by Daniel Colussi | Since discovering them sometime in Junior High School, Black Flag has held a kind of otherworldly, god-like status to me. I’ve read and re-read Rollins’ tour journals. I listened and re-listened to Damaged. The intensity and heaviness of their music totally spoke to my teenaged self, but at the same time it was completely beyond my comprehension. They were so angry, so jacked up on their own anger, and so heavy about being Black Flag. They were the most badass band of all time, ever, except maybe for Black Sabbath (hard to say). So it’s perhaps fitting that the heaviest band of all time would pull off something that’s never been before: reunite two times, concurrently, as two distinct and unrelated entities that don’t even like each other.

It’s like this: Greg Ginn – who we all accept as the originator/leader/soul of Black Flag – is touring as Black Flag with Vancouver’s own Ron Reyes (Chavo Pederast) on vocals, plus two other dudes no one knows. But wait, there’s also this thing called Flag, comprised of Chuck Dukowski, Keith Morris, Bill Stevenson, and even Dez Cadena, plus one dude no one knows. If it’s all a bit confusing, maybe a diagram will help. Personally I have no gripes about all these guys reuniting and playing the old songs. And frankly, even if it’s all just a cash-in it’s still cool because lord knows these guys never made any money back in the day. But what does trouble me is the Sophie’s Choice-like decision that’s forced upon fans. On the one hand, there’s Ginn’s Black Flag. The fact that Ginn is in the line up makes this version of Black Flag appear totally legit, and yet Ginn’s playing on his own pedigree when he slags Flag as a poseur cover band. Because Flag features four foundational BF alumni all playing together, and they seem to be legitimately psyched on getting the band back together, man. At this point, an amicable, super line up of Ginn + Flag seems unlikely…

Whether or not you care about Black Flag reuniting will depend on certain things, like your age, your feeling towards 80’s hardcore, and your willingness to accept these aging rockers as they are now and not as they were in their prime. Whatever your allegiance, Ginn and Reyes are playing Vancouver in July and that’s for sure going to be a great show. Regardless of the cross-band drama, I highly, highly recommend that you commit a full hour of your life to the little seen Super 8 document of Black Flag’s final 1986 tour, a film by Dave Markey entitled Reality 86’d.

It’s Black Flag on their final legs. The hair is long, the jam’s are long, everyone’s really burnt out, and no film better shows the inanity and pathos of being in a band on tour. Enjoy!