Photos by Philip Cosores
In a city where there are certain neighbourhoods where you’ll hear young, hip music blaring out of every car window and being talked about on every street corner, it’s not difficult to persuade kids to come to a free No Age show. Add to that rumours of a possible Black Flag reunion and a set by Ceremony, and in a city like Los Angeles with such a history intertwined with the genre of hardcore, you’re going to get some older spectators too. This all took place in MacArthur park, a place that has something of a shady reputation going back quite a while (Aunt Viv in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air certainly didn’t seem to approve), but the Parks and Rec committee seems to be trying to overhaul this notion by offering free concerts at their well-equipped and picturesque bandstand four nights a week. They probably thought it would be a great idea to team up with FYF and get in a whole different crowd to normal. They probably don’t think that anymore.
Opening proceedings were the first surprise guests, Californian hardcore band Ceremony. Before starting to play, No Age’s Dean Spunt took the time to politely and cordially notify the crowd that there were free vegan tacos being given away at the back. As soon as the Ceremony kicked in though, this politeness was forgotten. Singer Ross Ferrar seemed to be spitting fireballs through the whole set, spewing forth a surge of electrifying and powerful vocals. To me they were more or less unintelligible, but as Ferrar prowled the edge of the stage he often dipped his microphone to the crowd where the kids in the moshpit seemed to always know the next line. Intelligibility of the lyrics was insignificant in the face of the musical onslaught being brought on by Ceremony.
Behind Farrar the rest of ceremony also dominated the stage, shifting style multiple times, from brazen riffs to rock that approached the melodic level of Fucked Up. After a few stage divers in the crowd were told to stop (there was no barrier so getting on to the stage was easy), Ferrar decided to enter the crowd instead, and the moshers immediately swarmed him like ants on a corpse. Ceremony played their impressive set as the sun went down over MacArthur park, and they seemed to start to shift the event from a pedestrian free gig to a true spectacle.
The downtime between Ceremony and No Age was minimal (after all, how long does it take to set up a drum kit and some amps?), but the number of people in the park seemed to have increased significantly in the fifteen minutes between acts. This was reinforced when those at the front were absolutely bum rushed by the moshers when No Age kicked into their first song, and remained pinned to the stage through the rest of the Nouns-heavy set. No Age may not have had the stage presence of Ceremony (singer Dean Spunt is stuck behind his drumkit after all) but their music fueled the crowd of MacArthur park to expend a ton of energy on their behalf.
What guitarist Randy Randall may lack in presence, he makes up for in his look, which is that of an apathetic but true rock star. Standing in front of his speaker stacks, his hair drooped over his eyes and casually belting out practiced guitar riffs, occasionally hopping on the spot, he looked undeniably cool. Towards the end of the set he also started to roam the stage, coming to inspect the crowd where, despite the authorities’ requests, kids were still taking to the stage and diving back in. Security could be seen waiting to pounce at the edge of the stage, but none were ever quick enough to even start to move before the spectators were throwing themselves back on to the crowd again.
At the end of the set, rather than leave the stage, No Age were joined by their two surprise guests: founding members of Black Flag, Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski, to perform a set as ‘No Flag’. No, Greg Ginn wasn’t present, but this was the closest to a Black Flag reunion there has been for years.
Black Flag fans amongst you will know that Morris was in Black Flag for a relatively short time, meaning their six songs were all culled from the band’s earliest material. The entirety of the Nervous Breakdown EP was played, kicking off with “Wasted” which caused complete pandemonium in the crowd, who screamed along the song’s titular word in time with Morris’s own growl, which was as fierce as it could have been in his youth. Dukowski bobbed excitedly on the spot, loving his return to the spotlight. Spunt and Randall played along tightly, with the looks of the boys they once were, concentrating hard while playing along with Black Flag in their bedrooms. Throughout the set, barely ten seconds went by without someone getting up on to the stage or crowd surfing (even a guy in a wheelchair crowd surfed!). The security, seeing things getting out of hand started to walk around the stage, interfering with the set. At the conclusion of “I’ve Had It” Morris halfheartedly told the crowd to stay off the stage, but to no avail. And after the penultimate song, “No Values,” he changed his mind completely and instead told the security to back off and let the kids have fun, much to the organisers’ chagrin. This caused even more of a melee during the concluding song, the inevitable “Nervous,” with multiple stage dives occurring at a time. At the end of the set Morris sardonically thanked the city of Los Angeles for allowing this event to happen.
If anything, the whole night proved that the punk spirit of the late 70s and 80s is still alive and well, even with a few modern tics added (the arrival of free No Flag posters at the conclusion caused a ruckus as violent as during the music). It’s thanks to organisations like FYF, who put value in keeping things traditional, that an event like this can take place. And even though they’re unlikely to be invited back to host an event at MacArthur Park again, at least they made history on this occasion.
(Watch fan-shot footage of the event here. Professional cameras were definitely present so better footage should surface soon.)
