Re-reading OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE for the umpteenth time, I never get tired of it. The Black Flag story is incredible. The music, less so. Saw them in '86 on the In My Head tour when it was just the Greg & Henry show and they were playing out their psychodrama every night on stage. Not a horrible show, but a bit long & tedious. Bill & Kira had been fired by this point, I think, so it was just 2 anonymous sidemen on the bass & drums. Ginn's instrumental band Gone was one of the opening acts, Painted Willie was the other. The show was in a (now deserted) Masonic Temple building, Henry walked by us in the hallway and pointedly ignored us at one point before the show began. Oh well.
I get that they were trying to move past the constraints of the hardcore scene they helped create, but GODDAMN did that sludgy music suck. Let's face it - Damaged was their last decent record. Letting Henry write the lyrics was a huge mistake. Maybe Greg could've smoked a little less pot, too?
In any event.....
SST Records ruled for quite a few years, I'm still glad I was the perfect age to be into all that glorious chaos.
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