Where can I stab myself in the blog.
Last night, I braved the increasingly cold Cleveland temperatures and made my way to the Agora for the Never Sleep Again Tour featuring Hawthorne Heights, Emery, Tickle Me Pink and the Mile After. The Color Fred are also on the tour but had to drop off for a week or so due to unspecified personal issues; it was a bummer for me, because I think TCF are pretty great, and Fred's one of the best dudes ever (true story).
Unfortunately, I missed the Mile After as I had to get my friend Bridget (who is slinging merch for Hawthorne and Emery on this tour) some absurd concoction at Starbucks. (Seriously, her drink had nine words in it -- when I go in there, I just ask for "hot chocolate" and be done with it). I did have to suffer through the majority of Tickle Me Pink's set, however. TMP appear to be the latest in an increasingly long line of "schemo" bands who have absolutely no knowledge or respect for what the current emo scene was built on, and are really nothing more than an arena-rock clone who would cut off their hands to get a chance to open for Buckcherry (y'know, because there would be so much "sweet ass" backstage or something). Take, for example, the lyrics to the band's current single, "Typical":
Compare that to these lyrics from Braid's "(Strawberry Ann) Switzerland," one of my all-time faves:
Call me a "fag" (as Bullets N Octane once did because I condemned their website's wet T-shirt contest for backstage passes), but I am a fan of treating women with respect, and calling them "typical whores" (especially when the majority of your crowd are teenage girls) is just plain ignorant. It doesn't help the cause that the band's vocalist, Sean Kennedy, does this weird yelling thing in the chorus of that song that sounds absolutely atrocious. Woof.
Okay, I've wasted enough words on bad music. Up next were Emery, and while I think they played a bit too much of their new EP, While Broken Hearts Prevail (it's pretty good, but I didn't need to hear, like, five songs off of it), they were tight and got the crowd really moving. "Studying Politics" is still a sweet-ass jam, too.
Hawthorne Heights closed the night out with about an hour's worth of rock, and it was the first time I had seen them since Casey Calvert passed away last year. The experience was sort of surreal; I had seen so many shows by these guys back in 2004 and 2005 when they were first coming up, and got to know them pretty well, but it had been two years since I last saw them onstage and three years since we last hung out. Kinda crazy. We got to catch up before their set and they were pretty much all exactly the same as I remembered: Funny, kind-hearted Midwesterners who counted every blessing imaginable for being able to do what they do for a living.
Their set was about half new stuff from the solid Fragile Future (including "Somewhere In Between," the disc's best track) with a good amount of back catalog scattered into the setlist to please the diehards. The band even went acoustic for a pair of songs, including their tribute to Calvert, "Four Become One," and I'll be damned if it didn't tug at my heartstrings a little more than a Hawthorne Heights song affecting a 26-year-old jaded music editor should.
What really got me, though, was the following stage banter from JT Woodruff before the band ended their set. This is roughly paraphrased, as I didn't have time to write it down word for word, but I'm fairly confident that this is almost spot-on:
It was incredibly surprising to hear a band actually come out and say what most bands think but don't have the guts to speak out about. Kudos to Woodruff for laying it out there when he could've done what most bands do and encourage the downloading of their music (which, honestly, hurts everyone involved with the record -- the band, the label, the producer, you name it).
Was it weird watching Hawthorne Heights play for only a few hundred people instead of a few thousand just two years before? Yeah. Wherever the "cool kids" were last night, it wasn't at the Hawthorne Heights show, that's for sure. But you know what? Let 'em listen to Brokencyde and Millionaires. At least Hawthorne Heights have heart, and they believe in what they're doing, naysayers be damned. Are they the best band in the world? No, and I think they'd be the first people to tell you that. But do they absolutely love every minute of what they do? More than almost any other band I've ever met.
Unfortunately, I missed the Mile After as I had to get my friend Bridget (who is slinging merch for Hawthorne and Emery on this tour) some absurd concoction at Starbucks. (Seriously, her drink had nine words in it -- when I go in there, I just ask for "hot chocolate" and be done with it). I did have to suffer through the majority of Tickle Me Pink's set, however. TMP appear to be the latest in an increasingly long line of "schemo" bands who have absolutely no knowledge or respect for what the current emo scene was built on, and are really nothing more than an arena-rock clone who would cut off their hands to get a chance to open for Buckcherry (y'know, because there would be so much "sweet ass" backstage or something). Take, for example, the lyrics to the band's current single, "Typical":
You can play me like that
It's a matter of fact
You're nothing more than a typical whore
And I won't be your fool anymore
Compare that to these lyrics from Braid's "(Strawberry Ann) Switzerland," one of my all-time faves:
So give me a chance and I promise I'll make it all alright
Give me a chance and I promise we'll make it all worthwhile
Give me a chance and I promise I can make you smile
Did I make you smile?
Call me a "fag" (as Bullets N Octane once did because I condemned their website's wet T-shirt contest for backstage passes), but I am a fan of treating women with respect, and calling them "typical whores" (especially when the majority of your crowd are teenage girls) is just plain ignorant. It doesn't help the cause that the band's vocalist, Sean Kennedy, does this weird yelling thing in the chorus of that song that sounds absolutely atrocious. Woof.
Okay, I've wasted enough words on bad music. Up next were Emery, and while I think they played a bit too much of their new EP, While Broken Hearts Prevail (it's pretty good, but I didn't need to hear, like, five songs off of it), they were tight and got the crowd really moving. "Studying Politics" is still a sweet-ass jam, too.
Hawthorne Heights closed the night out with about an hour's worth of rock, and it was the first time I had seen them since Casey Calvert passed away last year. The experience was sort of surreal; I had seen so many shows by these guys back in 2004 and 2005 when they were first coming up, and got to know them pretty well, but it had been two years since I last saw them onstage and three years since we last hung out. Kinda crazy. We got to catch up before their set and they were pretty much all exactly the same as I remembered: Funny, kind-hearted Midwesterners who counted every blessing imaginable for being able to do what they do for a living.
Their set was about half new stuff from the solid Fragile Future (including "Somewhere In Between," the disc's best track) with a good amount of back catalog scattered into the setlist to please the diehards. The band even went acoustic for a pair of songs, including their tribute to Calvert, "Four Become One," and I'll be damned if it didn't tug at my heartstrings a little more than a Hawthorne Heights song affecting a 26-year-old jaded music editor should.
What really got me, though, was the following stage banter from JT Woodruff before the band ended their set. This is roughly paraphrased, as I didn't have time to write it down word for word, but I'm fairly confident that this is almost spot-on:
"All the bands are here tonight supporting new CDs. That stands for 'compact disc.' You may know them as MP3s. MP3s sound like shit; CDs sound way better. Buy the CD. And another thing: Don't steal from your favorite bands. And if you're really going to steal, don't be a pussy and do it online; there's no difference between that and walking into a Best Buy and putting the CD down your pants. So do that instead."
It was incredibly surprising to hear a band actually come out and say what most bands think but don't have the guts to speak out about. Kudos to Woodruff for laying it out there when he could've done what most bands do and encourage the downloading of their music (which, honestly, hurts everyone involved with the record -- the band, the label, the producer, you name it).
Was it weird watching Hawthorne Heights play for only a few hundred people instead of a few thousand just two years before? Yeah. Wherever the "cool kids" were last night, it wasn't at the Hawthorne Heights show, that's for sure. But you know what? Let 'em listen to Brokencyde and Millionaires. At least Hawthorne Heights have heart, and they believe in what they're doing, naysayers be damned. Are they the best band in the world? No, and I think they'd be the first people to tell you that. But do they absolutely love every minute of what they do? More than almost any other band I've ever met.
posted by Scott Heisel at
12:25 PM
6 Comments:
emery owned that show when i went. tickle me pink is horrible and they covered guns n roses when i saw them. fucking horrendous.
I went to a show where Tickle Me Pink opened and they were more than horrible. I wanted to stab myself in the eye.
You can call someone a whore, as per Paramore, usually when it's about someone specific, or people who really have done something that's whore like. But theres a difference between that, and considering all girls hoes. Unless you are a rapper, then using hoe, in place of "fine looking female" is pretty much stupid.
I remember My Chem cussing out a band on their dvd while on the Taste of Chaos because they had girls flash the camera to get backstage. Gerard totally chewed them out.
Now, I totally agree that stealing music is wrong. I wholeheartedly support artists trying to keep people from downloading their music illegally. But I'm getting a little tired of this idea that if you download music, you must be doing it illegally. I never buy CDs anymore. I get all of my music online. But I have NEVER downloaded music without paying for it. I pay for ALL the music I listen, AND I don't buy CDs. So there. That's my two cents. Oh, and MP3s only sound like "shit" if you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on your sound equipment. They sound just fine on the kind of headphones a "normal" person like me uses.
I'm calling bullshit on the Starbucks remark. You may enjoy a simple hot chocolate, but if I recall correctly your order normally goes to the tune of "iced venti soy latte"... not nine words, but certainly not a simple order.
I can't say stealing music is right (because it's not), but I think it's had some genuinely interesting effects on popular culture.
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