School shootings and snotty peacoats...
Thursday night. 7 PM. Webster Theater, Hartford, CT...
Tickets to see Head Automatica: 16$
Gas money to get to Hartford: 30$
Having a crackhead beg for a cigarette and then excuse himself after wiping his runny nose all over your 250 dollar coat: ...priceless.
And that's basically how Thursday night's show went...a series of exciting moments followed immediately by obnoxious assholes doing everything possible to ruin the show.
How to ruin an amazing show:
Step One: Hire the most talentless, annoying bands to open for your headliner.
Example: There were three opening acts that night whose total stage time (not including the twenty minute breaks between each act) was probably equal to if not MORE than Head Automatica who I paid to see.
To make it worse, the final opening band was Morning Wood and they have got to be one of the worst bands I have ever heard in my life. The lead singer was a creepy, ugly bitch who was about as coherent as my three year old niece. I couldn't understand a single word in any of her "songs" and I had to watch her traipse about the stage molesting her guitarists and later...me.
Let me explain. She has some "song" about everyone getting naked, during the performance of this "song" she decided to leap off the stage and scream, "EVERYONE TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!!" At which point she proceeded to walk up to me, rip my coat off,(which at this point had already been snotted on by the aforementioned crackhead) and throw it on the stage behind her. When the coat was returned to me it was missing all of its buttons. Thanks a lot bitch.
Step Two: Fail to follow through with your "18+ only" policy.
Example: At this particular show there was live video and audio recording going on which meant that the bands got to be much more vulgar and sexual than normal. Due to this, there was a sign on the front door saying that you had to be 18 or older to get in since minors are not legally able to give their consent to being filmed for publically aired commercials, movies, TV shows, etc...
However, the good ol' folks down at the Webster decided to hang this sign and then completely ignore their own rules. That meant that I got to spend the night with a group of screaming 14 year old girls talking about what "hardasses" they were. I was shoved, kicked, elbowed, punched, etc...so many times in the back by the most disgustingly shallow, wannabe punk ass girls I have ever met in my entire life. By the time I left the theater I felt like a 90 year old man with chronic back pain...
I saw a kid there who couldn't possibly have been more than 10 years old! What fucking parent lets their 10 year old go to a theater in the shadiest part of Hartford BY THEMSELVES?! Especially to hear a band that's fond of saying things like, "this is a song about places where you shouldn't stick your dick."?!?!?!
I mean...I'm hardly a prude. I use my dirty mouth far more often than I should, I'll talk openly with anyone about anything they want to be it sex fantasies, favorite positions, or anything else. I have NO problem with some of HA's dirtier lyrics (I wanna fuck you in your God's hands when your praying bites the dust)...but I would NEVER send my 10 year old child to the Webster by himself on a SCHOOL NIGHT to a show that is clearly intended for people 18 years and older...jesus fucking christ!
Well...I do have to say that at the end of the day it was all worth it. Head Automatica was incredible, even better than when I saw them last summer. And I'm sorry but Daryl...you are still the sexiest man alive.
Maybe I've just outgrown the whole "cheap, underground punk show" thing...sad thought.
Well...according to the tagline of this journal entry, I'm supposed to be writing about school shootings and snotty peacoats...you heard all about the coat - now it's time for the more violent part. (Excited?)
I doubt many people remember this, but about a year and a half ago, a movie came out called "Elephant". It was a "faux-documentary" about a school shooting that was clearly based on Columbine. It was one of those indie movies that did extremely well at all the major film festivals and then eventually made its way to a few mainstream theatres (although around here, it probably only came to places like Bethel Cinema). As a pretty big fan of indie movies, I figured it would be something I'd like to see...and in a way, it was.
The movie was incredibly well done. At least half of the dialogue was ad-libbed by actors who were told to "just act like you would on any normal day in high school". And believe me, it worked. The dialogue was so dead on that I almost felt like I was walking down the halls of New Milford High School again. And the way it was shot was outstanding. The whole movie took place on the day of the shooting, but it would continue to jump through time often showing the same exact moments but from the perspectives of different characters. Throughout the second half of the movie there was always this constant tension because you knew the whole time that the shooters had just entered the school but because of the time/perspective jumps you could never tell exactly where they were or when the shooting would actually begin. The suspense was so unreal that I actually got a chill down my spine when right before the shooting, one of the characters said (in response to a comment about drunk driving), "God, I just wanna live to *get* my license!".
Of course, on the other side...the movie was incredibly disturbing...and I use the word "incredibly" to its highest possible degree. People were concerned when I shrugged "Hostel" off as just another stupid gorefest. That movie however, was fake, silly, and boring. This movie was about kids...people MY age, killing other kids while encouraging each other to, "above all else, just have fun". And not only that, but it's a movie that reflects a society where things like this do and have actually happened. I find that a hell of a lot more disturbing than a movie about clichéd psychopaths who burn peoples' eyes out with blowtorches...call me crazy.
It's one of those movies that I'm really glad I saw once just because it was so well done but will probably never watch again. I mean...it really disturbed me all the way down to dark levels of my mind that I don't like to go to very often. Even though it was fictional, I couldn't stop saying to myself, "What the fuck could possibly be going through this kid's mind right now?" as he walked around the school picking off "targets" with a huge, satisfied grin on his face. Even just writing this entry, it still freaks me out.
Anyway...it's far too late to be thinking about these sorts of things...
...goodnight.
Tickets to see Head Automatica: 16$
Gas money to get to Hartford: 30$
Having a crackhead beg for a cigarette and then excuse himself after wiping his runny nose all over your 250 dollar coat: ...priceless.
And that's basically how Thursday night's show went...a series of exciting moments followed immediately by obnoxious assholes doing everything possible to ruin the show.
How to ruin an amazing show:
Step One: Hire the most talentless, annoying bands to open for your headliner.
Example: There were three opening acts that night whose total stage time (not including the twenty minute breaks between each act) was probably equal to if not MORE than Head Automatica who I paid to see.
To make it worse, the final opening band was Morning Wood and they have got to be one of the worst bands I have ever heard in my life. The lead singer was a creepy, ugly bitch who was about as coherent as my three year old niece. I couldn't understand a single word in any of her "songs" and I had to watch her traipse about the stage molesting her guitarists and later...me.
Let me explain. She has some "song" about everyone getting naked, during the performance of this "song" she decided to leap off the stage and scream, "EVERYONE TAKE YOUR CLOTHES OFF!!" At which point she proceeded to walk up to me, rip my coat off,(which at this point had already been snotted on by the aforementioned crackhead) and throw it on the stage behind her. When the coat was returned to me it was missing all of its buttons. Thanks a lot bitch.
Step Two: Fail to follow through with your "18+ only" policy.
Example: At this particular show there was live video and audio recording going on which meant that the bands got to be much more vulgar and sexual than normal. Due to this, there was a sign on the front door saying that you had to be 18 or older to get in since minors are not legally able to give their consent to being filmed for publically aired commercials, movies, TV shows, etc...
However, the good ol' folks down at the Webster decided to hang this sign and then completely ignore their own rules. That meant that I got to spend the night with a group of screaming 14 year old girls talking about what "hardasses" they were. I was shoved, kicked, elbowed, punched, etc...so many times in the back by the most disgustingly shallow, wannabe punk ass girls I have ever met in my entire life. By the time I left the theater I felt like a 90 year old man with chronic back pain...
I saw a kid there who couldn't possibly have been more than 10 years old! What fucking parent lets their 10 year old go to a theater in the shadiest part of Hartford BY THEMSELVES?! Especially to hear a band that's fond of saying things like, "this is a song about places where you shouldn't stick your dick."?!?!?!
I mean...I'm hardly a prude. I use my dirty mouth far more often than I should, I'll talk openly with anyone about anything they want to be it sex fantasies, favorite positions, or anything else. I have NO problem with some of HA's dirtier lyrics (I wanna fuck you in your God's hands when your praying bites the dust)...but I would NEVER send my 10 year old child to the Webster by himself on a SCHOOL NIGHT to a show that is clearly intended for people 18 years and older...jesus fucking christ!
Well...I do have to say that at the end of the day it was all worth it. Head Automatica was incredible, even better than when I saw them last summer. And I'm sorry but Daryl...you are still the sexiest man alive.
Maybe I've just outgrown the whole "cheap, underground punk show" thing...sad thought.
Well...according to the tagline of this journal entry, I'm supposed to be writing about school shootings and snotty peacoats...you heard all about the coat - now it's time for the more violent part. (Excited?)
I doubt many people remember this, but about a year and a half ago, a movie came out called "Elephant". It was a "faux-documentary" about a school shooting that was clearly based on Columbine. It was one of those indie movies that did extremely well at all the major film festivals and then eventually made its way to a few mainstream theatres (although around here, it probably only came to places like Bethel Cinema). As a pretty big fan of indie movies, I figured it would be something I'd like to see...and in a way, it was.
The movie was incredibly well done. At least half of the dialogue was ad-libbed by actors who were told to "just act like you would on any normal day in high school". And believe me, it worked. The dialogue was so dead on that I almost felt like I was walking down the halls of New Milford High School again. And the way it was shot was outstanding. The whole movie took place on the day of the shooting, but it would continue to jump through time often showing the same exact moments but from the perspectives of different characters. Throughout the second half of the movie there was always this constant tension because you knew the whole time that the shooters had just entered the school but because of the time/perspective jumps you could never tell exactly where they were or when the shooting would actually begin. The suspense was so unreal that I actually got a chill down my spine when right before the shooting, one of the characters said (in response to a comment about drunk driving), "God, I just wanna live to *get* my license!".
Of course, on the other side...the movie was incredibly disturbing...and I use the word "incredibly" to its highest possible degree. People were concerned when I shrugged "Hostel" off as just another stupid gorefest. That movie however, was fake, silly, and boring. This movie was about kids...people MY age, killing other kids while encouraging each other to, "above all else, just have fun". And not only that, but it's a movie that reflects a society where things like this do and have actually happened. I find that a hell of a lot more disturbing than a movie about clichéd psychopaths who burn peoples' eyes out with blowtorches...call me crazy.
It's one of those movies that I'm really glad I saw once just because it was so well done but will probably never watch again. I mean...it really disturbed me all the way down to dark levels of my mind that I don't like to go to very often. Even though it was fictional, I couldn't stop saying to myself, "What the fuck could possibly be going through this kid's mind right now?" as he walked around the school picking off "targets" with a huge, satisfied grin on his face. Even just writing this entry, it still freaks me out.
Anyway...it's far too late to be thinking about these sorts of things...
...goodnight.