Black Flag @ the Cannery Ballroom, Nashville – January 31st 2020
Having managed to catch ‘Flag’ the offshoot of seminal Punk outfit Black Flag, a couple of years back, I was delighted to be able to catch the actual Black Flag when they recently did a show in Nashville’s Cannery Ballroom.
When I saw Flag at the Exit In they had four one-time members of Black Flag, namely Keith Morris (vocals), Chuck Dukowski (bass), Dez Cadena (rhythm and vocals) and Bill Stevenson (drums) and of course played the same songs as they had always done.
Fast-forward to January 2020 and Black Flag containing founder-member Greg Ginn (guitar) and one-time vocalist Mike Vallely take the stage in front of a decent Nashville crowd. Of course a very loud and boisterous affair to be sure but to be perfectly honest, I think I preferred the gig played by Flag.

Black Flag – Cannery Ballroom, Nashville
The splitting-up of the ‘original’ Black Flag was not exactly a convivial affair and is well documented with numerous articles to be found on the internet. If you want a good background into who exactly Black Flag were and why they were so fundamental to the punk music evolution then check out the two-part documentary, ‘By Any Means: A Brief History of Black Flag.’