A new iteration of legendary rock band Black Flag has announced they will be returning to live performances in 2019. The band is scheduled to play at the Sobroso Festival in California this upcoming Spring, which will be the group’s first live performance in 5 years. Last time Black Flag performed was after the release of the band’s first album in decades, What The…, in 2013. Shortly after the release of that album, the previous iteration of Black Flag mainly disbanded and its members went on to work on other projects. Now after 5 years of silence, Greg Ginn has brought the band back together again in 2019.
Black Flag has had one of the more interesting histories in rock music, with the group being reincarnated a variety of times over the past few decades. Originally founded in the 1970s by Greg Ginn, the first form of Black Flag went on to release 6 major studio albums before disbanding in 1986. These albums are what created the iconic group and set the stage for the confusing history to follow. Over the course of its original run, Black Flag had a variety of different members and an ever-changing lineup of performers. This included incredibly influential members such as Henry Rollins, Dez Cadena and Chuck Dukowski. The band would be disbanded after the constant membership changes and a series of difficulties between performers created too heavy of rifts for the group to continue.
The first reformation of Black Flag took place in 2003, when Ginn and a few other members performed a series of shows in California. The shows were the first live performances done under the name Black Flag since the breakup of the group, and were the first time singer and professional skateboarder Mike Vallely would join the Black Flag roster. Following this, various former members performed Black Flag songs at different shows, but no official reincarnation of the band would be made for some years later.
In 2013, however, Greg Ginn and former vocalist Ron Reyes announced they would be part of an official reunion of Black Flag and would be releasing the group’s first new official music since the 1980s. The album, titled What The…, was not well received and Reyes left the group soon afterwards. Ginn then got Mike Vallely to replace him and the modern version of Black Flag was born. Around the same time Black Flag was recreated, a variety of other former members joined together under the name Flag to perform old Black Flag songs. This led to tension and a variety of lawsuits between the two, with the courts ultimately deciding that Flag was allowed to use the name as it was not infringement on Black Flag’s copyrights. The official Black Flag stopped performing after their 2013 tour, but it seems they will once again take to the stage in 2019. In addition to the Sobroso Festival show that has been announced, Ginn stated that other tour dates would be announced soon.
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