Anti-Flag comprehensively sold out Birmingham Academy 2 for this gig, with the crowd even spilling out onto the main Academy balcony, meaning that openers All Idols Fall have a decent sized crowd to play to.  The band certainly worked hard during their time on stage and their hardcore/punk mix worked well with the band delivering some decent songs that were not lost on the crowd. Things went so well for them that, towards the end of the set when drummer Leon started a bass drum rhythm for the crowd to clap along with, you couldn't help but to be drawn into it with most of the audience joining in.  All Idols Fall , on this evidence, gained  a crowd reaction that many bigger bands would be rightly jealous of, and they were obviously delighted with the response. 

Next up were the main support came on stage and, on a white canvas behind the drums proceeded to spray paint  “The King Fuckin’ Blues”, just in case people were unsure who they were. With music that at times sounded like a melodic Skindred they played a whole host of instruments including a ukulele, cow bells and whistles during their set. Singer Jonny Fox had much to say throughout and, despite the band’s music sounding rather different to Anti-Flag, the politics  evident in The King Blues showed a strong link to the headliners.  Like All Idols Fall before them the band put in a supreme effort and showed a passion for what they did as they played through their reggae/punk/rock/ska set including the likes of “Mr Music Man”, “Come Fi Di Youth” and new song “Save The World, Get The Girl”.  For the final song, “Taking Over,” Fox split the crowd in two for the classic call and response moment and the response he elicited from the Academy crowd was deafening which only went to show the impact the band made.

With two good support acts having gone before it was up to Pittsburgh punks Anti-Flag to bring the night to a satisfying close.  Early on in the set they played the title track of their forthcoming album “The Bright Lights Of America” which showed that, despite most of the songs coming from the “For Blood And Empire” and “The Terror State” albums, were more than happy to mix things up.   

Bassist/vocalist Chris #2 was an animated beast throughout, going from requesting people to jump with “This Is The End”, something which put the floor under a lot of strain to crowd surfing with ease.  He even threw in some good natured humour as one over excited fan attempted to remove a shoe, stating that he packs them on tight (true veteran) and had he been in Gallows he would have probably punched the offender! As one would expect from an Anti-Flag show both Chris #2 and singer/guitarist Justin Sane engaged with the audience throughout much of the set, not afraid to openly speak their minds on what they think about the current state of the world and politics.  Given the political nature of the band then  it was somewhat surprising that, before “Turn Coat”, they seemed to imply that Tony Blair was still in power.  As their speech happened to be about the Iraq war it was unclear whether they were referring to the start of the campaign, or still believed him to be in power.  Most of the audience obviously thought the latter and it caused some tittering amongst sections of the crowd. 

With the main two members taking centre stage, they even made mention of the Birmingham City football game they went to (although there didn't appear to be many fans in) and how much they love Birmingham, recalling the time Sane broke his jaw while playing the venue, it is easy to forget that the band are a four piece, with both drummer Pat Thetic and guitarist Chris Head mainly in the background yet putting in stellar shifts. In football parlance definitely unsung heroes. 

With a couple of other new songs mixed in alongside the tried and tested “911 For Peace”, “1 Trillion Dollars”, “One People, One Struggle”, “The Project For A New American Century”, “Cities Burn” and an encore of “Die For The Government” and “Press Corpse” Anti-Flag ended the night on a high.  Overall what this show did prove was the fact that, with the right bands in place, you can have different styles of music in one show working well, the fact that two of the acts were British being an extra bonus.

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