(Language may be unsuitable for some readers)
By their own admission, legendary punk band D.O.A. has not performed in Prince George very often.
The crusty Vancouver-based group has been here fewer than five times, in the estimation of frontman Joey (Shithead) Keithley, despite being active on the tour circuit since 1978. So this week they are closing the gap with two local shows, one at the Prince George Legion and one at the MOM Festival in Fort St. James.
Best of all, said Keithley, both are all-ages events. He likes them best.
"Young people have enthusiasm," he said. "We have some ancient laws that need to be modified," keeping people under 19 from seeing entertainment events just because there is alcohol in the same room.
Reshaping the laws of the land to better reflect humanity is exactly what Keithley pursues in his music and his lifestyle.
D.O.A. has made a career out of firing musical missiles at religion, politicians, corporate greed, anything that tips the balance of power away from individual people. When they come to Prince George, they will be waving their latest flag, a new single called Fucked Up Donald.
"It's an ode to one of our original songs, Fucked Up Ronnie," said Keithley, when they took aim at then-president Ronald Reagan. "There was one for Bush, too, but it didn't reach the heights of popularity. I guess it was just too obvious, right? But live we've done Fucked Up Thatcher and Fucked Up Mulroney doesn't roll off the tongue but we could do Brian, maybe. We did Harper live a few times, too. Now it's Trump."
What's scariest to the band is not that Trump seems to believe indefensible things or espouse political views that demean people and cultures. Many people do that. But he has become someone with so much political power, he might win if the public doesn't rise to vote against him.
But Trump certainly provides comedians, satirists and punk rockers plenty of material.
"The guy is a target a mile wide," said Keithley.
"It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Not that you'd want to shoot fish in a barrel; I've got nothing against fish. That guy is unbelievable. Every couple of days he does something that makes you go 'wow, no taste, no decorum, and definitely unfit to be president of the United States.' The Second Amendment comment (a remark at a political rally easily construed to mean he hoped for the assassination of political opponent Hilary Clinton) was just outrageous. He's gone too far."
This from a rocker who also knows his way around a voting ballot. He has run in numerous elections and is strongly considering putting his name forward for the next provincial campaign in his home riding of Burnaby.
"Thinking about it," he said. "It would be for the Green Party again. I would never say it was a sure win, but we have a decent chance of making some noise. You have to move the goal posts and show people a new way of aiming. That's the art (of political change)."
You could say it's being done even when an old punk protest song gets updated for the modern age. The name of the politician in the crosshairs may change, but it's still the same dependable rage.
Punk is a privileged genre of music because it doesn't rely on multitudes of instruments and sound manipulations to get its point across, just driving rock in a tight sonic fist.
Even that has changed somewhat over time, said Keithley, who also operates Sudden Death Records, a company promoting many other punk and otherwise aggressive groups.
He said that in the modern world, the artists and their producers can sometimes wander into unnecessary perfectionism.
"Recording can get too drawn out. It depends on what you're trying to get, but when you look back to the classic punk rock records and new wave records of the '80s, the idea was to get the band in there when they were the most raw, energetic, and capture that on a record and not worry so much about every stone being polished in a stone tumbler. They had rough edges. I think that grit is what people go to with D.O.A., Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains. It had really rough edges but that is a part of what made that whole era really exciting. So anytime you can do that with a record, get back to that, is a good thing. So in a sense the process hasn't changed - you've gotta write the songs, you've gotta rehearse, you've gotta record - but I think people get too hung up on re-doing things (to get a better take). Of course you want it to be sung in tune, and the guitars played properly, and the drums following time, but if you're a good band you're doing that anyways. Just way too much refinement.
"The other bigger change in recording, really, now, is the whole process of entertainment. I think we're back to how it was in the '50s. Rather than trying to make great albums like people aspired to in the latter '60s, '70s, '80s, now people are only really worried about singles. Making an album is becoming a lost art form. Music has gotten to a very vacuous state."
There are visionaries still in the mix, however. Music On the Mountain (MOM) Festival organizer Lionel Conant puts together an annual array of folk and blues with some jazz and country blended in. That's the predominant feel of MOM. Not wild, unleashed punk. D.O.A. represents a definite "one of these things is not like the others" moment on this year's stage.
Are they going to do an all acoustic set, to try to strike a folkier stance? After all, they did just open for Slayer in Poland, now they are in the peaceful surroundings of the Nechako Valley on the same bill as Twin Peaks, Raghu Lokanathan and Folky Strum Strum.
"We could, but we won't," said Keithley. "We're not really an unplugged type band. No danger of that. I did hear an acoustic version of Ace Of Spades that was pretty cool, but I don't know if I want to hear a whole set of that. Lionel has been a D.O.A. fan for a long time, we share some mutual politics, like he's an environmentalist and I'm an environmentalist, so it was great to work together in that sense."
D.O.A. is on stage at the MOM Festival this weekend (their set is Saturday night) and they headline a Friday show at the Prince George Legion with their friends Wild Hearses as the opening act. That show gets underway at 9 p.m. (doors at 8 p.m.) with $15 tickets available at Handsome Cabin Boy and CFUR.
