[02/05/2025] Dead Kennedys on tour this year

Recently, during my routine doomscrolling on instagram, I was hit with a usual targetted ad. Usually these either feed off my insecurities, or feed into my interests. This time, in was more so the latter, being an advertisement for a Dead Kennedys show in Philidelphia. Immediately I was intrigued, also a bit confused in all honesty. For those unaware, Dead Kennedys is a punk rock band, that was acive in the years 1978-1986. They are usually considered of the "staple" or defining punk bands, at the times they were active, and even still to this day. You'll still catch a good amount of modern day punks sporting their DK patches and blasting "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" or "Holiday in Cambodia". In short, they remain fairly popular to this day, even though theyre initial run only lasted around 8 years.

Curiously, I clicked on the ad. It was legit, they're still preforming and touring the east coast this spring. Around $40 a ticket, not too horrible. Im a pretty regular DK listener, but when it comes to me and music, I dont always research a ton regarding the artist. Sure, I know some of the basics, but have never delved too deep into this specific band. I assumed they had disbanded (which they had), and just remained an important and influential band in the punk scene, specifically in America. Which is all true, but what actually happened? How did we end up here? How did this anti-corporation band end up morphing into a sponsored ad, and sliding its way into my instagram algorithim?

Of course, I have no ability to form my own opinion, so I went to the perfect place to form any type of thought for me- Reddit. A bit surprisingly (or maybe not, since they are an older band), r/DeadKennedys was a bit of a dead subreddit (pun not intended, but I'll role with it). But I did manage to find posts regarding them touring in 2021, which is somewhat recent. Most Dk fans, perhaps maybe more so the older fans who were there for their "prime", held a bit of negative views on the direction of the band as of now.

Not so surprisingly, the band does not consist of all of the original members, which is not too odd. A band that formed decades ago usually does not keep all of the founding bandmates, not neccisarily because of some feud or something, they just usually go their seperate ways eventually, swapping out members every so often. But in this case, it's maybe a little different, or more controversial. Dead Kennedys, to me, is loved for their unique vocals and clever lyrics. But, after the band disbanded in 1986, and reforming in 2001, lead vocalist Jello Biafra was not involved in the band any more. Stuff like this has happened before, sure- a lot of bands have lost their lead vocalists for any type of reason, and as a result had to get a replacement. But in this case, it gets a little rocky. A lot of conflict between members, including legal disputes, and also a fair share of critisism from fans and onlookers alike. An obscenity lawsuit regarding a piece of artwork (which is known as "Penis Landscape"-a pretty solid piece imo) as the insert of their album "Frankenchrist", a royalties lawsuit regarding the members being underpaid by their record label, conflict regarding commercial use of their songs, as well as Jellos general distaste for nostalgic reunion tours (which he believes are driven by greed), its no surprise he did not join them when they began preforming and re-realeasing albums around 2001. Jello has been open about his feeling towards the bands current state- calling them "the worlds greediest karaoke band". He's even released a song, in collabortion with Melvins, titled "Those Dumb Punk Kids (Will Buy Anything)", which criticizes the reformed band. Heres a glimpse of the lyrics, for context:

Reunions for wrong reasons
Playing only songs from the good old days
About how bad the good old days were
So why not us? We dont even like this stuff no more
But look at all that retro-racket cash
Those dumb punk kids will buy anything
We'll sue the guy who wrote the songs
So we can sell them into commercials
Steal the name and hit the road
Trashing all our band stood for
We wont rehearse, sound worse
Dig up some old child star
Who never learns the words
Hey, we're back
Show us how much you care
The merch booth's right over there
Buy! Buy!!
And if our scam works
What a bandwagon it will be

The song even directly name drops them towards the end, alongside other bands, basically accusing them all of being "sell outs". Ironically, Jello himself has been accused of being a "sellout" in 1994 at a club in Berkeley, with the perpentrators pushing him to the ground saying "Sellout rockstar, kick him!". This actually left him hospitalized, as he recieved major injuries from the attack.

Well, now that we have a pretty simpified backstory, what do the fans of DK have to say about this whole situation? Obviously, theres still a large amount of people who will attend Dead Kennedys concerts (or "Dead Kennedys Karaoke Band" as many disgruntled fans call them). Some do so in support of the band, regardless of their switch in singers, and others mostly just for the experience as a whole. I mean, people attend actual cover band shows, so its not too shocking that people go possibly just to get fucked up and swing at people in a pit. Most OG fans will agree though that DK is not the band they once were, and whether they engage in these nostaligic shows or not, things obviously have changed a lot.

So that being said, will I be participating in this controversial, possibly money-hungry (according to the free-thinkers of reddit), $40 a head concert? Probably not. I'm glad I've done research on the history and "falling out" of one of my favorite OG punk bands, it was very interesting to delve into. And with all that sweet, delectable knowledge fresh in my almost developed brain, I choose to sustain from such an event. Not really because of all the drama, but more so due to my inability to leave my house without being overcome with a sense of soul crushing dread. Dread rooted in the fact that the world is fucked, all my favorite celebrities are fucked, and I am too, in fact, fucked.

Actually, its not that deep. I'm just a lazy POS. Womp womp.