It's not every band that can draw a large crowd on a weeknight concert, but Pantera's show was not just any show. It featured up and coming bands Skrape and Static X as well as old heads Slayer and Morbid Angel, all dedicated to making some eardrums bleed.
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In the parking lot, a small number of racist skinheads and neo-nazis were present. The umbrella neo-nazi group, National Alliance, has been using Pantera concerts as a recruiting vehicle to reach out to angry youth. Their promotional crew didn't appear to present in Long Beach, but the ARA showed up anyway.
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Pantera fans are all over the map politically, as evidenced by a number of tee shirts for bands like Nausea and Phobia which stood in sharp contrast to the confederate flags present (a provacative symbol employed by the headliners from the South). Some genres of metal, in case anyone wasn't paying attention, have been politically radical for the last ten years, and some of the most radical messages are delivered with extreme music. Despite this diversity, many fans still felt they were being branded as \"racists\" by the ARA leafletters. A little explanation generally cleared things up.
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Most people, however, were happy to get the information. The nazis, it seems, are still considered fairly marginal, unfriendly element at the events.<\/p>\n","contact":"johnk@woodstock.com","link":"http:\/\/www.antiracistaction.org\/","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"A small ad-hoc ARA leafletted at the Pantera concert in Long Beach, in response to reports of flyering by the National Alliance. The fans were generally receptive and anti-racist.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2001\/07\/8773.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}