extra day off to recover from this weekend's activities, but I'm back now, and ready to give a full report.
On Friday I attended the Phoenix stop on the Punk Voter tour which promotes the CD compilation "Rock Against Bush". The concert featured such huge acts as NOFX, Alkaline Trio, and Authority Zero. I didn't pay to get in of course, I have a friend who gets free tickets to everything. To ensure that we would stand out in the crowd of dyed hair and ripped jeans, I wore my "Bush Cheney in '04" hat and an American Flag shirt. I only got a couple of drinks thrown at me, from the back of course...I guess the way to assure you won't be attacked by a liberal when wearing your support for the President is to wear it to the front--they'll never go at you head-on.
Surprisingly, my friend and I were the only ones wearing the Flag. However, there were plenty of these: [photo of t-shirt with slogan "International Terrorist" and President Bush's picture]
Halfway through the concert, Jello Biafra, lead singer of the Dead Kennedy's, came out and delivered a hate-filled "speech" against everything establishment. It included everything from "overthrow the government" to " overthrow the corporations" (even though they were selling Hanes shirts, they sold tickets for $25 through Tickestmaster, and surely the CD's they were selling weren't hand made in some mom and pop hemp store). My jaw was literally dropped during this speech, it just kept getting crazier and crazier. It was the one time during the show that I genuinely felt unsafe, like I would be trampled and have my body mutilated as the anarchist horde took to the streets seeking to overthrow everything that keeps this country going. I have a feeling if people really knew what went on at these concerts, parents would be a lot less lax in allowing their children to attend--of course then Jello Biafra would convince children to overthrow the autocratic tyranny your parents have imposed upon you.
The really scary part to me is that no matter how hard I look, all I can find of Jello Biafra on the net is run of the mill liberal rhetoric. Which would lead me to believe that the real lunacy only comes out in "safe" places, like a room full of a couple hundred drunk, moshing teenagers who think calling Bush a terrorist makes them politically active. If Biafra is ballsy enough to say these things behind closed door, then why doesn't he have the cojones to come out and say it in public? My guess is that it's because he knows that most teens won't question what he is saying, and the ones who would wouldn't be at the Punk Voter Tour. So he never has to back up what he says.
What has Jello Biafra done lately to "overthrow the government?" What about the corporations? This guy needs to put his money where his mouth is instead of pocketing the hefty fee he's getting paid to spew dangerous, ignorant hate.
NOTE: I did not write this review, it comes from a web-log site. I was alerted to it on one of the conservative punk websites.
rock and roll ping (the author refutes the lefties).
Welcome to FR. JUST WHY ARE YOU HERE (again?)
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Jello is a weird guy. I too like the DK's music but honestly I couldn't care less about Jello as a person. The guy is a freak! :-)
He actually kept his introduction of this band apolitical (he said that he had already touched on those points at the punk voter rally). He did spout off against the band touring as the Dead Kennedys and at bars who book that band.
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