Black Flag-The Rock, Tucson AZ 3/28/23

 

One morning last week Disaster Amnesiac woke up and thought "I wonder if Black Flag is out touring near me". It was really cool to find out that upon checking their page that they'd in fact be stopping in Tucson a week later! I kid you not, it went down like that. Needless to say, I made my way over to The Rock, found good parking close to the venue and freaked out to the current lineup of Black Flag! 

Greg Ginn and Mike Vallely have yet another rhythm section, this one a bit older than the guys who took up bass and drums positions last time I saw them play. It's a bit more down-tempo Rock in orientation, especially the drummer. You won't hear me complain about that, though. The group's first set, in which they played My War in its entirety, benefited from the drummer's looseness, especially during Swinging Man: that song's rhythmic sophistication has held up exceedingly well over the years, and Black Flag seemed to use that as a springboard to really get down and play during its duration in the set.  The sound of a live band cleaving its path. Good to great versions of all of the songs from My War were presented as well, with Mike going off in his intense, serious manner and Greg exploring interesting breaks and gaps in some of his solos (along with his trademark noisy blasts, of course!) Additionally, Black Flag's sound presentation was clean, direct and efficiently simple.

Black Flag's second set at The Rock featured many of their ever-popular tunes, mostly from the late 1970's/early 1980's era. Just like the last time that I saw them, they took an opportunity to stretch out with drum and bass solos during Slip It In, and both dudes took full advantage of those spaces. I found it quite interesting to note that the pacing for many of the Hardcore Black Flag era songs were performed at tempos reminiscent more of Power Pop than speed Punk. This was fine, as, at this point, I'll take Suburban Lawns over Bad Religion any time. The group melded rhythmic heaviness with a buoyancy that moved the songs in really assured and confident ways, at least for this listener. A fascinating development within their approach, to be sure.

Damn, it was fun to shout along and freak out to Black Flag for the first time since 2019. My dreams of hearing newly written Black Flag tunes are most likely not to be realized, but that's OK. At this point, it's just great to be able to get out and hear them kick out their older stuff in their slightly reworked editions. Hopefully they'll be back in Tucson soon. Listen to your intuitions, people, and listen to Black Flag!

Below: Black Flag's current line up rocking

Above: blurry Greg Ginn as he takes a solo; people seem to hate blurry photos, but I love them