







ROIO of the Week [Recordings of Indeterminate Origin]



Black Flag's Last Show



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Black Flag

Last Show [no label, 1CD]

Live at Graystone Hall, Detroit, MI, June 27, 1986 To paraphase a common saying, if Black Flag weren't there, someone else would have come along to invent it. This is what the wikipedia said: "Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1977 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn... They are widely considered the first hardcore punk band. Black Flag forged a unique sound early on that mixed the raw simplicity of the Ramones with atonal and microtonal guitar solos and frequent tempo shifts. Most of the band's material was released on Ginn's independent label, SST Records." Well, that hardly tells the whole story. There was a time when the only decent way to access the US indie hardcore scene (where the music was harder, faster and louder) was through SST Records, Alternative Tentacles, Dischord Records, Touch And Go Records and the Sub Pop Singles Club. After all, beside Black Flag, groups such as Bad Brains, Descendents, fIREHOSE, Husker Du, Leaving Trains, Minutemen, Screaming Trees and Soundgarden all have appeared on SST Records. If SST Records was a way to spread the music, the band, through its many personel changes, always reflected that do-it-yourself ethos before that turned into an ATTITUDE, especially from the late-'90s onwards and before hardcore punk splintered into straight edge (often seen as led by Minor Threat and later Fugazi and Youth Of Today) and other sub-genres such as skate punk, thrash metal, grindcore and emo. According to the wiki, in the book, Get In The Van, vocalist Henry Rollins wrote that Ginn telephoned him in August 1986: "He told me he was quitting the band. I thought that was strange considering it was his band and all. So in one short phone call, it was all over." Just before that fateful call, Black Flag played their last concent at the Greystone Hall in Detroit on June 27, 1986. A recording of the show has been circulating among the fans and a word of thanks to bydwuori for sharing this soundboard recording, with Rollins' vocals forceful and upfront, on the Dime site. The wiki said: "By this point the band had become increasingly talented at performing improvised 'jams', with Rollins screaming out lyrics quite literally as they came to him (as is evident on this recording), turning some songs like Louie, Louie into frenetic, almost unrecognizable blasts of intensity." Later hardcore releases might have been even more frenetic but that's not what Black Flag were about. Fronted by Rollins' tight vocals, growls and dynamic showmanship, a stage presence which he would finely-hone through the years, listening to this, one would have thought that this was a Rollins show, rather than a Black Flag gig. Featuring many songs from In My Head, Ginn's guitar is quite exquisite - his is not blazing shards of noize - there is a controlled frenzy as on Kickin And Stickin and there is even a swinging groove between the guitar and Anthony Martinez's drumming on Society's Tease. Apart from Ginn (and even then), it's likely no one else in the band had any inkling that this would be the final gig. But that seemed an apropo way for the band to go. Work every gig like it was their last, and one day they would be right! And they did go out with a passion - the restless pull of Gimme Gimme Gimme which segues into a Louie Louie jam not only showed the musical history of the band but the ways in which musical ideas can stretch. It must have been hard to imagine fans who grew up with the band reflecting today on tracks as such Retired At 21 ("You're retired at 21/Your mind is gone/ Your race is run") or Annihilate This Week ("You annihilated this week/Now it's Sunday and you weep/A future of fun/Or a guilt loaded run"). But as gregsolo commented on the internet: "If a new band today had performed this version of White Hot, they would be hailed as gods. Unreal and must have." Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality, stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, this recording has never been officially released.



Note: Due to the size of some of the files, please be patient when downloading the tracks. Kindly email us at mybigo@bigozine.com if you encounter problems downloading the files.

Track 01 Retired At 21 (5.7MB) Track 02 Annihilate This Week (5.8MB) Track 03 Bastard In Love (3.6MB) Track 04 Drinking And Driving (4.5MB) Track 05 Paralyzed (3.2MB) Track 06 In My Head (7.0MB) Track 07 White Hot (9.3MB) Track 08 Black Love (2.8MB) Track 09 Kickin And Stickin (12.5MB) Track 10 Societys Tease (7.8MB) Track 11 This Is Good (4.8MB) Track 12 I Can See You (3.6MB) Track 13 Nothing Left Inside (12.7MB) Track 14 Gimme Gimme Gimme (2.5MB) Track 15 Louie Louie (8.8MB)

Lineup:

Greg Ginn - guitar

Henry Rollins - vocals

C'el Revuelta - bass

Anthony Martinez - drums



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March 5, 2008















