Thursday, July 03, 2008

The recently reformed (in more ways than one) Filter will perform at the Avalon Theater Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Richard Patrick, frontman of the industrial rock band Filter, is bitter, and it's not just because he's having a case of the Mondays.

"I'm embarrassed at being a human, a part of this species," he said on a recent Monday morning. "We're a flawed species. We're still closer to apes than humans."

Patrick has re-formed Filter after a five-year hiatus, and, though newly sober, he is still as anguished as the guy who wrote the nihilistic hits "Hey Man, Nice Shot" and "Take a Picture."

The band is touring behind "Anthems for the Damned," an album Patrick said reflects his anger and shame about being part of a culture that engages in war to solve problems.

The first, aggressive single, "Soldiers of Misfortune," was written not only as a response to a band member deployed to Iraq, but as a tribute to a fan who set up the first Filter fan site years ago. That fan was killed as a soldier after only 10 days in Iraq, Patrick said.

The singer is upset more artists aren't writing about the war. "I'm the only protest album out there," he said.

Opiate for the Masses opens, after recently finishing work on its new full-length album, "Manifesto." The band could be best described as Alice In Chains meets Prodigy.

Tickets are $16 at SmithsTix.

Here's "Soldiers of Misfortune":