damn, i forgot my handkerchief

One of the places I applied to was the Black Sheep, an underground live music place. According to the manager they aren’t hiring but I filled out the application anyways. Another guy that works there, Spencer, talked to me for awhile and seems very nice. He has his septum pierced and it’s not as distracting as I thought a septum piercing would be, though obviously I noticed it. Anyways, he invited me to come back later that night for the show. I obliged. Unfortunately for me my roommate, Joe, couldn’t go. Lucky him. Spencer got me in for free and I talked to a few people here and there, nothing of substance, mostly just music and about the bands that were going to play that night. I was actually pretty excited despite the type of crowd that was there. This was supposed to be a “big night” according to the guys that worked there. And 60 some people did seem to fill the place. Once the band took stage and started playing I knew what I was in for. The crowd didn’t deceive me, stereotypes here ring true.

There were 21+ people there; at least the bartender was busy. But the place was mostly cluttered with high school kids enjoying being “out” on a school night. If you wore tight pants, heavy eyeliner and sported the mostly-black-except-for-one-blonde-streak hair, and had a handkerchief as an accessory than this was the place to be- undoubtedly. The band started playing around 8. If you could call it a band, and if you could call it playing. I’m not saying they didn’t have any talent- it would be hard to know. The sound that came out of the speakers could only be described as extremely loud static with perhaps some sort of distant thumping (drums). Even when the lead “vocalist” wasn’t screeching at the top of his lungs, I couldn’t distinguish the guitar or the bass and most the time I couldn’t hear the drums. I stood there wondering if he even had lyrics or if he was just making noise. But with songs titled “Can you keep it down im trying to do drugs” and “you would be cute if you were a spleen” im not sure the content of his lyrics even mattered. They “played” probably about 8 songs all of which sounded the exact same. To my amazement the crowd seemed impressed. I desperately was hoping the second band would be better, and they were. Slightly. I could actually hear a distant rhythm in the background of all the screaming. Let’s just say they got two songs through and I was out the door.

I consider myself pretty open minded when it comes to music, I’ll give just about anything a listen. And I can respect music I don’t even like, because it does take talent. Even rap and hip-hop, while I dislike it, I have respect for it (little, but its there none-the-less). But this, this was not music. This was noise. For all I knew they didn’t even know how to play instruments. And there isn’t much to be said for the people that were at this place cheering on the bands. It was like I was trapped in a room full of clones. I couldn’t distinguish the guys from the girls. For trying to be “punk” or “emo” or “different” they all looked the freaking same. I have a distinct feeling that I was the only one not wearing skin tight, straight legged jeans and the only one that didn’t have hair strategically placed over half my face. They even started “moshing” in unison. Is this what Ive been heard called "scene"? Is this what they have reduced themselves down to? The "none trend" trend.

You lazy hipsters make me sick.

I will definitely do my homework before going to another show there. Make sure the band is actually playing “music” before I go in. I’ve learned my lesson on this one.