It all started with a perfect opening: Turncoat gave everyone an immediate rush of energy that possessed every person in the room for the entire show.

Anti-Flag have now (for twenty years or more) laboured to build and be part of a conscious community whose eyes are open to the world around them. Fully fuelled by activist political opinion, the group send a positive message to all to be respectful and live life to its full potential. The set list included Die For Your Government and War Sucks, Let’s Party to name a few of their more obvious political songs.

The gig was enthralling, people became united and threw their fists in the air and belted the band’s lyrics right back at them with passion. The crowd was encouraged to make some noise, jump and dance with all they had. This is one of the first gigs I’ve been to where the audience interaction was so consistent, short speeches and opinions on world affairs left people clapping and cheering in agreement.

The icing on the cake for me personally, was the moment Chris #2 (bass guitar, vocals) joined us in the crowd to finish up, it truly broke down the walls between performer and audience and was spectacular to see. Anti-Flag were bringing out positive activist records when I was less than ten years old and they have not lost a single spark of devotion for what they believe in.

The new album American Spring contains higher elements of pop in contrast to some of their earlier music, this is not to say however, that the band have lost of their initial hard hitting edginess. Whether the punk scene is your thing or not, it is difficult to argue with positive messages against racism and hate. It is a close knit community that goes deeper than just the music, and I was delighted to be part of it for an evening.