"Loveless is spinning tonight..."
With the advent of recovery from death plague, I've become a social butterfly once more. In the end, it looks like post-antibiotics woes fall merely to allergies (and it didn't even end up taking another trip to the doctor to discern that). So hooray for me.
Among my outings have been a pseudo-date (where I hang out with a girl, buy her drinks or food and see what happens- I don't expect anything other than enjoyable conversation- but might as well make the possibility for something more) , a rained out Sox game, an actual Sox game, a Fire match, and the various social gatherings that came with sister's brief return to the homestead.
I suppose I'll write about all those some time. But so as not to make people suicidally bored (the effect this journal tends to have on people), I'm just going to write about the most recent one.
Sunday night, I guess I had a lot of my faith in music restored.
toddknifehad a basement show and for once, I decided to go out of my way to go to a local show. I borrowed my parents car and hit the road bound for La Grange Park. And the reward was feeling like I was 16 again... in a good sense. In a lot of my ways I tend to malign my 16 and 17 year old self. I think I had a lot of beliefs that I now regard as at best, misguided and at worst, kind of fucked up. But one thing looking back that I love was my sense of amazement and discovery at the local punk and hardcore scene- seeing bands of kids just like me (albeit a few years older) making amazing music and doing it simply for the love of writing songs and playing shows and maybe having 50 kids (most of whom were their friends) sing along at a basement show without caring about making any money off their music.
This is not meant to disrespect local bands who have gone through that and are now actually making a living off their music (Rise Against, Spitalfield... and I'll admit begrudgingly, Fall Out Boy), that's amazing and more power to them- but there's something amazing about bands who put their blood, sweat and tears and soul into something that's just a "hobby" and whether they realize it or not, create a community of kids who look up to them and the one refuge in the world where there's no audience/band barrier and you can actually be genuine friends with a band whose t-shirts and records you own. And where a basement or rec center is just as legit a venue as any bar or concert hall with some amazing sound system. Sorry for the lecture, but this is what punk rock is about- and this is what I miss. I'm not against bigger venues- I think the Beat Kitchen and the Metro are fun places to see a show- I just sometimes miss not having monitors or soundchecks and where there's no stage and you're two feet away from the band and having a microphone shoved in your face. And this is what I love and will always love about music.
Anyway,
toddknife's house reminded me of that beauty, of those limitless possibilities, of the random new friendships you form at shows with people you may only see at other shows or may never see again, the community.... maybe it's not changing the world or anything, maybe it is just a bunch of mostly white kids from the suburbs with delusions of grandeur- but for a while that stuck up smugness doesn't matter and we're all idealists listening to bands that will only matter to 100 people, but will matter more to those 100 in 5 years than My Chemical Romance will mean to 10 million five years from now.
But back to the show.
toddknife's house is in La Grange Park, he insisted the show would start in time, but in the great tradition of basement shows and punk shows in general... it didn't. Fortunately, there were swarms of cicadas outside (they apparently haven't made it to my neck of DuPage which makes me sad) and the bassist from Model Airplane Club and I stood watching cicadas climbing a tree and one molting out of a shell for a good 15 minutes. We got into the basement where
toddkniferegaled us with bizarre stories of his 5 day tour with his band Easterlings and we all laughed at the educational books his Mom sells (ones on AIDS, cigarettes, alcohol, puberty... OK, makes sense... but Lyme Disease?).
Nice and Friendly was the first "band" to play, well it was just a guy named Evan. He was great, though. He reminded me a lot of what my more serious Drive-by Exorcism songs are trying to be, just a punk rock singer-songwriter who loves writing songs and playing and could care less about wooing girls. I'd love to play a show with him some time, actually.
Model Airplane Club facilitated the most fun I've had at a show in a long time. One of the bands who fit everything I was talking about above was Don't Worry About it- they sadly stopped recording and playing shows back in 2003 and I think no band has picked up the reigns of being a sloppy, fun pop-punk band who keeps everyone smiling, singing and jumping around through an entire set since. (Besides being stellar dudes who had time for everyone and anyone and made sure that most of their fans became their friends). 2 *Sweet had the potential, but then they got more serious. MAC was amazing though, I remember looking at
iamnietzcheand excitedly saying "Wow, they sound just like Don't Worry About it!" They further affirmed this by fucking COVERING a DWAI song- which had me and the few other people in attendance who remembered DWAI (not many, it was a younger crowd) wearing ourselves out jumping up and down and yelling out lyrics and for good measure and just to prove how much fun they were having and how little they cared about image they ended with a cover of "Dammit" by Blink 182. Their singer is better known as DJ Tornado, a long-time scene kid, so it's no surprise they covered DWAI and know their history but that didn't make them any less fun.
The Easterlings This is
toddknife's band, I guess I could best describe them as a poppy indie rock band with metal riffs and a punk ethic. Also
toddknifelikes to kick me while they play (I was prepared though, he also did this when I saw him in Reborn). Even though I had to dodge
toddknifea bit, they still played a pretty good set and yeah, he can shred on guitar.
Oceans The second guitarist in this instrumental band was too busy watching cars drive around a track 500 times (Indy 500) to make it to the show in time so they played without him. They were conceptually pretty good- a sort of early '90s post-punk/first wave emo instrumental band- but a little boring to be honest, still not a bad band by any means and maybe that second guitarist does fill out their sound.
Of course, the show wasn't all about the music. I met a few pretty neat people, got to hang out with stellar dudes like
toddknifeand
iamnietzche who's usually busy touring with 2*Sweet; and there were a few hilarious occurences, that I will detail now....
A) That Guitar Guy. Some guy in preppy clothes and with bloody bandages on his knees and elbows (apparently from a mo-ped accident... I'm not kidding) was literally trying to woo a crowd of girls by playing Jack Johnson songs on acoustic guitar and earnestly giving songs like "Under the bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers intros like "You guys might know this one..." Of course, he started taking endless shit. First, a kid started floor-punching and fake moshing. Then a few of us decided to join him (very loudly, very obnoxiously) in on the chorus of "Say it ain't so" by Weezer. No one knows if he ended up successful or not, but I'm sure his ego was a bit damaged, regardless.
B) The Bleeder. After the last band,
toddknifenoticed there was blood all over his house. From the from steps to the entry hall, up the stairs, on a curtain and all over an upstairs bathroom. This was disturbing to all who saw it because no one seemed to have a clue where it can from. It started becoming an almost comical whodunit. That Guitar Guy was questioned repeatedly but professed his innocence. As it turns out, another random preppy dude no one knew had drunkenly (probably accidentally) smashed his hand through a glass pane on a door and embarrassed and not wanting to get in trouble had decided to try to (horribly ineffectively) take care of it himself. We pieced this together when a few of us saw him emerge from another bathroom with his shirt and his right hand covered in blood. Finally some people fessed up to being his friends and took him to the hospital and toddknife and a few good samaritans cleaned up his blood.
C) Wine. People were drinking wine at a basement show. Pretty bizarre and hilarious, about as strange as the amount of booze there in general. Basement shows around DuPage (I guess technically we were in Cook County, but same deal) had a hallmark of just not having booze around and here its effect was played down- fortunately, I think more people were into the bands than the booze.
I guess that ended up being a long entry after all. It was a show that did restore my faith in music and planted in me the seeds of the foolish dream of being in a band again or at least Drive-by Exorcism playing shows again. And that's saying something.
Among my outings have been a pseudo-date (where I hang out with a girl, buy her drinks or food and see what happens- I don't expect anything other than enjoyable conversation- but might as well make the possibility for something more) , a rained out Sox game, an actual Sox game, a Fire match, and the various social gatherings that came with sister's brief return to the homestead.
I suppose I'll write about all those some time. But so as not to make people suicidally bored (the effect this journal tends to have on people), I'm just going to write about the most recent one.
Sunday night, I guess I had a lot of my faith in music restored.
toddknifehad a basement show and for once, I decided to go out of my way to go to a local show. I borrowed my parents car and hit the road bound for La Grange Park. And the reward was feeling like I was 16 again... in a good sense. In a lot of my ways I tend to malign my 16 and 17 year old self. I think I had a lot of beliefs that I now regard as at best, misguided and at worst, kind of fucked up. But one thing looking back that I love was my sense of amazement and discovery at the local punk and hardcore scene- seeing bands of kids just like me (albeit a few years older) making amazing music and doing it simply for the love of writing songs and playing shows and maybe having 50 kids (most of whom were their friends) sing along at a basement show without caring about making any money off their music.
This is not meant to disrespect local bands who have gone through that and are now actually making a living off their music (Rise Against, Spitalfield... and I'll admit begrudgingly, Fall Out Boy), that's amazing and more power to them- but there's something amazing about bands who put their blood, sweat and tears and soul into something that's just a "hobby" and whether they realize it or not, create a community of kids who look up to them and the one refuge in the world where there's no audience/band barrier and you can actually be genuine friends with a band whose t-shirts and records you own. And where a basement or rec center is just as legit a venue as any bar or concert hall with some amazing sound system. Sorry for the lecture, but this is what punk rock is about- and this is what I miss. I'm not against bigger venues- I think the Beat Kitchen and the Metro are fun places to see a show- I just sometimes miss not having monitors or soundchecks and where there's no stage and you're two feet away from the band and having a microphone shoved in your face. And this is what I love and will always love about music.
Anyway,
toddknife's house reminded me of that beauty, of those limitless possibilities, of the random new friendships you form at shows with people you may only see at other shows or may never see again, the community.... maybe it's not changing the world or anything, maybe it is just a bunch of mostly white kids from the suburbs with delusions of grandeur- but for a while that stuck up smugness doesn't matter and we're all idealists listening to bands that will only matter to 100 people, but will matter more to those 100 in 5 years than My Chemical Romance will mean to 10 million five years from now.
But back to the show.
toddknife's house is in La Grange Park, he insisted the show would start in time, but in the great tradition of basement shows and punk shows in general... it didn't. Fortunately, there were swarms of cicadas outside (they apparently haven't made it to my neck of DuPage which makes me sad) and the bassist from Model Airplane Club and I stood watching cicadas climbing a tree and one molting out of a shell for a good 15 minutes. We got into the basement where
toddkniferegaled us with bizarre stories of his 5 day tour with his band Easterlings and we all laughed at the educational books his Mom sells (ones on AIDS, cigarettes, alcohol, puberty... OK, makes sense... but Lyme Disease?).
Nice and Friendly was the first "band" to play, well it was just a guy named Evan. He was great, though. He reminded me a lot of what my more serious Drive-by Exorcism songs are trying to be, just a punk rock singer-songwriter who loves writing songs and playing and could care less about wooing girls. I'd love to play a show with him some time, actually.
Model Airplane Club facilitated the most fun I've had at a show in a long time. One of the bands who fit everything I was talking about above was Don't Worry About it- they sadly stopped recording and playing shows back in 2003 and I think no band has picked up the reigns of being a sloppy, fun pop-punk band who keeps everyone smiling, singing and jumping around through an entire set since. (Besides being stellar dudes who had time for everyone and anyone and made sure that most of their fans became their friends). 2 *Sweet had the potential, but then they got more serious. MAC was amazing though, I remember looking at
iamnietzcheand excitedly saying "Wow, they sound just like Don't Worry About it!" They further affirmed this by fucking COVERING a DWAI song- which had me and the few other people in attendance who remembered DWAI (not many, it was a younger crowd) wearing ourselves out jumping up and down and yelling out lyrics and for good measure and just to prove how much fun they were having and how little they cared about image they ended with a cover of "Dammit" by Blink 182. Their singer is better known as DJ Tornado, a long-time scene kid, so it's no surprise they covered DWAI and know their history but that didn't make them any less fun.
The Easterlings This is
toddknife's band, I guess I could best describe them as a poppy indie rock band with metal riffs and a punk ethic. Also
toddknifelikes to kick me while they play (I was prepared though, he also did this when I saw him in Reborn). Even though I had to dodge
toddknifea bit, they still played a pretty good set and yeah, he can shred on guitar.
Oceans The second guitarist in this instrumental band was too busy watching cars drive around a track 500 times (Indy 500) to make it to the show in time so they played without him. They were conceptually pretty good- a sort of early '90s post-punk/first wave emo instrumental band- but a little boring to be honest, still not a bad band by any means and maybe that second guitarist does fill out their sound.
Of course, the show wasn't all about the music. I met a few pretty neat people, got to hang out with stellar dudes like
toddknifeand
iamnietzche who's usually busy touring with 2*Sweet; and there were a few hilarious occurences, that I will detail now....
A) That Guitar Guy. Some guy in preppy clothes and with bloody bandages on his knees and elbows (apparently from a mo-ped accident... I'm not kidding) was literally trying to woo a crowd of girls by playing Jack Johnson songs on acoustic guitar and earnestly giving songs like "Under the bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers intros like "You guys might know this one..." Of course, he started taking endless shit. First, a kid started floor-punching and fake moshing. Then a few of us decided to join him (very loudly, very obnoxiously) in on the chorus of "Say it ain't so" by Weezer. No one knows if he ended up successful or not, but I'm sure his ego was a bit damaged, regardless.
B) The Bleeder. After the last band,
toddknifenoticed there was blood all over his house. From the from steps to the entry hall, up the stairs, on a curtain and all over an upstairs bathroom. This was disturbing to all who saw it because no one seemed to have a clue where it can from. It started becoming an almost comical whodunit. That Guitar Guy was questioned repeatedly but professed his innocence. As it turns out, another random preppy dude no one knew had drunkenly (probably accidentally) smashed his hand through a glass pane on a door and embarrassed and not wanting to get in trouble had decided to try to (horribly ineffectively) take care of it himself. We pieced this together when a few of us saw him emerge from another bathroom with his shirt and his right hand covered in blood. Finally some people fessed up to being his friends and took him to the hospital and toddknife and a few good samaritans cleaned up his blood.
C) Wine. People were drinking wine at a basement show. Pretty bizarre and hilarious, about as strange as the amount of booze there in general. Basement shows around DuPage (I guess technically we were in Cook County, but same deal) had a hallmark of just not having booze around and here its effect was played down- fortunately, I think more people were into the bands than the booze.
I guess that ended up being a long entry after all. It was a show that did restore my faith in music and planted in me the seeds of the foolish dream of being in a band again or at least Drive-by Exorcism playing shows again. And that's saying something.