With nothing but a snarling voice and a hell of a reputation behind him, punk icon Jello Biafra addressed the crowd: “No one has disrespected the innocent people that died on September 11 and pissed on their graves more than George W. Bush!”
He then referenced the recent ambush and subsequent killing of four American civilians in Iraq, adding, “Look no farther than the charred bodies on the bridge.”
Biafra’s enraged speech was delivered to a crowded RIMAC Arena between performances by NOFX, Alkaline Trio and Authority Zero, all part of a tour aimed at mobilizing young voters against the current administration.
“The idea behind [the tour] is to try and register 500,000 new voters, preferably voting against the Bush administration. The tour’s called Rock Against Bush, it’s a political tour, and we want new voters,” said Matt Skiba, vocalist and guitarist for popular emo-punk band Alkaline Trio. “We want to get young fans to realize how important it is for them to go vote.”
The Rock Against Bush tour, which now includes over 11 bands and concert dates all over the country, marks a new direction for mainstream punk, which has for some time stayed away from the political fury of its past. Bands like Alkaline Trio, known more for wearing heartbreak on their sleeves than waging political wars, seem more than happy to support the cause.
“This is the first time we’ve done something regarding national politics,” Skiba said. “We go out and tour anyway, and to be able to use that toward something that we feel is a good cause is a great feeling. It’s a win-win situation for us.”
Headlining the tour’s UCSD appearance were NOFX, who have enjoyed a successful career mixing loud music with self-deprecating humor, an approach that singer Fat Mike lent to his new political ambitions. “It’s stupid against stupider,” he said to the crowd, implicating himself as the former and pointing to a large caricature of President Bush as the latter.
But behind Fat Mike’s juvenile humor is a dedication to politics that punk rock has not seen in a long time. His record label, Fat Wreck Chords, started the Punk Voter organization, which, along with starting the tour, created its own Web site (http://www.punkvoter.com), where users can read political articles, download voter registration applications and donate to the cause. The label will release the first in a series of Rock Against Bush compilation CDs April 20, featuring bands performing on the tour.
The tour’s articulate muckraker, former Dead Kennedys vocalist Biafra, delivered a scathing attack on the status quo in America, criticizing both Bush administration policy and failure on the part of the citizenry to demand change — a failure that the Rock Against Bush tour hopes to overcome in its quest to register voters. During and before the concert, workers were stationed at key points and at tables in the lobby, registering concertgoers to vote.
While it remains to be seen whether or not Punk Voter achieves its goal of registering half a million new voters, it nonetheless offers some hope for the relevance of this now decades-old subculture. If nothing else, Rock Against Bush indicates that modern punk rock, thought by many to have bowed out of the political arena, can still serve as an important medium for change.
