There's a new version of Black Flag in town, and it's mostly populated by people who were not born when the original version of Black Flag broke up. Greg Ginn, guitarist and trademark holder for the legendary '80s hardcore institution, has spent the past few decades behaving as if he wants to make people embarrassed for getting the bar logo tattooed on their bodies. Ginn launched a rebooted version of Black Flag in 2013, and they went through a tumultuous run, sued a competing Black Flag revival, fired their singer mid-show, and released an album that everyone hated. Also, Ginn's ex-wife accused him of child abuse. Now, Ginn has returned with another new version of Black Flag, and this one is entirely full of Gen Z musicians. Last night, they played their first show.
In April, Greg Ginn announced that he'd assembled a new Black Flag lineup and teased new music, but nobody had ever heard of any of the new members. When they shared a press photo soon afterward, the reason for that became obvious: They're all babies, or at least all of them are babies with the exception of 71-year-old Greg Ginn. Right now, the new Black Flag are touring through Europe, and they made their debut Tuesday night at Mixtape 5, a venue in Sofia, Bulgaria.
They seem fine? Someone posted a video of Black Flag's complete set. It's an hour and 20 minutes long. That's much longer than a hardcore show should be, but Black Flag do have actual underground hits that demand to be played. Whatever you think of his business tactics, Ginn's scraped-raw guitar tone still sounds cool. The young folks in the band brought a certain level of passion and excitement. It looked like there was plenty of room to move around in the crowd, but at least there was a crowd there, and they got hype when they heard the opening riff of "Nervous Breakdown." I haven't watched the entire video, but the first 10 minutes or so are a document of what might be a pretty fun Black Flag tribute set if the band in question wasn't actually presenting itself as Black Flag. See it for yourself below.
