Propagandhi @ the Troc (3/14)

“See, many of you think I’m a vegan. I’m here to tell you that that is no longer true. I now believe in eating free range human beings.”

There are only a few places that this statement would elicit applause and cheers of approval, one of which being the Trocadero Theatre in Philadelphia, on Mar. 14, where Chris Hannah stirred the crowd into an uproar with one of his only bits of between song banter. He had a lot to live up to, after all, as Propagandhi’s avid willingness to spread their radical rhetoric had earned them a bit of notoriety - not to mention that they had not been to the east coast in nearly eight years. “Yeah, I believe that the way humans live is the most humane method of raising edible livestock.”

This tongue-in-cheek aside led the band into their newest testament of veganism, “Human(e) Meat." The cut was one of the handful the band played off of their newest full-length, Supporting Caste, which Hannah also managed to comment on. “We have a new record out, and I can tell by the drooling faces during the new songs that you don’t all have it yet.”

The band’s history is a long and progressive one, beginning with 1993’s How To Clean Everything. While the band’s politics and belief systems that have remained unchanged throughout its career, the sonic aesthetic is something that followers of the band’s entire catalogue will find suddenly veers. How To Clean Everything and its follow-up, Less Talk, More Rock, were politically confrontational while being aggressive, though in a more standard, less technical way than later records would soon unveil. After the departure of bassist John K. Samson, a new era of Propagandhi was ushered in, seemingly with the addition of secondary vocalist and songwriter Todd Kowalski, and the three albums that followed have confirmed Propagandhi as both one of the world’s most talented and politically involved bands.

Supporting Caste, the band’s fifth proper studio album, falling conveniently into place within the second era of the band that began with 2001’s Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes, and continued in 2005 with Potemkin City Limits. The album begins in pummeling fashion, with pinpoint rhythms and dense riffs, added to by the band’s newest addition, second guitar player David “The Beaver” Guillas. Kowalski’s lyrics reference a friend working the night shift on a dangerous side of town, and Hannah’s flair for short arpeggiated guitar leads shines through.

The album’s title track begins the intense political metaphor and imagery for which the band is known, aligning the end of the world with the rolling credits of a terrible film, citing that the only way one will be featured would be to have been a “shepherd king, a virgin birth, a resurrection, a messianic prince or some such childish thing.” Hannah’s lyrics read like a well informed rant written in prose, creating readable paragraphs within the songs that twist and bend to rhyme and fill in the holes between elaborate musical passages.

“Dear Coach’s Corner” finds the band in top melodic form while relating the still scathing commentary of the lyrics to something as simple and seemingly politically neutral as hockey. Hannah spends the song questioning the need and purpose of pre game rituals that he compares to the rallies at Nuremburg. “Specifically the function the ritual serves in conjunction with what everybody knows is in the end a kid’s game. I’m just appealing to your sense of fair play when I say she’s puzzled by the incessant pressure for her to not defy the collective will, and yellow ribboned lapels, as the soldiers inexplicably rappel down from the arena rafters.”

The introduction of the song is a blazing mix of quick chord changes and a nicely placed lead, all dissolving into a single strummed clean guitar pattern while Hannah’s lyrics take center stage.

The album’s crowning gem, however, is “Human(e) Meat," which piles every element that Propagandhi has become known for into one solid rager that details the way in which the band would dissect and consume cook book author and chef Sandor Katz. “With gratitude and tenderness I singed every single hair from his body, gently placed his decapitated head in a stock pot, boiled off his flesh and made a spread-able head cheese." The band’s passion for animal activism shines through in stunning light on this track, mocking those who claim to gain some sort of pseudo spiritual connection through meat. “Because I believe that one can only relate with another living creature by completely destroying it."

Though Propagandhi have long stood for a strict rhetoric of political beliefs, the same can not always be said for their fans, as can be attested to by recent tour-mate Andy Nelson, bassist for Philadelphia’s Paint It Black. “It's been eye opening to tour with Propagandhi [just to see] how many people aren't politically conscious, and that's not a knock on the band, it's just a testament to the fact that they put out pop punk records on Fat [Wreck Chords] in the '90s."

This does not seem to deplete the band’s impact in Nelson’s eyes, however. “[Paint It Black doesn't] take the stand that political punk can change the world in and of itself, but it definitely changed me as a person, and it changed a lot of people. Certainly people make a difference in the world. Propagandhi was a band I'm sure a lot of people see as a band that shapes the way that we think and the way we view the world."- Justin Lutz