AGAINST ALL AUTHORITY
South Florida, it’s a heck of a place. There’s beautiful weather and raging inequality; amazing diversity and some militant immigrants trying to shut the way behind them; a beach aesthetic that prizes looks and fitness, and a party scene that will sabotage all that body sculpting with booze and drugs; a culture that brims with hospitality and puts on incredible events, but crowds out local artistic (and musical) growth.
It’s lovely here but rent is more than a mortgage, and buying property in the southern tip of the sunshine state requires crypto bro wealth. The locals may quip to tourists, “I live where you vacation.” But the air of superiority comes with the challenges of sweltering heat, a rat race to make ends meet, traffic that would put Mad Max: Fury Road to shame and the increasing intensity of hurricanes and floods.
So, when people wonder aloud how Florida, the land of Disney and sunshine, could have decent punk bands, we have a list of grievances to back up the rancor. One of our own that made good was a little band from Miami known as Against All Authority. They started out in the early ‘90s as a as a punk band, added some ska elements and helped to ground the burgeoning ska-punk scene in the tenets of punk and hardcore bands that came before them. Frankly, many ska-punk bands were heavy on the clown music of third wave ska and light in the hardcore punk department. Whereas these sneering Miami kids had more attitude and spunk than half the bands of Mohican-d fashionistas making their way through the scene.
An AAA show in the mid-90’s could be a gauntlet of aggression shedding, ruffians “dancing” it out in the pit and then, bloody and bruised, grabbing a slice together across the street from Cheers, chowing down under the Metrorail. Always an outlet, never a gang, always a party, never a fight, the band took their bad attitude good time music on the road and somehow gave Miami a local band we could believe in, because they were against it all, just like us!
Unfortunately, like all good things, Danny Lore, Joe Koontz, Chris “Spikey” Goldbach, Fin Leavell and Marshall Wildey eventually had to take a break from the road and the band. They went off, having made new lives for themselves. Some stayed in music: Fin is a composer, amongst many other things; Koontz has continued to make music and crafts guitars from scratch, Spikey has played in several bands since AAA disbanded, and Lore is a seasoned bladesmith.
However, the trail they blazed from Cutler Bay never stopped resonating with disaffected or disenfranchised youths, young and old, and while they seemingly moved on, the rest of us did not. Thankfully, the punk rock gods have heard our prayers and found a way to reunite our heroes. For one night? For a new record and tour? Who knows? Good things should always be enjoyed in the moment.
RADIOBAGHDAD
While AAA was making a stink down in the 305, up in the 954, Fort Lauderdale had an adjacent group of reprobates making music and choosing havoc and hangovers over a good night’s sleep and early morning gym sessions. To celebrate AAA’s homecoming show at Revolution Live! in Fort Lauderdale, Radiobaghdad, a mainstay band of the Fort Lauderdale scene have decided to reunite and play the AAA after-party show at Fort Lauderdale’s last bastion of original music, the Poorhouse. A venue that is conveniently located right next door to Revolution Live!
Radiobaghdad have made appearances with various past members, but to gather with old friends and party in two places on the same night should really put the exclamation point on things. It’s a good occasion to resurface old memories of the St. Ides-drenched 1990’s and be grateful there weren’t camera phones in the halcyon days of Radiobaghdad and AAA, because there would probably have been a lot more arrests.
Against All Authority play “All Fall Down” in its entirety, 7pm Saturday July 29 at Revolution Live! in Fort Lauderdale, joined by special guests Suicide Machines and JER. Music at the Poorhouse starts around 11pm with Radiobaghdad, Shakers and Goat Rope. facebook.com/againstallauthorityofficial ~ Tim Moffat
