Against Me! w/ Dead to Me
Visulite Theatre
May 15, 2010
The Deal: Florida punk rockers hit the Visulite for the last stop on its current headlining tour.
The Good: By the time I got there on Saturday night, the second opening band, Dead to Me, was already into their 30-minute set. It was pretty straight forward punk from a trio. Clearly, most at the venue were there for the headliners — as soon as Dead to Me was finished, the area in front of the stage filled up.
Against Me! kicked off its set with a song from its upcoming fifth studio album, White Crosses, entitled “High Pressure Low.” The band ended up playing four songs from the disc, which fit in nicely with the rest of the setlist — a mixture of old and new that clearly made all fans happy.
The crowd up front was a mass of sweaty, fist-pumping bodies as numerous people jumped up on stage and dove into the crowd. Plenty of crowd surfing happened while the band touched on each of its albums.
Singer/guitarist Tom Gabel was a dripping, sweaty mess by the time the last notes rang out. In the past, I’ve usually seen bassist Andrew Seward expending the most energy, but tonight, the focus was on Gabel who often smiled at Seward and appeared to be having an absolute blast on stage.
The Bad: If you blinked, you might have missed it. Against Me! ran through the 16 songs of its main set in just under an hour and tore up a three-song encore in under 10 minutes. They didn’t say much to the crowd, either — just hit ’em fast and hard and walk out the door.
The Verdict: A high-energy set that gave fans and newcomers decent exposure and new and old songs… if only it lasted a little longer.
Against Me! Setlist
High Pressure Low
Don’t Lose Touch
New Wave
White Crosses
Pints
I Still Love You Julie
Up the Cuts
The Ocean
Amputations
Teenage Anarchist
Miami
Sink, Florida, Sink
Suffocation
Americans Abroad
White People for Peace
Thrash Unreal
Encore
T.S.R.
Baby, I’m an Anarchist
This article appears in May 11-17, 2010.
they definitely did not play we’re giving it 35% in the encore, or at all
Dead To Me is a really awesome band who write some pretty good songs. They’re definitely worth checking out all on their own the next time they come to town.
The bassist’s name is Adnrew Seward, not Andrew Fridkin. Also, Against Me!’s shows rarely have much dialogue. Gabel is quoted as saying something to the effect of he has no right to preach to people. Also, the song in the encore is called ‘Rapid Decompression’.
This was the best show I have been to in a long time. As a matter of fact, you can see my brother and I in the front row of the third picture. Thank you so much for posting the set list.