While the Anti-Flag was founded in 1989, it was from 1992 that the band really made name. in 1996 they released their very first fulltime record called "Die For The Government". Over way more than 20 years later the band stands in the smaller room of the Melkweg and they brought Red City Radio, Throphy Eyes and The Homeless Gospel Choir.

Due to other appointments I couldn't make it to The Homeless Gospel Choir, so when I walked in Throphy Eyes had just started their set. For the first three songs it wasn't very clear to me why the lead vocalist sang the most, because the vocals of the back ground vocalist matched way better with the music. After three songs it was quite clear why they had this leadvocalist. The poppunk didn't really fit in but reminded of bands such as Sum41 and Blink 182. A lot of the people today couldn't care less about this performance but there was one guy who was happy as fuck to see this band. Throphy Eyes noticed this and let him sing a few sentences on stage. While the stage was part of the crowd in the eyes of the band, only a handful of people stagedived and while there was quite some movement by mostly the fans, I think the band won some hearts over. I hope that they come back as support of Sum41 in March because I think that they would fit way better.

The last band before the headliner was Red City Radio. Although this band matches way more with the headliner of today, it still didn't seem to be a really good fit. Also that the band came up with The Final Countdown as an intro and the leadvocalist wore a Kiss shirt, didn't seem to work that well either. There was not a lot of movement because and, although it was a little more after halfway the set, it wasn't what you could expect of such a band full of energy. A few die hard fans seemed to know a lot of the lyrics and those sing-a-longs worked out quite fine. In my opinion this was a good punkrock band which sometimes got out of tune vocals, but who cares? It's punk isn't it?

As mentioned before Anti-Flag are punkrockveterans and since their last line-up change was in 1999, the band know how to play together. Today we would get a mixture of 7 different albums spread out in 18 songs. Starting with 'Turncoat' the Melkweg seemed to explode into one huge moshpit and massive sing-a-long throughout the whole set of Anti-Flag. The band seemed to enjoy this evening and a few quick chats with the crowd along with the longer political statements made this a true punk show. Songs as 'Fuck Police Brutality', 'Underground Network', 'Broken Bones', '1 Trillion Dollar$', 'This Is The End (For You My Friend)', 'Fabled World' and 'Set Yourself On Fire' were mixed up, so songs from 1996 to 2015 were played and everybody seemed to enjoy both the older and also the newer songs. 

There were a lot of highlights this evening. A constant big moshpit, a lot of crowd surfers and stagedivers, but my facourite one is that a somewhat larger and bigger drunk guy came once again on stage, the roadie trying to get him off stage safely, but he still stagedived. Of course he fell on the ground, but he was definitely allright and Chris#2 was concerned about him. This shows that they have massive love for their fans and want everybody to be fine. After the first 15 songs it was time for an encore of the band which consists of 'Brandenburger Gate'(together with The Homeless Gospel Choir), 'Die For Your Government', and of course drummer Pat Thethic and Chris#2 left the stage to play the last verse and chorus in the middle of the crowd. After this song it was amazing to see that the band did 'Drink, Drank, Punk' also live tonight, in the middle of the crowd also!

A question I had before this show was that a few years ago I went to an Anti-Flag headline show for the last time and the crowd was filled by young, older and old people all together. Would it be the same this evening? I have to say that the younger people stayed about the same age and the older people seemed to get older. Why? Because Anti-Flag is music for all ages, of course you can ask if some controversial songs should be able for teenagers and other youngsters to hear. But it's punkrock so get used to it!

An amazing headliner left the venue almost destroyed to dust, a lot of fans happily smiling and people still wanting more. Please come back soon, because everybody needs to see what a fun night a night of Anti-Flag is.