Driven Far Off

After contemplating of hoping on to Bart and heading to San Francisco to catch the Economy Sucks Tour, I decided that very morning that I’ll make a spontaneous trip on my own to catch Anti-Flag and Broadway Calls. Once out on the Bart I turned on my ipod to listen to Anti-Flag, only to be disappointed and sadly finding out that I didn’t have any of their songs on my mp3 player. However, I did have the Bouncing Souls album which they covered 3 songs of Anti-Flag songs. Finally arriving in beautiful, rainy San Francisco, I hoped on the bus headed towards Slim’s arriving about 2 hours before the show started. Standing with my red umbrella and trying to keep warm I witness a tour bus parking right in front of me. Turns out, Anti-Flag we’re running a few hours late and had just arrived in San Francisco. Right at 5:30 pm my friend from Berkeley arrived and we called Neltie, Anti-Flag’s tour manager, to let us in. Once settling onto a bench inside Slim’s, Anti-Flag and their crew started to set up their equipment and performed sound check. That was my first time seeing Anti-Flag live, and in a room of only a handful of people, it was great. They sound check to 3 songs and were off stage. As 7pm hit the clock, the rest of the folks outside Slim’s were let in and greeted with the opening act band Oregon called Broadway Calls. Broadway Calls have an amazing energy live and are a bit more on the poppy-punk sound. There were a few folks in the crowd who sang and fist pumped along,while the rest stood waiting for Aiden or Anti-Flag. While watching Broadway Calls perform, a overheard a young girl tell her friend “They are so generic sounding.” Although they may be, they got the crowd clapping and me tapping along to their songs. Later through out the show, I figured out the young girl was there for this band from Canada called Cancer Bats. Let me just say that Cancer Bats or Aiden aren’t my cup of tea and noticed that all the folks, mostly older, that were there for Anti-Flag stood in the back of the venue or near the bar. There at Slim’s I wondered if I was too old for the kind of music Cancer Bats and Aiden played, I’m only twenty. It was almost 1opm and Aiden were just a few songs into their set when I decided to leave and head back to San Jose. Although I missed Anti-Flag, I was still able to hear them perform 3 songs during their sound check without a huge crowd.