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And the Silver Surfer is…… Jello Biafra!
Gesticulating wildly on a punk rock soapbox with the expressiveness of a rabid mime, ladies and gentleman, was the former Dead Kennedys frontman, nee proto-type for a polito-punk frontman. And he doesn’t look like this anymore, but his commanding presence still kicks those who’d claim his mandate out of the mosh pit and back to the drawing board.
This weekend’s episode has Mr. Biafra bashing Obama for–among other things–failing to prosecute the war criminals of the W. Bush Administration and keeping Robert Gates as Defense Secretary–in a Memorial Day shout-out. Because, he said, our fathers and grandfathers (and mothers and grandmothers, I might add) fought to end the Nazi torture regime, one on par with Guantanamo Bay (still open for business).
Biafra and his tell-tale vibratto, clad in a white doctor’s coat and blood-smeared surgical gloves, fronted the swaggering Guantanamo School of Medicine. The band hammered through a rendition of “California Uber Alles,” tailor-made for Gov. Scharzeneger, complete with testosterone stereotypes. Biafra’s also one of the few men in the world who could get away with inciting a chant of “Pol! Pot! Pol! Pot!” (from “Holiday in Cambodia”)
Jello riled the crowd with a host of new material, spewing topical socio-political commentary in tunes like “Electronic Plantation,” an ode to the millions of new-millennium workers who log long hours in the scorching glow of an LCD screen as opposed to the cruel sun.
Rest assured, Biafra still cares. And we’re lucky he does. He ended the set with a diatribe against the excessive effort people pour into Facebook and Twitter rather than keeping up-to-date on spreading injustice, called “I Won’t Give Up” (It’s not an option).
This optimism must play into why Biafra is the most vigilantly supported crowd surfer I’ve witnessed to date.*
See Biafra’s most recent release, The Audicity of Hype.
Also check out Rocks Off Concert Cruises-$30 for a trip down the Hudson from 41st to the Statue of Liberty on a slightly bar-flavored boat! Budos Band is scheduled 6.11 and I’m seriously considering it. A nautical funk dance party is certain to ensue!
*Missing from the set was one of my fave Dk tunes, “Soup is Good Food.” So here it is, huzzah!
“You’ll just have to kill yourself somewhere else. A tourist might see you, and we wouldn’t want that!”
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