Billy Bragg played the Somerville Theater last week. He channels folk great Woody Guthrie with a punk rock sensibility, and riffs on Johnny Clash (Johnny Cash meets the Clash). He dedicated his concert to the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. Billy Bragg is European and we don’t usually like foreigners lecturing us on their ideas of illegal wars, but his country Britain sent troops to Iraq so he’s allowed.
Bragg offered three principal criticisms of the United States:
(1) We got the red state, blue state thing wrong. Red is the color of Labour, blue is the color of the Conservatives.
(2) Football is a game that the rest of the world plays with a soccer ball.
(3) We are foolish not to have universal health care.
As you may guess the evening quickly devolved into a musical Obama rally with speeches from the artist as well as music. But if anything Billy Bragg tried to dampen enthusiasm. Think how amazing it is for a black to even get the nomination. Don’t give up hope if Barack doesn’t win. Don’t get cynical if he does win and it takes longer than eight years to accomplish everything that needs to be done. Boston, don’t take the World Series for granted.
The opening act was The Watson Twins. They have a quiet Louisville sound by way of the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles. Chandra did gush a little too long for her sister Leigh’s comfort about how great it was to tour with Billy Bragg. Or maybe it was Leigh that did the gushing and Chandra that did the hushing. Who can tell, they are identical twins.
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