“The towers grow and the skies are slowly replaced with the cold gray structures that lay to waste.”
As Miami's outspoken political ska-punk heroes Against All Authority prepare to mark the 25th anniversary of their third album, 24 Hour Roadside Resistance, the band's bassist, Danny Lore, was struck by how relevant their take on the city's changing skyline remains.
Their song “I’m Weak Inside” starts with a stark look at a changing environment that two-and-a-half decades later remains very much in evidence.
"The last time I was in Miami [in 2023], I drove back down to Princeton to see my old high school and stuff," Lore said. "I drove around and, yeah, the skies are totally being replaced, like all of the farmland that was down there that I grew up around is gone."
AAA formed in 1992 in Cutler Bay in Miami-Dade County. Up until 2007, the band toured endlessly with their blend of ska and punk and a strict do-it-yourself ethos, leaving an indelible mark on the punk scene.
That means: you put on your own shows, book your own tours and record your own records.
At one point in the late 80s, AAA's guitarist Joe Koontz and Lore put on a string of shows at Coconut Grove's long-defunct art house theater, the Grove Art Cinema.
But they didn't hold on to the money they made.
" That month we had all those shows, it really kickstarted the scene 'cause we took a hundred percent of the proceeds and we divided it up amongst all the bands that played that night, telling them go and record a demo because Joe and I wanted to start a record label," Lore said. "And then things spiraled after that.""
The group disbanded in 2007. Lore had moved to Gainesville, and they didn't have a drummer.
Koontz said the break was good for them. They were able to figure out their lives and settle. Their transition to working life felt natural, and it was only a matter of time before they got calls to get the band together again.
"I started getting a lot of calls from different people to get the band together, a lot of old friends, and finally, Danny got the call too," Koontz said. "And when we said let's get back together, we figured … let's get back to the old school."
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The band reunited at The Fest, an annual punk rock festival in Gainesville. In 2022, at the festival’s 20th year, AAA performed for the first time in 15 years on the festival’s main stage.
The news of their reunion brought many South Floridians to Gainesville. At the show, the energy in the air was tangible, with joy plastered on every face — from the barricade to the plaza's entrance — as longtime fans exchanged tales of their connection to the group and moshed and skanked to the music.
" You know, we didn't really know what to expect, so it was really cool," Lore said. "There were people that were actually in tears, so that choked us up too."
" It was a little emotional to see a lot of the kids from the scene back then, which are now like these burly men with gray hair standing in the front, and we're like, man, look at all our people here," Koontz said.
AAA celebrates 25 years of their third album, 24 Hour Roadside Resistance at Revolution Live Saturday, Aug. 30. That album was noticeably more aggressive than their previous works.
"We did a full tour with GBH around the whole United States with, which is a legendary, hardcore punk band from the seventies," Koontz said. "That kind of inspired us to write this album a little more harder-edged than the other albums."
The songs tackle everything from police brutality and systemic oppression to surveillance and exploitation — topics which remain alarmingly pertinent.
They came from the experiences of people they knew, and their own personal experiences touring, such as on the song “I Think You Think Too Much”, which recounts the time they got pulled over by authorities going into Canada.
Lore says they were asked how many CDs they had in their van. When he was off by 14 units, they were detained and held for eight hours. All of the band's merchandise, lyric sheets, zines on anti-racist action and equipment were confiscated, he said. They were eventually able to continue with their tour — after buying back all of their items.
" They said that they didn't want us going into their country spreading this anti-government propaganda. They just singled us out," Koontz said.
With the songs on 24 Hour Roadside Resistance finding new life and relevance in 2025, AAA hopes new listeners and fans keep an open mind and stay informed about the future and the changes around them.
" We want people to listen to these songs and think about what's going on today and just open up your eyes and see what's going around in the world around us," Koontz said.
"We're losing a lot of our freedoms right now… We just want these kids to come out to our show and leave inspired and try to make a difference in the community."
IF YOU GO
What: 25th Anniversary of Against All Authority’s 24 Hour Roadside Resistance
Where: Revolution Live, Fort Lauderdale
When: Saturday, August 30
More information can be found here
