Photo by Shahab Zargari
Black Flag broke up in 1986, which means nobody of my generation has seen them perform live. As luck would have it, in one bungle of cosmic timing, two musical entities called Black Flag and Flag—both containing original members of the band—are now touring simultaneously, playing Black Flag songs. Recently, I had an opportunity to see Flag at Punk Rock Bowling in Las Vegas. Before they played, I sat down with Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski, Bill Stevenson, and Stephen Egerton of Flag to find out exactly where things are for the band and what it’s like bringing new life to a legendary catalogue.
Noisey: What prompted the split from Black Flag into Flag? Or, rather, the split from the name?
Keith Morris: Well, there was never really any split, we were all members with the exception of Stephen, and everybody at certain points in the history of the band took off to do other things, or they were doing other things prior to being in the band, and then decided to continue and go off and continue doing what they were doing. We’re basically just all the guys that wouldn’t play with Greg Ginn.
Chuck Dukowski: It wasn’t a split off, we just all started getting together and doing stuff, and it was fun, and now we’re all here. It snowballed.
KM: Now do you want to know the history of how we got here? Briefly: Chuck and I were invited to perform with some guys in a band called No Age, they’re the new young noise-making Sub-Pop guys, we jumped up on stage, we rehearsed some songs, the place went apeshit, the cops took a few steps back, and said we’re not getting involved, and it was a massive party. Then Chuck was asked by Gary Tobar, who you might want to talk to, who’s sitting in the dining area, who is the main guy from Goldenvoice. Goldenvoice are the musical promoters in LA that would do the Exploited, and the Discharge, and the GBH bands, and all the bands that none of the other promoters would go near.
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