with special guest
Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski
Amoeba Records-Hollywood
Keith Morris and Chuck Dukowski
Dec. 3, 2002
To benefit the legal
defense
of the West Memphis 3 (wm3.org) Amoebae records hosted Rollin's Band
with
Henry singing Black Flag material. Special guests included 
Black
Flag Bassist Chuck Dokowski and original singer Keith Morris.
Around
4:00 PM the Amoebae store started filling up with people eager to see
Henry
doing songs he hasn't done in years. 
Songs that he may not have felt comfortable singing, since Black Flag
disbanded
and with the music essentially being Chuck's and Greg Ginn's.
Henry's
been noted as saying Black Flag was Greg's band. Nevertheless,
Henry
received Greg's approval to use these songs to bolster the legal
defense
of three young men who were falsely accused (read Mara Leveritt's
"Devil's
Knot") and are in prison for a heinous crime. The "Rise of
Above" 
disc featured many performances by the likes of Ice T, Tom Arraya,
Corey
Taylor, Lemmy Kilminster, and many more who were influenced by Black
Flag,
or they at least recognized the Power of the material.
That being said, Amoebae 
started to really get crowded as night approached the 7:00 PM scheduled
performance. By 6:00 PM all of the stores aisle between the CD
and
record bins started filling up three to four people deep. The
audience
was a mix of young punks just learning and appreciating what Hardcore
was 
and some old school cats sporting beer bellies, careers and perhaps
reliving
their reckless youth. By 6:45 the store was filling up all the
way
up to the top section where they sell the videos and DVD's.
Keith Morris hit the stage first
with
some insight into why this performance was going down: To help get
these
three dudes out of jail, who happened to be at the wrong place at the
wrong
time. With Rollin's Band (actually Mother Superior is backing
Rollin's
these days) providing instrumentation Keith sang "Nervous Breakdown",
"Gimme,
Gimme", "Fix Me", and "Wasted". Keith definitely brought a sense
of history 
to
stage with his performance, but he also provided a sense of purpose
with
his opening statements. Rollin's promptly hit the stage after
Keith's
last song. When the opening riff for "Rise Above" was
struck,
Rollin's crouched in front of the stage,
almost kneeling on one knee. The audience seemed to know every
word
and sang the refrain over and over with him as the crowd start a
mini-pit replete with stage diving. Keep in mind there was
like three feet at the most between the stage and those record bins,
and
it was amazing that there was not any damage done to Amoebae's fine
selection
of vinyl. Along with Mother Superior's respectable
interpretations, 
Henry
also sang Black Flag anthems "Jealous Again", "Thirsty and Miserable",
and "Police Story". The other special guest for the evening,
original
Flag Bassist Chuck Dukowski came onstage and sang his rendition of
"What
I see". It was a shame Chuck didn't pick up a bass and bounce
around
like the in the old days. Henry came back out and sang "Six
Pack","Depression",
and of course a dramatic "My War". After the set, the audience
was
invited to buy a copy of "Rise Above" and have it signed by Keith,
Chuck,
and Rollin's. 
All proceeds from the disc are donated to benefit the West Memphis
3.
In addition, this same line up will be touring in the LA area on
December
18, 2002 at the Whiskey and December 19, 2002 at the Glass House in
Pomona.
Support a just cause by instead of supporting war overseas and catch a
fleeting glimpse of what the music was like when Hardcore Punk was
still
underground. Learn more about the cause at WM3.org
article by Mario
photos by Alvino
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