Punk On The Brain

AFI is quickly becoming the band to listen to in the Hardcore world, but that’s not keeping them from coming to the Zocalo Room on Nov. 16 with Good Riddance, The Force and Chico’s own Beanfight. With an upcoming US tour, an new album hitting stores on November 11, and a new bassist, there’s been a lot going on in the world of AFI. Lead singer Davey talks about all this in more...

Thanks, Pete. I am really interested to see what people will think. Do think people will really like it?

When you first heard it were you taken aback by it?

That’s the truth. I call it the "thing;" it’s just pieces of cloth I’d hold in my hand when I’d sing so my nails wouldn’t cut through my skin, which they did a few times before. During "Three Seconds Notice," when I sing "I Quit!," I was doing a few takes, (laughs) when something really weird happened…We named it the "monster." The monster came out of my body and it bit me! On my neck and shoulder…It didn’t hurt my throat, but it’s like something came out of my body and it was huge and latched it jaws onto my neck and shoulder region. I must have pinched a nerve or something. The monster came out on the final take and that was it. I didn’t do it again. I’m going to be fought if the monster comes out while I’m on stage.

We met him when we went on tour with Snapcase on the Sick Of It All tour. I had heard from Stormy, who was on the Warped Tour with them that they were breaking up so I called Frank and said "say it ain’t so." It’s funny…while we were touring the East Coast with Snapcase months before the break-up, I was talking to Frank and he said he liked our band because it reminded him of when he was growing up, skating the half-pipe in his backyard with his friends and listening to Dag Nasty, the Misfits, and Minor Threat. I was like "Well, damn, Frank, that describes my teenage years right there." I added, "If you ever want to play in AFI, if any thing happens to Snapcase…" I was joking around, I didn’t think anything would come of it, but when I asked him what the band members were going to do, he said he was hoping to move out to Berkeley. I said, "Shit, do you want to play in AFI?"

He is an amazing musician. He did a lot of song writing on Snapcase’s last album, Progression Through Unlearning, so if he brings any of his creative talents, it’ll make AFI that much more interesting. He’s a great guy and he’s straight edge – like myself – and he sang four years of choir in high school, like myself. And he loves to tour, just like we do.

Oh, my God. They did so, so much for us. So much. They got us our first show at Gilman Street. They took us on tour in Canada. They have helped us out in so many ways. Adam inherited a drum set from Brett Reed, and Lint tried to get us record deals. They would come the studio when we were recording and help us out. Matt has done tons of stuff for us and Lars produced a couple of songs. Without Rancid we wouldn’t have gotten our show at Gilman Street, we wouldn’t have toured Canada, Stormy Shepherd wouldn’t be our booking agent. We owe so much to them. They even wore our patch in the "Salvation" video and Lint spray painted AFI on the MTV set. They’re the best.

Touring with Sick Of It All – that was most fun I’ve ever had touring. It’s really no different. It’s just like touring with the best Hardcore band in the world. Their shows were rad, the kids were hard core kids, there were very few MTV kids, if any, a few metal kids and a couple of tough guys. It was like touring with some of the raddest, nicest people you’ll ever know. Sick Of It All are so fucking awesome. Touring with the Offspring was bizarre. It was something I’d never experienced before. They treated us wonderfully. They were a huge band before they signed to a major. It was a really great experience to play to that many people and I expected them to hate us, to be dumbfounded, and in a lot of cases they were. When you play the Offspring crowd, you get a lot of people who are there just to see the Offspring, because they heard the songs on the radio. But at the same time, you get a lot of kids who are "whoa! What is this?" The Offspring carried our equipment for us on their trucks. They’d let us eat all their food. I slept on the bus a couple of times. Occasionally, they would have rooms in lavish hotels that they wouldn’t need, so we got to stay in them. We had a really good time with them. We played two nights in Vegas and hung out and gambled with them. It’ll be rad to go to Japan with them next month.

Our first show is on the fifteenth – our record release at the Trocadero in San Francisco with Good Riddance, the Force, and Fury 66. I’m kind of nervous, I hope people will come. So we’re doing that, and then we play Chico the next day. As far as the tour was originally planned we would go to the East Coast for five weeks and do the last week across the West Coast with Shelter. But now we are going to Japan. So, we’ll just go for two weeks in the States. The tour ends on the thirtieth, so we’ll drive back to Berkeley and regroup for a couple of days and then get on the plane to Japan. I have to admit, I am very disappointed to not be touring with H20 and Shelter. Hopefully, we’ll get to make up those dates later.

The worst yet best show ever was in Toronto, the last time we were in Canada. The bouncers were being ridiculous – they were really roughing up these kids to the extent that we kept having to stop performing and reprimand the bouncers. At one point, I was telling a bouncer to leave this kid alone and this huge guy responds by slapping this little punk kid. Fuckin’ hit him right in the face, he fell back. I lose control, I’m freaked out and I told the audience, "this guy just slapped one of you. Get him." So the bouncers fled, and 700 kids started attacking them, the promoters were all over the stage. The show was going to end – it was fucked. I gained composure and apologized to the crowd, to the bouncers over the PA and told the kids what I said was really stupid, and not to hurt anybody. We started playing again, and the rest of the show was all for one, one for all. There was no security, so the kids had to watch out for each other. Our last song, the stage was just packed with 200 kids, singing along. When the show was over, the bouncers locked me in the dressing room, about four of them. They were threatening to kill me, breaking bottles and holding them up to my face. I almost got killed; it was one of the most frightening experiences of my life.

Our previous record release show at the Trocadero; our last show at Gilman Street; playing the Fillmore with Rancid and Redemption 87; getting to play with Sick Of It All and Snapcase for weeks on end was one of the best experiences ever. Seeing Sick Of It All in New York was so much fun. I was in heaven, it was insane. The dance floor was super-rad. I thought to myself, ‘Sick Of It All, New York, I’m not going anywhere near it.’ Funny thing, the kids in New York, that’s their dancing, they know how to do it. They were totally not violent, everyone was having a good time.

(Laughs)Exactly, kids representing their style.

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