Saturday 28 January 2023.

Saturday 28 January 2023. BLACK FLAG live at The Forum. Black Flag is an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. Initially called Panic, the band was established by GREG GINN, the guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band. They are widely considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands, as well as one of the pioneers of post-hardcore. After breaking up in 1986, Black Flag reunited in 2003 and again in 2013.The second reunion lasted well over a year, during which they released their first studio album in nearly three decades, What The... (2013). The band announced their third reunion in January 2019.Brandon Pertzborn was replaced by Isaias Gil on drums and Tyler Smith was replaced by Joseph Noval on bass....they have released seven studio albums. Support comes from fellow Californian hardcore punk band TOTAL CHAOS. They have released ten studio albums over the past 30 odd years. ------ The balcony is closed tonight, and maybe only 700 or 800 tix sold on the floor standing. TOTAL CHAOS arrived on stage at 7.45pm for their 50 mins set. Total Chaos lyrics deal with themes of rebellion, social injustice, and working-class struggle. Some 16 songs played in a non-stop 50 mins set is pretty good going , including 'Babylon', 'Pledge of Defiance' and 'Nation of War'. The band sound decent enough and there was some moshing but the rough and raw hardcore vocals was not really to my liking. BLACK FLAG arrived on stage at 9.15pm for their 80 mins set. From the opening song to the final track , band members are thrashing around in a ramshackle way. Greg Ginn’s frantic and distorted guitar playing driving the songs forward. Highlight for me tonight , was how clear the vocals were, as you clearly hear every word, that was delivered with ferocious intensity, and not much chat between the tracks. Lots of moshing , but maybe only a dozen crowd-surfers as this was mainly the older punk crowd. A neat cover of ' Louie Louie' ended a really good show. Full Black Flag website played tonight.... Can't Decide Nervous Breakdown No Values I've Had It Annihilate This Week Fix Me Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie Loose Nut Six Pack Depression Slip It In I Can See You Room 13 Jealous Again Black Coffee Revenge TV Party Rise Above Louie Louie (Richard Berry cover) ------------------------------- ------------------------------- Saturday 28 January 2023. Sad news that TOM VERLAINE from TELEVISION has died aged 73. New York punk legends who released the classic album 'Marquee Moon'. I saw him on stage a few times including a couple of times in the late 1970s when the album came out. Television , Blondie Hammersmith Odeon, London 28.05.1977 punk double bill from new york Television,Only Ones Hammersmith Odeon, London 17.04.1978 ------------------------------- ------------------------------- Friday 27 January 2023. KANG DANIEL live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Another K-Pop act plays London. Kang Daniel age 26 , is a South Korean singer-songwriter, actor, and businessman who rose to fame in early 2017 as the first-place winner of the second season of reality competition series Produce 101. He is a former member of the show's resulting boy group Wanna One and is currently active as a solo artist. Fellow K-pop singer JACKSON WANG got a good four star review review from non other than NME, a week ago from his Hammersmith Apollo show, and some folks are asking why are K-pop acts not featured on UK Festival bills? Maybe best that they can just stick to having their own festivals. -------- Level 3 is closed and Level 2 is half empty , so maybe 1000 out of 2000 capacity here. No surprise that the crowd is 90% female under the age of 30, from The Far East and the U.K. The bar staff are hardly selling any booze at all to this crowd. No support act, and the show is over early as he has a paid meet & greet after the show. KANG DANIEL arrived on stage at 8pm and performed for 90 mins. There is a nice big digital screen , showing pre-recorded images. There is no band , so he is singing/miming to the backing tracks. He has six energetic and very slick male dancers, for half the tracks in the show. The dance routines are actually the highlight of the evening for me. KANG DANIEL would chat between many songs to give himself a breather. His English is not perfect , and he ends up saying " he loves Harry Potter" twice. He liked visiting the famous sights of London including Big Ben and The London Eye. Lots of screaming from the fans, for the entire evening. The music was pretty average , but the top notch dance routines were really good.

Posted 28th January 2023