15th Annual Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival
May 24-27, 2013
Downtown Las Vegas, NV
Initial Lineup Revealed; Many More Bands To Be Announced
Bowling Registration and Hotel Rooms Are Now Available
at www.punkrockbowling.com
Festival Weekend Passes On Sale Tues. Jan. 29, 2013 at 1 p.m. PST
$105 For All 3 days
Punk Rock Bowling was started back in 1999 as a way to bring the independent music community together for an annual party. It has since grown into a four day festival in downtown Las Vegas that brings out fans and bands alike from all over the world. Now in its 15th year, more than 8,000 punk rock music lovers flock to Las Vegas to partake in the “biggest punk rock party of the year!”
Three days and four nights of outdoor festivals and late night club shows overtake the Downtown Fremont East District with more than 70 bands performing throughout the weekend, many special guests, reunions and rare appearances. With 1,000 punk rock bowlers competing for over $15,000 in prize money during the day, over 1,000 downtown hotel rooms, pool parties, comedy shows and a poker tournament, this is a marathon party that never stops in the City Of Sin.
“Being fans of music ourselves, we like to take all the things we dislike about festivals and eliminate them from our event,” says festival organizer Stern. “We want this to be a big party and we want everyone to have a great time. We offer good food with vegan and vegetarian options, and our drinks are probably half the price of most festivals. We also limit the capacity so it still sounds great and because our audience are such die hard fans of punk rock, we have little to no problems in the crowd. It’s like one big family enjoying a debauchery filled weekend in Las Vegas like any normal family! Ha!”
This year, organizers are very excited to announce the initial lineup for the 15th Annual Punk Rock Bowling and Music Festival which will feature one of the first full performances of none other than the godfathers of west coast punk rock themselves! Taking their cue from the black flag of anarchy, let us present FLAG. Long may they wave. Featuring original members Keith Morris (vocals), Chuck Dukowski (bass), Bill Stevenson (drums 1981-1985) along with SST labelmate and Descendents guitarist Stephen Egerton (guitar) performing the music of Black Flag.
The festival is also very honored to have, for their very first time at PRB, preeminent punk band BAD RELIGION, who will be releasing their new album True North Jan. 22 on Epitaph Records. In a world still brimming with rampant anti intellectualism, inequality and oppression, the band’s signature brand of sonically charged humanist dissent seems as relevant as ever. A free download of the new song “Fuck Off” is available here. http://emailunlock.com/epitaph-records/bad-religion-f-you/
Also appearing, one of the pioneers of British punk rock, THE DAMNED, Hardcore innovators D.R.I, UK’s politically charged SUBHUMANS, ’90s pop punk phenomena LAGWAGON, New Jersey’s lovable BOUNCING SOULS, San Francisco’s finest street punks SWINGIN UTTERS, and Texas’ LOWER CLASS BRATS. This is just the beginning, with more bands to be announced.
Bowling Registration and Hotel Rooms Are Now Available at www.punkrockbowling.com
Festival Weekend Passes On Sale Tues. Jan. 29, 2013 @ 1pm PST
$105 For All 3 days
About Flag (original members Keith Morris, Chuck Dukowski and Bill Stevenson, with Stephen Egerton performing the music of Black Flag):
On Jan. 27, 1979, at a Moose Lodge in Redondo Beach, California, Black Flag took the stage for the first time. Whipping up as much meat energy as possible, they didn’t so much play songs as create rapid-fire, rhythmic drives. Everything was short. Stripped-down. A wall of distortion, built on a relentless series of riffs. And vocalist Keith Morris ran around the stage like an escaped lunatic, eventually wrapping himself in one of the venue’s American flags like it was a straitjacket. It was hardcore punk-rock before anyone ever started calling it that. It was great. You could ask anyone who was there.
Although Black Flag’s line-up — Morris, bassist Chuck Dukowski, guitarist Greg Ginn, and drummer Robo — would splinter within a year, the band’s ever-shifting membership released a half-dozen LPs (including the now-classic Damaged, My War, and Slip It In), two live albums, two compilations (Everything Went Black and The First Four Years), and several EPs that incorporated heavy metal, free jazz, and break-beats into the mix before they finally imploded in 1986.
Along the way, Black Flag wrote dozens of enduring songs, ranging from the sarcastic (“TV Party” and the Morris co-write “Wasted”) to the anthemic (“Rise Above” and the Dukowski-authored “My War”) to “Gimme Gimme Gimme” and “Nervous Breakdown.” Black Flag also headlined sold-out shows at L.A.’s Olympic Auditorium, the Hollywood Palladium, and the Santa Monica Civic, and saw an early live performance immortalized in the ground-breaking 1979 punk-rock documentary, The Decline Of Western Civilization.
Meanwhile, Dukowski served as co-owner and booking agent at the band’s own SST Records label, which became one of America’s most influential independent labels, issuing more than 100 records from such future stars as the Minutemen, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Hüsker Dü, Bad Brains, and the Meat Puppets, for openers. More importantly, Black Flag and SST’s acts hit the road, building a nationwide touring circuit for indie recording artists that continues to this day. This D.I.Y. ethos, along with the band’s anti-rock-star attitude and refusal to follow any fashion dictates, would be their greatest legacy. At least until Morris, Dukowski, drummer Bill Stevenson (who played in Black Flag from 1981 to 1985), and guitarist Stephen Egerton (who’s been a member of the Stevenson-founded Descendents and ALL since 1985) reunited for a surprise performance at L.A. promoter Goldenvoice’s 30th anniversary concert in December 2011.
Inspired by the crowd’s enthusiastic reaction, Morris (whose post-Black Flag career includes fronting the Circle Jerks and, most recently, hardcore revivalists OFF!), Dukowski (who, after exiting Black Flag in 1983, founded SWA, Würm, United Gang Members, October Faction, and, his current outfit, the Chuck Dukowski Sextet), Stevenson, and Egerton decided to extend the legacy, working up a repertoire of 30 classic Black Flag songs with an eye toward future live performances.
Taking their cue from the black flag of anarchy, they’re calling themselves FLAG. Long may they wave.