D.O.A. brings their hardcore sound to London

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Thirty years since their debut album, Something Better Change, Vancouver hardcore originators D.O.A. have been keeping things loud, fast and surprisingly original.

"You've got to come up with new ideas and keep people interested, and show that you've still got your brain working and you're not just going through the motions," said the band's frontman, political activist, writer and former Green Party candidate Joey "Shithead" Keithley, during a phone interview from his home out west. "Otherwise you become one of these revues, like when you see Crowbar and Prism and Trooper all playing, the classic rock type thing."

Keithley puts his money where his mouth is. Since 1980, the band has released 18 full-length albums (including one live album), countless 7" singles and they've contributed to several compilations. It's a huge catalogue of material to choose from, and their set list for the October 5 show at Call the Office is likely to run the gamut.

As Keithley said, "I have my favourites and that's generally what we play live. There are some songs I haven't listened to for a long time, and I put them back on and I'm like, 'Oh yeah, that's pretty good!' But I hadn't thought about that song for five, 10, 15 years."

Forgetting the songs altogether is another worry. "Some of them, I have to sit down with the record and I'm like, 'How does that go?'"

Luckily, retracing his steps usually isn't hard. Defined by the minimal use of chord structure, fast beats and words that are generally more shouted than sung, D.O.A.'s music is simplistic and primal with a political edge, also reasons for the band's status as a cult favourite amongst hardcore and punk fans.

In fact, D.O.A. played a significant role in the development of west coast hardcore music, even providing the genre's namesake with their sophomore release, Hardcore '81. Alongside bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat, they helped to pioneer the angrier branch of punk rock, incorporating heavier guitars and faster drum beats. D.O.A. also maintained a firm political agenda, writing songs about police brutality and rebelling against symbols of the conservative right wing, like Ronald Reagan.

"Some come (to D.O.A's concerts) to listen to the music because they like the groove or because they like the politics or because it's a party," said Keithley of the band's fans. "If you can get up there and inspire people and go as hard at it as you can, you get that back from the crowd and it's a thrill."

But for all its brashness, lack of poetics and beer-stained dance floors, hardcore punk rock like D.O.A. has more recently taken a turn toward the intellectual. A few years ago, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C. began a catalogue of old Canadian punk memorabilia, and with punk-turnedprofessors like Bad Religion's Greg Graffin, Keithley has come to see North America embrace punk's grittiness as more than a passing fad.

"Whether people realize it or not, within a small percentage of people involved, there was always an intellectual edge to (punk rock) and there were people who thought all this stuff through quite a bit, instead of coming from a reactive type background or acting that way (in response) to what society was doing. I think with punk rock, because it's an extraordinary fit of anti-establishment anarchy and that it was different than a lot of types of music, that's why ... it's getting its due."

With his newfound respectability, Keithley leapt into politics in 1996, running as a Green Party candidate in British Columbia's provincial elections. But after two long campaigns, he resigned to spend the greater part of his time working for Sudden Death Records (Keithley's own creation) and writing, playing and touring with D.O.A.

After 30 years of it, he's still not bored.

"To me ... what separates D.O.A. from a lot of other bands is that there's a feeling of nostalgia with (our music), but in my mind, … being progressive has stopped D.O.A. from becoming a nostalgia act and there's a huge difference there."

So check out D.O.A. at Call the Office on Tuesday, October 5, and experience both the old and the new. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.