Some people want to blame the cancellation of this year’s Langerado Festival on a failing economy, but let’s be real; Langerado is a haven for dirty hippies that want to do drugs and “veg’ out” under the false pretense of a music festival. The inclusion of non-jam band artists and the Miami city based arena did little to titillate their market audiences’ minds and their own ticket sales. As national tours had already been scheduled for many acts around the event, in it’s absence, the Friday night of March 6, 2009 saw punk shows at every major Broward County venue.
The good thing was that even though I had requested a photo pass for the Flogging Molly show once Against Me! was added, if I did not get in I could always catch up with friends from the Boca Raton bands Protagonist and Fallen From the Sky, as they picked up a show at the Culture Room with Propagandhi. Actually I would have preferred it since anti-fascion was established to promote Florida bands by including them in posts with national artists. Do I have to remind you to support your local scene? It’s a moral imperative not a cliche.
Have any of you ever considered that Tim Armstrong is a modern alchemist. His association to other musicians is like chrysopoeia. For the lamen (or the lame), whatever he touches turns to gold. All it takes is a little “whew whoo” from him and a shampoo company can lunch their most effective marketing campaign from it. The list of bands he is associated with reads like the Punk Rock Hall of Fame; Operation Ivy, Dance Hall Crashers, Rancid, The Transplants and most recently The Aggrolites. In that list Armstrong was in every band and The Aggrolites technically just backed him on his most recent release A Poet’s Life. I’m embellishing their magnitude but that is just for style. This new found recognition was all that was needed to get them the opening spot on the Flogging Molly Green 17 Tour.
Both The Aggrolites and Flogging Molly were solid in their respective sets but I’m not going to focus any more attention on either of them than this statement. As I took a shot at hippies earlier in the post I will make a similar analogy about fans of Gaelic based music. Chances are if you were planning to attend this show before the addition of Against Me! you were probably just looking for a reason to get drunk and wear an Ireland rugby jersey. Relax you two fisted motherfuckers…. I was just saying that to get a rise out of you.
I’m sure anyone reading this is going to question how I can cover a show and not focus on the headliner. The answer is simple… in here I control the vertical and the horizontal. I pull the marionette strings and your attention is my puppet. Plus I don’t speak on topics that I am not well versed in.
The real story is Against Me! is in the studio working on a new album. I’ve Googled every combination of terms possible and can’t find a single mention of this actually happening. At the show they played a gaggle of new songs. They weren’t that tight and I can’t say I was blown away be any of them but I will not jump to any harsh criticism just yet. I will leave that to the reactionary punks that have made a living out of talking trash behind internet identities. I anticipate that in the near future this topic is going to get a fair amount of attention with a new album coming some time after Against Me!’s ”Off With Their Heads” tour.
