Black Flag: The Final Show, Detroit 1986
*can’t find the second part. 🙁
The first generation of participants in the great American hardcore punk battered econovan would like you to believe that scene died in 1986, but we all know better. However it was the year Black Flag called it quits – all of a sudden, observed simply with a genial phone conversation between Greg Ginn and Henry Rollins – and we know we’ve lost an amazing band who shaped that world.
The clip above features Henry and Greg, with two faceless band members, going at it as per usual, taking no prisoners. I saw this recently and wondered if it was ever recorded for posterity. It will be the last time Mr. Ginn twisted his bad-ass fingers on Annihilated This Week and spreading greasy muck over Louie Louie, and it will be a treasure.
Sure enough, the entire show was recorded and available on the bootleg trading circuits for years. On top of that miracle, the sound captured is way better than that video clip above. To those interested, my old friends at BigO magazine in Singapore are hosting the files and ready to donate you their bandwidth.
Note: It’s not as crucial as the Police Story – Live EP or the 1981 Last Show with Dez bootlegs but if you were still sticking to the Flag despite the fact that they slowed and and grooved slothfully with Loose Nut and Slip It In, this will be something you would need to hug dearly.
Go here: bigozine2.com, and while you are at it, do download that rare Peter Tosh Demos and The Stooges live 2003 show.
Black Flag in any incarnation is good but in my humble opinion the Henry Rollins era is the one most remembered by fans. Black Flag over Minor Threat any day-they were arguably as influential if not more so and had more of a punk-don’t -give-a-fuck attitude. 86-87 was an interesting time for American hardcore. Both Black Flag and the Dead Kennedys called it quits and the genre was mutating and spitting out sub-genres faster than they could be labelled. You had the full-on metallic mayhem of Cryptic Slaughter, the (mock? ) right-wing theatrics of Carnivore, Agnostic Front had gone crossover thrash with ‘Liberty and Justice for…’ and Youth of Today was spearheading the neo-stright-edge scene-but it was okay:innovators like the Melvins, Buzzov*en and Biohazard were on the way to revitalize the HC/punk lanscape…
For me it’s all about Mr. Ginn. He’s THE MAN!
Yeah he’s the heart and soul of the band alright