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It wouldn't be easy for Anti-Flag to stay relevant nearly a quarter century into their careers, but it's as if they're not even trying anymore. Apart from a few inspired instances— "Turn a Blind Eye" definitely holds water, and "I Don't Wanna" blisters sufficiently— The General Strike sticks to the same supposedly state-smashing standards that drove the previous six or so albums from these Pittsburgh-bred punks into redundancy. It's super that they're against predatory capitalism, imperialistic wars, barbaric factory farms, and lots of other things that are bad. But whereas other eminent punks package progressive ideas with things like wit and insight, Justin Sane tends to bash listeners over the head with whatever point he's making. Occasionally, this works. For example, the old lyric "You're gonna die, gonna die, gonna die for your government!" never needed sugarcoating. But the constant bombardment of plainly stated rallying cries like "This is class war! What are you waiting for?!," and so on, probably have a lot to do with why Anti-Flag get accused of telling people what to think, when they could be encouraging people to think for themselves.ANTI-FLAG + THE FLATLINERS + HAVE NOTS | Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston | March 9 @ 6 pm | $16 | All Ages | 617.779.0140
