Against Me!

Starting as the punk-rock solo act of Tom Gabel, Against Me! has embodied the best end of every recent punk-rock cliché. Gabel is a vegan who early on played acoustic punk protest music. He lived in a communal house, got by dumpster diving, worked with Food Not Bombs and has...

By Tom Murphy

May 22, 2012

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Starting as the punk-rock solo act of Tom Gabel, Against Me! has embodied the best end of every recent punk-rock cliché. Gabel is a vegan who early on played acoustic punk protest music. He lived in a communal house, got by dumpster diving, worked with Food Not Bombs and has the perfect military-family background as a legitimate basis for rejecting the least-savory aspects of a society that some people would hold to his nose, telling him to get with the program. And somehow he became successful with a band performing melodic, anthemic songs with real content. In perhaps his ultimate act of protest against society, Gabel recently revealed his decision to finally go through with gender reassignment surgery. Next time you see him perform, it will be as Laura Jane Grace.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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Twitter: @simianthinker