Against Me! brings their the neo-folk punk to smaller venue for two nights 1/31 and 2/1

by Erick Pressman

Punk rock is a cruel mistress. The kids and the scene can and will turn on you for little to no tangible or logical reason. Bands are punished for achieving moderate success by kids who have little to no idea what its like to be in a functioning band of any genre, punk or otherwise.

Against Me!'s roots are from the Gainesville anarchist punk scene and via touring non-stop, they rose from No Idea Records, then to SF's own Fat Wreck Cords, and then made that leap of faith to the big league's, releasing the critically acclaimed New Wave on big, bad major Sire Records, much to the alarm of their "punk" fans. Making that leap, whether it works out well, as it has for Against Me!, or blows up in their face a la Jawbreaker, forever taints the band in the eyes of so many of their former fans. This leaves a band with few options to prove that they haven't totally lost sight of their roots and where they came from.