Chicago, IL – 11 Nov 2023
Anti-Heros descend on Chicago in a joyous celebration of bald heads, tall beers and black eyes.
Anti-Heros have been toward the top of my bucket list for years, and I jumped at the chance to finally see them only three hours away in Chicago. The Atlanta band's roots go all the way back to 1984, and they continued to play off and on into the early 2000s. I had largely given up on ever getting a chance to see them until they played Punk Rock Bowling earlier this year. Since then they've been doing occasional weekends across the US and even Europe. Anti-Heros were headlining a massive bill of eight oi bands at Reggies on a show thrown by Midwest Live & Loud.
Eight bands is a lot, even for a Saturday. One of the bands dropped before the show, so the start time got pushed back an hour. We still missed the first band, but showed up in time to see Old Salt from Madison, WI. They were a traditional oi band, dressed the way my dad did for church in the ‘80s. Short sleeved plaid shirts, tucked into jeans or work pants, and of course boots. (My dad never would have sprung for Doc Martens.) Their cover of fellow Madison band Brass Tacks had so many people singing along that you would have thought it was a Sham 69 or Cock Sparrer standard. (Truth be told, “Wisconsin Hooligans” is a banger!) Somebody joked that 40 percent of the crowd was from the Dairy State.
Chicago's own Fighting For Scraps were up next. They played faster and injected a bit of hardcore into their street punk. They gig fairly regularly around the Midwest and it shows. Chicago has a lot of skinheads, and many of them were there singing along. Like many big city shows the crowd tended to trickle in slowly, but by the time FFS played things were starting to heat up. I'm a big bald guy who likes to drink, but I'm not a skinhead. There was definitely plenty of potential for violence, so I tried to keep my (bald) head down. More on this later.
Hard working fellow Atlanta band Antagonizers ATL have been support on most if not all the Anti-Heros reunion shows. They were definitely another band I was really looking forward to seeing. Their two LPs, Working Class Street Punk (2016) and Kings (2021), are a couple of my favorites of the last decade. The majority of their set came from those albums. I went up close to the stage and sang my heart out. The show happened to fall on Vetreran's Day, so the Blitz classic “Warriors” was dedicated to those who had served. Not surprisingly, I enjoyed every minute of Antagonizers ATL.
Montreal's The Prowlers were a late replacement for Noi!se. While I'm sure some folks were disappointed in the cancellation, The Prowlers played a great set and proved themselves worthy of filling Noi!se's shoes. I suspect they won over the vast majority of the previously disappointed. The French Canadian accents couldn't disguise the rage in their hard driving oi songs. This appeared to be a case of some really nice guys playing some really angry music. The Prowlers traveled the farthest to be there, but were rewarded with an enthusiastic reception.
Local Southside favorites Fear City were next to last. Fear City write songs about being skinheads, being from the Southside, loyalty, dignity, drinking and fighting. It might seem trite, but they do it so convincingly, and with so much passion that it works. The crowd was singing at the top of their lungs to songs like “Real Skins” and “Our Way of Life”. One of the Chicago skinhead factions is Fear City Skins, and they show up in droves and raise hell. Truth be told, Fear City played a killer set. By the time Anti-Heros were ready to hit the stage, the crowd felt like a timebomb set to explode.
Reggies Rock Club is a fairly small room, and was almost full for the occasion. I headed up front for the first part of Anti-Heros' set. “The Anti-Heros Are Here” from That's Right (1987) was followed by “Fuck Hollywood” from American Pie (1996) and we were off to the races. (While I enjoy all of the band's material, American Pie is a desert island type album for me.) A couple songs later, frontman Mark Noah took off his shirt, proudly displaying his well worn dad bod. Then, after several hours of songs about drinking and fighting, the crowd was boiling over and the actual fights started.
At some point when I went to the bathroom or for another beer, all hell broke loose. I missed it, but somebody got knocked out cold. The house lights came on and the band left the stage. It took about 15 minutes for the paramedics to drag some poor bastard out of there. It took a bit of the wind out of the room, and few people took it as a cue to call it a night. Fortunately, Anti-Heros came back and finished their set. As unfortunate as the situation was, it shouldn't cast a negative light on what was an otherwise great night of street punk.
I was initially a little concerned about the lack of musical diversity among the bands, but they were all great. Anti-Heros put on an especially powerful performance, with all four of the band's LPs well represented. After years of waiting, I was thrilled to finally hear “The Tradition”, “Hate Edge”, “National Debt” (for the veterans), “I'm True” and “Election Day” live. The band also seem to be enjoying their victory lap. You just can't fake having fun on stage. As old as I am, I still occasionally get a chill down my spine seeing a band for the first time. This was one of those rare, sublime times.
Confessions of a merch whore: There wasn't a ton of vinyl available. (Old Salt had an LP, and Fighting For Scraps had an LP and two 7-inches.) Instead I spent a small fortune on tall cans of PBR. I did pick up an awesome yellow Anti-Heros T-shirt, as well as Anti-Heros and Antagonizers ATL patches.
Part-time punk writer, suburban dad and angry old man. Follow my adventures on the Punk Till I Die podcast!