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In the we-don’t-fuck-around department,
nobody fucks around LESS then North Carolina shithouse burners
Antiseen.
 I tell ya, this is
THEIR year, ‘cuz hot off the heels of their
comprehensive pleather-bound
coffee table book (Steel Cage) comes this 100
minute sock in the face of live footage. Shot at their 20th anniversary
hometown show last year in Charlotte, it includes a whopping 39 songs,
ranging from their earliest recordings (“Destructo Rock”, “She’s Part of
the Scene” ) to…well, they’re mostly old songs, but there’s a reason for
that. Several past Antiseen members make appearances here, including
Tom
O’Keefe, Doug Throgmorton, Trip McNeil, and lead howler
Jeff Clayton’s lil’
bro Greg on drums, all pounding out double-speed vershes of the songs they
made infamous. Also on deck, regional wrestling legend The Cosmic
Commander, who barks out hammy jokes and rabble-rousing intros between
songs. It’s the biggest, meanest, loudest backyard BBQ ya ever saw, and if
you’re an Antiseen fan (and you have to be, dontcha? Even my wife has an
Antiseen shirt, f’r Chrissakes), then this is like Xmas and doomsday all
rolled into one. Forget the blood and barbed wire, tho, because the most
shocking thing about this DVD is how technically proficient it all is. The
sound in loud n’ clear, and it was shot with SIX (!) cameras, which is
like, an Iron Maiden amount of angles to choose from. It’s all pretty fuckin’ bracing, especially since it is in the live arena that Antiseen
truly shine- they play much better live and dangerous, and the raspy
noise-punk of their records comes off more like snarly dope rock on stage.
Bitchin’. Oh, and there’s the infamous covers, too, including a sleazy,
thuggish take on “Beat on the Brat” that features Clayton brandishing –
you got it – a nail-studded baseball bat. Skyrnd, George Jones, and
Screaming Lord Sutch tunes are on deck, as well. They don’t torch the
joint during “Smoke and Fire”, but I bet they at least thought about it.
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My only complaint, really, is the lack of extras. That goes back to the
no-fucking-around aspect of Antiseen that I mention earlier, but you gotta
wonder – 25 years of beer, meat, head-clanging metalpunk, madness,
fistfights, barbed wire and torn-open foreheads – there’s gotta be some
GREAT footage out there, right? Brawls, sex videos, disastrous 4th of July
cookouts…Antiseen have LIVED the
LIFE, and it’s too bad they didn’t
include some personal footage, or maybe an interview or two. But hell,
it’s not like they broke up. My guess is, they got at least another 20
years in ‘em, so mebbe Clayton’s funniest home videos’ll make it on the
40th anniversary edition. For now, if you’ve always wondered what Scumpunk
champs Antiseen were like live, but were too chicken to show up and find
out, here’s yr chance to get your fix of Southern Hostility, without
actually suffering any southern hostility. Yeefuckin’haw.
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