Political punk pioneer Jello Biafra and his latest amalgamation of musicians, the Guantanamo School of Medicine, shook the walls of Philly’s Union Transfer earlier this year along with Boston hardcore legends Negative Approach and Philly’s own Mischief Brew as BTS’s photo-man extraordinaire, Dante Torrieri was on hand to capture the show in photos for our viewing pleasure.
The Gitmo School of Medicine is Biafra’s first full-time band since the Dead Kennedys‘ disbandment in 1986. The punk icon has seen a prolific outpouring in recent years, releasing 3 LPs since 2009 as the ever-witty and sarcastic Biafra enters his 57th year of rabble-rousing the masses. The band’s latest, White People and the Damage Done, was released in 2013 via Biafra’s own label imprint Alternative Tentacles. The album has been hailed by the underground community with PunkNews.org stating, “now the band have rotated in such a way that not only are they making the best music of their run, but also, standing out as a notable and memorable point in the Biafra catalogue along the heights of Plastic Surgery Disasters, Prairie Home Invasionand Sieg Howdy!.”
Detroit’s longstanding hardcore punk heroes, Negative Approach put in one for the books on this evening. The band, who has remained fairly active since reforming in 2006 and hitting some of the best music festival circuits around the world, proved a force to be reckoned with in 2014. The band released the Friends Of No One LP in 2010 that saw the band’s once thought-to-be-lost 1984 recording sessions that had unknowingly been stowed away in a Detroit basement for a quarter-century finding a proper release via Taang Records. Preserved like a musical time capsule, the recording is just as raw, if not rawer than the band’s seminal works of the early 80s.
Setting this evening into motion was Philly’s own punk rock outfit Mischief Brew. Active now well over a decade, the band was originally formed by Erik Petersen of The Orphans following the band’s break-up in 2000. What started as a single man’s Crass-inspired, folky, acoustic-punk approach, has transgressed to now feature a myriad of regional musicians. Mischief Brew has gone on to release a plethora of recordings including splits, compilations, EPs, and studio full-lengths, up through the band’s latest, The Stone Operation (2011). Mischief Brew recently released a new single, “O, Pennsyltucky!” that will be featured on the band’s forthcoming 2015 LP, This Is Not For Children. Per usual, the band put in a heartfelt performance that appropriately set this evening’s eclectic gathering of punk into motion.
Without further ado, enjoy music from all of the guilty parties below and exclusive photos by Blow The Scene‘s Senior Photograher, Dante Torrieri (Useless Rebel Imaging).
Negative Approach
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine
Recommended for you
