Pennywise has found a new location for its free concert on today (June 19) after West Hollywood, California authorities thwarted the group’s plan for an outdoor show because of the confrontational tone of its new single,’ “F-k Authority.”
The local punk veterans will now perform indoors at the House Of Blues, just blocks down the Sunset Strip from the original, planned location-the parking lot of Tower Records.
Other details remain the same-set time will be at 3 p.m. and tickets are available on a first-come basis to those who purchase Pennywise’s new album, Land Of The Free?, when it goes on sale at Tower Records this morning.
City authorities originally cited the inflammatory nature of the group’s single “F-k Authority” as the reason for pulling the plug on the public event, according to Pennywise. However, Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge tells LAUNCH that police are now changing their story, instead citing crowd-control difficulties at a recent show at the nearby Key Club. But Dragge counters, “It was probably one of the tamest Pennywise shows ever.”
Dragge tells LAUNCH that the band is “disappointed” over the city’s decision, adding, “We were really looking forward to doing something cool for our fans.” He also points out the irony of the situation. “The song just says, you know, ‘We’re living, we’re dying, we’re never gonna stop trying, it’s time that we had our say.’ So it’s like, you know, we want our voice heard. And, once again the authority figures are saying, ‘Sorry, we don’t want to hear your voice and we don’t want anyone else to hear it, so go inside these walls and close the doors and do your thing in there and we don’t have to worry about you.’ And that’s the whole point of the song, it’s like, we want people to protest, we want people to get out there and talk, we people to write their congressman or their senator,” he says
Pennywise appears on the Vans Warped Tour, which kicks off Friday (June 22) in Phoenix.
