It's been 18 years since ANTiSEEN first rolled into Broward County and blew my mind at the ambassador bar in Deerfield Beach. Despite there being only a dozen folks in the audience, the destructo rockers from Charlotte, North Carolina damn near set fire to the joint with their pure rock and roll energy and noise for the sake of noise. What would be by-the-numbers punk rock in anyone else's hands, is sublime in Antiseen's, thanks to singer Jeff Clayton's Alice Cooper-By-Way-Of Ric Flair stage persona and the so-wrong-its-right way guitarist Mighty Joe Young beats harmonic distortion out of his stratocaster.
Clayton also has amazing taste in cover tunes, as evidenced by the "Hell" covers Lp which features ANTiSEEN deconstructing Sun Ra, Curtis Mayfield, Jack Starr and The Anti-Nowhere league, and The Talking Heads along with a pre-racist Skrewdriver song, thrown in to confuse wingnuts and the PC brigade simultaneously.
In the past decade, ANTiSEEN have been embraced by the grease-monkey crowd, thanks to a hearty endorsement by #1 ANTiSEEN fan Hank III - who has Clayton's image tattooed on his rib cage. So it is fitting ANTiSEEN are playing their first gig in South Florida in six years at the Monterey Club - the home of old punks and guys who work on cars and PBRs simultaneously.
It is true that the Monterey might be a little small for Clayton to do a back flip through a flaming table. But every time ANTiSEEN have found themselves in Gordon Solie's territory, a little kayfabe comes out - usually involving a broken beer bottle and the permanent scar on Clayton's forehead. So if you go to the ANTiSEEN's ferocious hour of rock and roll power Thursday night - and if you like George Jones, Motorhead, The Ramones or anything else that's good you should - don't wear white. The ANTiSEEN embody many things - and most of them leave permanent stains.
ANTiSEEN Performs Thursday, February 17th at The Monterey Club, 2608A South Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale. Admission is $8. Doors are at 9PM. For more information: 954 598 1987
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