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BANDS: Punk
& Ska INTERESTS: Venues ETC... About LOTD
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A
Fire Inside (AFI) at Nation in Washington DC 11/19/01
"Through
our wounding we are one..." That is how most AFI shows
start. A soft, gentle chant that erupts into complete mayhem. Its a
phenomenon that only certain concert-goers can experience and even fewer can
express in words. Alas, here I am,
two months after the concert, writing about it.
This is kind of meta-literary seeing as how I shouldn't have to tell you
that I'm writing about it, but like the show itself, describing it to someone
can be surreal. But Ill try. As
most AFI shows, you can count on hearing Strength Through Wounding. At the DC
show, pretentious attitudes were not left at the door.
I like the variety of gothic kids, emo boys in tight bright shirts and
the overall drunk teenage girl scenes but I could not stand the fact that I had
to initiate the "through our bleeding, we are one..." chant.
I live in Boulder, CO and its a known fact among the AFI community that
Davey Havok, the band's lead singer, has a particular affection for the kids in
Denver, so I can understand why we're more excited about seeing AFI than the DC
kids. However, some of the kids in
the audience were actually telling me to shut up with my "nonsensical
rambling" and that I didnt need to "creep everyone out".
Then when AFI let out their opening guitar strums and the band started
chanting the opening lines to "strength through wounding" it was utter
silence from that crew of degenerates. They kind of glanced at me with a look
that says, "Im a stupid unappreciative fan" and "you're our
new leader" all at once. It made me feel special. The
rest of the show, for someone who has seen AFI this year a few times already,
wasnt a big shocker in terms of set list. There is actually a link to the
entire set list at the AFI
Official Webiste if you want to give it a glance. You can see that set lists
don't vary. However, they spice it up at each show. Two songs that I haven't
heard at all were "A Single Second" and one of my all-time favorite
songs from The Cure, "The Hanging Garden". The latter was especially
creepy because they played it at the end of the show and I was becoming scared
of the imminent presence of walking out of the venue into the slummy DC
neighborhood outside. If I didn't
spend all my money on the bargains at the AFI merch table, I'm sure it could
have been taken from me upon exiting the building. I needed a Gatorade and Fritch, the merch
guy for AFI, has a really aggressive selling method. I have to give Fritch a
shout-out because he does a lot of the behind the scenes work for AFI and the
fact that you can buy the latest AFI album, The Art Of Drowning, at the merch
table for five bucks is something that you would expect from a punk show in
1989. AFI
isnt really punk. They have punk roots, and they have a punk attitude. Their
music is something more. They are
huge fans of the Misfits, but they are also into The Cure as well as newer bands
such as The Faint. They are even into Tool.
They have friends in Bay Area bands such as the Nerve Agents and Tiger
Army, and both of those bands are great for tying over AFI
fans until the new album comes out sometime this year. As
for the rest of the show, I dont think I've ever heard a more powerful Lost
Souls than the version AFI played in DC. Ending
the show with Totalimmortal was outstanding.
Actually, the only part that was not excellent was during a breakdown in
the song, a fan that was not clued in chimed in to announce to me that he was
"stoked that AFI covers the Offspring.
If I wasn't a wuss in a too-tight Tiger Army t-shirt I would have jacked
him up, but AFI always does a "meet and greet" with their fans after
their shows, so it wasn't worth an early exit.
I cried when I heard Morningstar and the Despair Factor. I wanted to cry
when they didn't play This Secret Ninja, but it's fine.
I heard AFI do a Cure cover that is equal to hearing them cover the
Misfit's "Last Caress" or even "Halloween". Fine,
Ill hold back on the melodrama but it will be near impossible because AFI is
one band that can bring tears to the eyes of an entire Nebraska football team.
I've never been to Nebraska, but AFI probably has.
They leave their mark all over this country, and their impression does
not go away overnight. I know this, as I saw them four times in 2001. Part of the
reason I saw them so many times is because they tour non-stop; the other part is
because Im an obsessed jet-set fan that will stop at no end for my fix. I
urge you all to see AFI in 2002. For
more on AFI, be sure to check out the March issue of the Alternative
Press, as they will be the cover story.
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