OFF: (waaaaay OFF) Scene Report Alternarock USA 2001

[Doug Pearson]

On Sat, 8 Dec 2001 04:06:09 -0500, K Henderson <henderson.120 at OSU.EDU>
wrote:
>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>The Hard & The Heavy Volume One

[...snip...]

>Track Listing:
>DISC 1: THE HARD:
>Introduction
>I Am The Bullgod - Kid Rock (Licursi Live mix)
>Gimme Danger - Monster Magnet
>Son Of X-51 - Powerman 5000
>Black - Sevendust (live)
>Bad Blood - Ministry
>Over The Edge - Fu Manchu
>Avon - Queens Of The Stone Age
>Hollywood - P.O.D.

Sorry ... long, pointless, incredibly off-topic post here, but I saw this
band (P.O.D.) friday night and felt I had to share the experience ...

My bandmates were going to see the Live 105 (local commercial alternarock
station) "Not So Silent Night" package show (7 bands, last year's was
headlined by Green Day) at the San Jose hockey arena, so I figured I'd go
along to check out the scene, even though I wasn't really familiar with any
of the acts.  See what the kids are listening to these days, especially
since I never went to one of these kinds of shows (new popular acts, that
is) when I was that age (the shows I went to in High School were all
classic rock bands who had at least 8 or 10 albums to their credit - I'm
pretty sure all these bands have only one, or at most, two, albums out -
and the alternarock shows I attended in college and later were all in
auditoriums/theaters, not 12000-seat arenas).

The Bands ...

A.F.I. - my bandmate described them as "arena punk"; a bit of Janes
Addiction bombast, some Bad Religion type anthems, and some hardcore-era
Misfits rhythms and "whoa-ho" singalong choruses.  Pretty boring.

Alien Ant Farm - the first of many rap/metal-damaged acts of the night.  I
thought that stuff was going to be replaced by bubblegummy stuff like Blink
182 or Smashmouth, but it's still going strong!  Does anyone outside the
USA listen to this stuff (surely not in the UK)?  Boring, singer's "dorky"
affectations between songs weren't amusing.

Puddle of Mud - I think this is the band that has a "feud" going with the
guy from Limp Bizkit (who "discovered" them ... whatever ... ).  They don't
sound like that band, though, more like retro-grunge (Pearl Jam, Stone
Temple Pilots, maybe Smashing Pumpkins).  Once again, pretty dull.

Sum 41 - Canadian commercial punk rockers sorta like that other band with a
one-syllable-word and a number for their name.  Redeemed (IMO) by their
sense of humor, dropping in Iron Maiden licks for one of their outros, and
the singer being a geniune snotty Canadian.  Not bad, but no No Means No,
that's for sure!

P.O.D. - OK, the guys from Flipper *already* parodied the naming convention
with their side project, "A3I" (Any 3 Initials - remember the early-80s
hardcore era of MDC, SOD, MOD, SSD, SWA, JFA, and too many others to
name).  But more rap/metal than hardcore.  Even more boring than any of the
previous bands.  They DEFINITELY DON'T belong after Fu Manchu and QotSA on
a compilation!

System of a Down - these guys have one song that's being played to death on
commercial radio right now (the one with the line about "I cry when angels
deserve to die" or something), and were at least fairly interesting, with a
lot of weird changes and low-key subsections in their (you guessed it!)
rap/metal-type songs.  Probably a band that people into "neo-prog" (i.e.
longer songs, lots of dynamics/time signature/key signature changes) along
the lines of Tool would like.

Linkin Park - every other band of the night had a four piece
guitar/bass/drums/singer lineup (a couple of the singers played second
guitar), but these guys added a rapper (in addition to the singer) and a
DJ, who's actually the main reason I'm posting this message here.  Mostly,
the DJ seemed to play "backing tracks" (keyboards & percussion) for the
band to play along with (pretty lame IMO), but occasionally, he'd spin
records with synth effects on them.  And damned if some if his between-song
synth sounds didn't sound frighteningly like the parts between songs
on 'Space Ritual' (only with less delay)!!!  Obviously, that was the best
part of the band.  So don't be surprised if you play Hawkwind for a High
School kid, and he asks, "whoa dude, who's their DJ?".

Except for the overall mediocrity of most of the bands (but hey, the crowd
dug 'em all, and I'm not gonna argue with 12000 people), I actually came
out with a positive impression.  At least the kids are listening to ROCK,
not some baggy-pants rave crap (apologies to all ravers on the list).  At
least the kids know how to score (a LOT of) weed (one of the station DJ's
MC-ing the event made a comment about all the burning xmas trees).  At
least the bands stir up shit, the way rock bands are supposed to (you know
they're playing to a teen crowd when they have to put this in the form of a
question: "who here knows how to drink?  who here knows how to do DRUGS?
who here knows HOW TO FUCK?"), but the crowd was still well-behaved (there
was a large and active mosh pit, but no fights or injuries besides the
expected accidents ... no signs of obvious drunkeness or drug overuse,
either).  Despite the bands all being "hard" and/or "heavy", the crowd was
decidedly mixed (gender-wise at least, there were, not surprisingly, very
few blacks, but rather surprisingly [given the area demographic] few
asians ... maybe asian parents are less likely to let their kids attend
events like this ... at least that was true for most of my asian friends in
high scool/college), and definitely would be a mecca for dirty old men
(lots of young females in skimpy tops), but besides my party-of-five (me,
guitarist, guitarist's wife, drummer, drummer's boyfriend), I couldn't have
seen more than a half dozen people who looked over 25.

Quite an experience, and one I'd be surprised if I ever repeated.  I'll
appreciate the next show I see in a dingy club with barely-operational PA
with four other of my fellow-old-fart friends in the audience ALL THE
MORE.  And sorry for the abuse of bandwidth ...

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com