Black Flag Coming to the Paper Tiger Sept. 13
As part of its 2019 North American tour, legendary punk band Black Flag is making a stop at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on the St. Mary’s strip.
Formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California, the band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter, and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. It is 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 over two decades, What The… (2013). The band announced their third reunion in January 2019. Brandon Pertzborn was replaced by Isaias Gil on drums for the rest of the tour.
Black Flag’s sound mixed the raw simplicity of the Ramones with atonal guitar solos and, in later years, frequent tempo shifts. The lyrics were written mostly by Ginn, and like other punk bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Black Flag voiced an anti-authoritarian and nonconformist message in songs punctuated with descriptions of social isolation, neurosis, poverty and paranoia. Most of the band’s material was released on Ginn’s independent label SST Records.
Over the course of the 1980s, Black Flag’s sound, as well as their notoriety, evolved in ways that both embraced and alienated much of their early audience. As well as being central to the creation of hardcore punk, they were innovators in the first wave of American West Coast punk rock and are considered a key influence on punk subculture in the United States and abroad. Along with being among the earliest punk rock groups to incorporate elements and the influence of heavy metal melodies and rhythm, there were often overt freestyles, free jazz, breakbeat and contemporary classical elements in their sound, especially in Ginn’s guitar playing, and the band interspersed records and performances with instrumentals throughout their career.
They also played longer, slower, and more complex songs at a time when other bands in their milieu performed a raw, fast, three-chord format. As a result, their extensive discography is more stylistically varied than many of their punk rock contemporaries.
Friday, Sept. 13
Doors 9:00 p.m.
Paper Tiger, 2410 N. St. Mary’s
