Anti-Flag w/ Aiden, Cancer Bats & Broadway Calls – House of Blues Anaheim – Anaheim, CA

After almost a whole  day of boredom passing by, at the last minute on Sunday I decided to get ready and head down to House of Blues Anaheim to go see Anti-Flag. I called a cousin to go with me and we rushed down to Downtown Disney hoping that the show wasn’t sold out. Luckily, it wasn’t and we were able to buy our tickets. Outside of the venue, there were a few petitioners from PETA asking people to sign a petition to stop the Canadian Seal Slaughter.  Knowing it was for a good cause, I signed the petition before entering the venue and they gave me a free pin with the word fur crossed out.

Due to a last minute decision, we missed Broadway Calls. I don’t listen to them so I didn’t feel like I missed much. I overheard conversations from their fans and people who had just heard them and it sounded like they had played a good set. They had a number of fans sporting Broadway Calls t-shirts. Each of the bands that played after them all thanked Broadway Calls for opening the show and the crowd showed their thanks by clapping and cheering.

I arrived during the Cancer Bats set. Just hearing a few seconds of their music reminded me of the Gallows, so I was immediately attracted to their sound.  Their music was strong, heavy, and triggered you into wake up mode if you were feeling even the least bit tired. It was so fierce it made you want to clench your fist and punch someone in the face right at that perfect moment, and I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about. I could hear different genres such as punk, metal, and hardcore all mixed together to come up with the sound the Cancer Bats displayed in their music.

Each member from the Cancer Bats were completely full of vigor. The singer was running back and forth on stage, jumping, and banging his head and even stepped onto the barricade to be more involved with the crowd. The drummer was full of sweat and looked tired while he was playing, and the guitarist and bassist both head banged while playing.  I noticed that they attracted some of the emo kids, metal heads, Punks, and even some of the older heads that attended the show. If the fans weren’t pitting, they got heavily into the music by head banging, or they did both. When they announced their last song, the crowd formed a huge circle pit. They left the stage and a lot of people, including myself, wanted to hear more. They are definitely a band worth checking out.

Aiden was up next and the floor cleared up. Now it doesn’t mean that Aiden isn’t good, they just didn’t have as many fans as the Cancer Bats did so the energy was a bit low. One of the first things the singer said was that during Aiden’s  40 minute set, Anaheim had those 40 minutes to prove to them that we were better than Hollywood. As Aiden got started they invited the audience to give them a listen and broaden their music interest. They were very different from the previous band.  Aiden was more of a fast-paced emo band with a gothic look.  They had 2 pentagram banners set up on each side of the stage.  The crowd remained calm but still danced around a bit.

The pit remained small until Aiden did a cover of the Misfits “Die, Die My Darling”. It was different, but Aiden still managed to pull off and excellent cover from a classic Punk band and make it their own. At about half their set, Aiden asked the crowd to spread out to right and left sides of the venue. The crowd was to perform a “wall of death”. The singer, William, stepped off stage and onto the floor to give the crowd an extra boost of energy to participate in this.  He walked around in a big circle giving us the rules of the wall of death. Aiden gave their cue, and both sides rushed towards each other to complete the wall of death.  It looked like a huge brawl at first, but it soon turned into a giant circle pit that everyone participated in.  They played a few more songs, one being “Scavengers of the Damned”, and then called it quits for the night. Aiden never actually let Orange County know if we were better then Hollywood.

Aiden had pumped everyone for Anti-Flag. While anxiously waiting for them to start, people were sitting on the floor talking with their friends and meeting new people who were sitting around them. Eventually, the curtains opened and everyone stood up wile cheering and clapping their hands.  Before actually playing a song, bassist Chris #2 made an announcement regarding their vocalist/guitarist, Justin Sane. Justin had a family emergency on Saturday, so they flew him back home so he could be with his family. With that being said, Chris #2 took over for Justin, doing the vocals for all the songs.

Anti-Flag opened up with the famous “The Press Corpse”. It was the perfect opening song. A pit was formed as soon as they started and it literally took up the whole floor. It's a very popular Anti-Flag song that almost everyone knew.  Sure enough, fists were raised and everyone chanted “we don’t want to talk about it!”  They immediately followed with “Sodom, Gomorrah, Washington D.C.”, a song off their latest album. The crowd was eager to keep the pit going because they managed to keep pitting even for the slower songs. They played older songs such as “Turncoat” and “Underground Network”. Anti-Flag are known to be a very political band, but surprisingly they didn’t do a lot of talking about politics. At one point, Chris #2 asked the crowd, “How many of you know how to play the drums?”  He said they needed some volunteers to go up on stage and play with them. So many people excitedly rushed to the front, jumping up and down so that they can on stage.  Four guys got on stage and they played cowbells going along to the beat of the song. Anti-Flag played “Fuck Police Brutality” and “Drink, Drank, Punk”, two songs that were released off an album from 1993. Those two songs created the biggest circle pits of the night.
  - See related Interview with Chris#2 HERE -

Anti-Flag began playing a slower song, “This Is the End (For You My Friend)”. Towards the end of the song, Chris #2 asked everyone to jump and they received full audience participation.  After, they played another famous song, “Die for the Government”. They said goodnight and left the stage, but we all knew it wasn’t over. Sure enough, the band came back out. Chris #2 began playing a bass line that was the beginning of a short medley of songs from The Clash.  They started with “The Guns of Brixton” then “I Fought the Law” and ended with “Should I Stay or Should I Go?" It was a fun group of songs to combine and everyone knew the words. Before leaving the stage they had one more surprise for us. The drummer, Pat Thetic got up from behind his drums and made his way down to the floor. His drum techs followed him while carrying his drum set and he set up his drums on the floor. Anti-Flag ended their show with a song called “Power to the Peaceful” and Pat Thetic played the song on the floor with everyone crowded around him. Before leaving the stage, the band moved towards the barricade to shake the hands and greet some of their fans.

Sunday’s show was a great success.  It was interesting and different, in a good way. It’s not often to go to a show where each of the bands has a unique sound from the others or where genres are mixed. The bands made it personal, intimate, and more fun for their audience because they actually went down into the crowd. Now how often does that happen?

 

-Corrina P.-
Big Wheel Music Scene Reporter

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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