Non-Violent, Direct Action
In some circles, footy and indie rock go hand in glove. Tim Rogers and Dallas Crane regularly attend it, community radio types sometimes play it and Spiderbait’s bi-polar confusion is well documented. But there’s still a yawning cultural divide between the bedroom pop dabbler and the square-jawed jocks that ‘live the game’, Gerard Whately notwithstanding.
The Assassination Collective perceive no such conflict. ‘If footy were free’, (or perhaps if the concession price was wound back to the early 90s bargain of $1.70), a half-time people’s revolution apparently wouldn’t be out of the question. Unrest at AFL games isn’t unprecedented. Who could forget the spontaneous ‘riot’ half way though a Round 10 Essendon v. St. Kilda clash a few years back? If only TAC (not the Collingwood sponsor) could siphon all that revolutionary zeal in the right direction! Not convinced? It really doesn’t matter.
- The Assassination Collective
- If Footy was Free
With The Message obvious from the start, the subsequent ranting on ‘If Footy was Free’ might seem like filler. But listen hard.
“You try so hard to be a trouble-making creep, muffled conversations put the AFP to sleep.”
In fact, I’m sickeningly in lust with all 7 couplets here (including an unprecedented reference to “People’s War” as a preposition-less animate object). There’s even tacked-on crowd noise for fuck’s sake. And doodling, fun-time keys. And a ballsy bottom end which roughly aligns them with acolytes Jihad Against America and True Radical Miracle.
Now, deep in Melbs’ cricket season, shivering through another light-beer assisted 3rd quarter at the ‘G is all but a distant memory. And even if oiled-up willow hasn’t completely commandeered the weekend, the Australian Open/Ugly Betty cross-promotion bubble most definitely will. But TAC are gigging regularly and while I’m unsure about the guitarist’s enthusiastic endorsement of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as a general rule, any self-depreciating piss takers on the non-orthodox Left deserve both hearty encouragement and heavy audience participation.