Brett Callwood
Negative Approach is Ready to Fight: Old school Detroit hardcore punks Negative Approach were recently in these parts to open for Circle Jerks, and now they’re in Long Beach for a matinee gig. It’ll be ferocious. Zeke, Final Conflict, False Confession, and Dry Sockets also play.
Of that set with the CJ’s, we said “There are few hardcore frontmen more naturally intimidating that John Brannon, a man who sounds like he’s gargling broken glass. His stare burns through lead, as he prowls the stage. Honestly, we would have liked to have seen them further up the bill but we doubt the NA guys give a shit. Songs such as ‘Tied Down’ and ‘Ready to Fight,’ plus covers of the Stooges’ ‘I Got a Right’ and Sham 69’s ‘Borstal Breakout’ are the perfect appetizer.”
This writer wrote a cover story for the Detroit Metro Times on John Brannon back in 2010, and he said that, “When we started Negative Approach, we held onto our back influences, like Alice Cooper and Dead Boys — the shit that stood the test of time. We kind of wanted to do an American version of the English ‘Oi!’ thing, without the racism. We were bored white kids from the suburbs that shaved our heads. It had nothing to do with politics.”
He added: “We created a scene out of nothing. We started doing underground shows. We were like, ‘Fuck this, half of our audience can’t get in because they’re 15-year-old skateboarders’. That was how the whole do-it-yourself thing started. There was a real sense of accomplishment, because everyone was young and starting record labels, getting records out. Local fanzines like [Lansing’s] Touch and Go were getting nationally distributed. That was a big-ass fucking thing.”
Check ’em out!
Negative Approach is Ready to Fight: The event takes place at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 26 at Alex’s Bar.
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