The WTO Band Performed In Politically Charged Concert

Concert review

The WTO Band, Wednesday night, the Showbox.

The thick smoke rose not from gas canisters, but cigarettes.

The bullets fired were not rubber, but verbal.

"The battle of Seattle is a shot heard 'round the world," proclaimed Jello Biafra, a San Francisco radical musician who came to Seattle to front The WTO Band.

With the core of Seattle in shutdown mode Wednesday night, the only entertainment downtown was at the Showbox. And what unusual entertainment it turned out to be, a rally that was as musically striking as it was politically charged.

Flanked by grunge gods Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), former Dead Kennedys singer Biafra - the Bob Dylan of the punk generation - bellowed a hail of invectives. The targets were the usual suspects: the WTO, Microsoft, corporate America. Biafra's jabs, both spoken and sung, brought hoots of pleasure from a like-minded crowd of 500.

Many in the crowd had surely been protesting much of the week; some chatted between sets about their protest plans for the next day. This concert had moments of comic relief, albeit black comedy. Perhaps the most profound statement came when Novoselic ironically donned a gas mask; the crowd laughed and roared, but it was also a chilling visual.

Biafra, as usual, spewed out no-prisoners satire, savage yet clever. With Novoselic's bass, Thayil's guitar and Gina Mainwall's drums joining for a low groove, the 41-year-old Biafra started the

set with a spoken-word monologue: "What can we say about these past few days, besides the people have spoken? . . . The insurrection has begun!"

During the brief (approximately 40 minutes), explosive show, Biafra and company performed two new, pointed songs: "New Feudalism" and "Electronic Plantation." Both were predictably anti-capitalism and played at breakneck, punk speed.

The biggest surprise was how polished it sounded, with Novoselic, Thayil and Mainwall playing furiously and seamlessly, both on the new songs and a few Dead Kennedys songs from the '80s - a reminder of grunge's punk roots.

After Biafra surfed the crowd, Novoselic closed the show by pushing the gas mask up to his forehead and leading a "No, no, WTO" chant.

The headliner of the show - originally scheduled for Tuesday night, but postponed due to the confusion of the first night's curfew - was Spearhead, the political hip-hop crew led by Michael Franti. But it was clear who the stars of the show were, as many left after The WTO Band finished.