On this weekend's five band bill at Monarch Tavern, two of them sing exclusively in Farsi. Kasra Goodarznezhad is a Toronto based Iranian artist and lead singer of the hardcore Iranian punk band Siyahkal. They are joined by Eteraz another Iranian punk band from Olympia, Washington and fronted by Elika Nakhaee.<\/p>\n
To the knowledge of Kasra and Elika, they are the only two punk bands in North America that sing in Farsi. Originally, both did not intend to sing in Farsi, but eventually chose to sing for similar reasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur bassist Liam was saying \u2018yeah, you should sing in Farsi and Declan from our band was like, \u2018 yeah you should do it\u2019 and I\u2019m the only Iranian in the band, I think I was just stoked to do it,\u201d says Kasra.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to highlight where I\u2019m from and bring that more into the punk community,\u201d says Elika. \u201cI moved up to Seattle ten years ago from Los Angeles, where a lot of my family is, and since being up here I don\u2019t really have an Iranian community. I thought it would be a good way for me to not forget my language.\u201d<\/p>\n
Named after the Siahkal Incident of 1971 where 13 guerillas were executed after killing three policemen to free two of their comrades, Siyahkal the band keeps up the anti-government sentiment. Songs like Beshin Paasho\/ \u0628\u0634\u06cc\u0646 \u067e\u0627\u0634\u0648\u00a0 on their 2016 Sagzani demo\/\u0633\u200b\u06af\u200b\u200c\u200b\u0632\u200b\u0646\u200b\u06cc<\/a> comment on police brutality with the lyrics \u201csit down, stand up, arrest, cuff, kill, beat up, smile, die.\u201d<\/p>\n