Were it not for AFI’s past two records, the California punk band would still be relegated to hardcore clubs.
Instead, the band, now under the sub-genre of pop-hardcore, is playing to thousands. Its current tour hits the Fillmore Auditorium on Tuesday in support of its seventh record, “Decemberunderground.”
So what happened since 2000’s “The Art of Drowning”? All answers point to “Girl’s Not Grey,” the killer single off AFI’s 2003 disc, “Sing the Sorrow.” It was “Girl’s Not Grey” that changed everything for AFI, a.k.a. A Fire Inside. Produced by Butch Vig and Jerry Finn, the track took the hardcore the kids loved and made it safe for radio by injecting it with a little pop music that never failed to rock.
The move was central to AFI’s coming out of the rock clubs and into theaters, auditoriums and amphitheaters. And while some begrudge the band its newfound success, the jump multiplied AFI’s fan base exponentially.
So it makes sense that AFI continued with that formula for the follow-up to “Sing the Sorrow.” Singer Davey Havok said in press materials: ” ‘Decemberunderground’ is a time and a place. It is where the cold can huddle together in darkness and isolation. It is a community of those detached and disillusioned who flee to love, like winter, in the recesses below the rest of the world.” While he’s trying to evoke the misunderstood spirit of the underground, this is the widest swing at mainstream, above-ground rock success AFI has ever made.
Nowhere is that more evident than the album’s condescending single, “Miss Murder,” which is as watered-
down as pop-punk gets (which is saying a lot). It’s sad to hear AFI so playing to The Man, but at least that attitude doesn’t dominate the entire record.
“Affliction” is a song that better nails that meld of old and new, hard and soft, screaming and singing, dirge and melody, hardcore and pop. The song is interesting musically with the constant changes (key, time signature) that have always made AFI’s music challenging.
Havok’s vocals are the most curious element of “Affliction.” It’s almost as if his multiple personalities are duking it out on a battlefield of bizarrely melodic self-hatred.
Getting the most exposure here is Havok’s nasal singing voice, which can be a dead-on imitation of Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong: “Oh I will be alright/Just use me/The future’s bright without me.” His literate hardcore growl is in there too: “World is unified/Ennui and I divide.” Surprising are the traces of Zack de la Rocha, the former Rage Against the Machine frontman, and his rap-rock: “Were you holding hands when my wrists bled?”
It’s a potent blend, one that finds AFI successfully making it across the crossover crossroads. But where this road will lead, nobody knows.
AFI plays the Fillmore Auditorium on Tuesday. The show starts at 7:30 and also features The Dillinger Escape Plan and Nightmare of You. Tickets are sold out, but last-minute releases will be available via ticketmaster.com or 303-830-8497.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
