What's The Worst That Could Happen?
My post yesterday got me thinking about touring and the motivations I have for being in a touring band today. It reminded me of something that happened to Old Band once.
In winter of 1996 we had an all-ages show in an upscale T.O suburb - one of the four gigs we did outside the region during our five-year existence. Our bass player had booked it, largely on the premise that we'd be playing with the latest project of an ex-member of an important US hardcore band. It was not a band I cared about, but I was happy to go on a trip to the big city.
We didn't bring amps or drums because there was no room. I'm not entirely sure why we didn't just rent a van. Expense, maybe? Anyway, punk bands always shared gear at local shows, so surely that must be universal. Someone would help us out, obviously.
There were a lot of kids at the show... maybe 200. What a great chance to impress people! Before the bands started, it was hard to get a feel for the room. The kids looked about the same as home. Fewer "punks" though... maybe only three or four obvious ones. The "hardcore" fashion style seemed to predominate. That existed on a small scale back home, but not like this.
I think there were four bands on the bill, maybe five. I figured we'd probably go fourth, before the ex-member guy's band. No one had heard of us, but we did come from far away. As I waited to play, I got really... bored. The opening bands were just terrible. Really, really boring. I can respect a band that plays shitty music but really throws down, with a lot of passion (as 90s emo bands often did). This was just lifeless, unmelodic, unenergetic, unmoving tripe. And you know what? The kids there just ate it up! They must have seen something I did not. I've rarely seen people get so excited about something so boring and disposable.
We were ready to go on before the "big" band but as it turned out, they were going to play before us. The kids were super-into them (and I admit they were marginally better, although still pretty boring). Anyway, we were getting ready to go on when we realized that all of the opening bands had used their own gear and had since packed it up. We knew basically no one there. None of the organizers seemed willing or able to help. We ended up borrowing shit from the other touring band, which they were clearly lukewarm about. They had good reason. No touring band should have to lend gear to other bands. We figured the local kids would all help each other out, and us by extention. This turned out not to be the case. It made me really cynical about the music scene in that area.
I soon realized that in most scenes, sharing gear is unheard of. But as time passed I also came to understand that gear-sharing is determined a lot by class stratifications within the punk scene. A crust band or a very traditional punk band was much more likely to share gear than a hardcore band, an emo band or an indie rock band. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the general pattern I've seen over the years. Class stratification in punk is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, but I don't have time today. I eventually accepted what happened to us as simply the result of disparate musical cultures colliding.
To finish up the story, we went up with borrowed amps and drums and started to play. The building emptied... and I mean emptied. By the time we were done, the touring band and three or four punk kids were the only people in the building. Without doing anything but playing music, we had just chased nearly 200 kids out of a room. And we did not play badly at all. We just weren't playing the right kind of show. While Old Band certainly had some fans in the hardcore community, the same could not be said of the emo community. Punks liked us. Shit, a whole lot of different people liked us back home. But outside our hometown, trad punk or crust shows should have been what we stuck with. Ironically, only one person in the band was ever involved in that sort of scene.
My next post will tie this stuff in with BB.
In winter of 1996 we had an all-ages show in an upscale T.O suburb - one of the four gigs we did outside the region during our five-year existence. Our bass player had booked it, largely on the premise that we'd be playing with the latest project of an ex-member of an important US hardcore band. It was not a band I cared about, but I was happy to go on a trip to the big city.
We didn't bring amps or drums because there was no room. I'm not entirely sure why we didn't just rent a van. Expense, maybe? Anyway, punk bands always shared gear at local shows, so surely that must be universal. Someone would help us out, obviously.
There were a lot of kids at the show... maybe 200. What a great chance to impress people! Before the bands started, it was hard to get a feel for the room. The kids looked about the same as home. Fewer "punks" though... maybe only three or four obvious ones. The "hardcore" fashion style seemed to predominate. That existed on a small scale back home, but not like this.
I think there were four bands on the bill, maybe five. I figured we'd probably go fourth, before the ex-member guy's band. No one had heard of us, but we did come from far away. As I waited to play, I got really... bored. The opening bands were just terrible. Really, really boring. I can respect a band that plays shitty music but really throws down, with a lot of passion (as 90s emo bands often did). This was just lifeless, unmelodic, unenergetic, unmoving tripe. And you know what? The kids there just ate it up! They must have seen something I did not. I've rarely seen people get so excited about something so boring and disposable.
We were ready to go on before the "big" band but as it turned out, they were going to play before us. The kids were super-into them (and I admit they were marginally better, although still pretty boring). Anyway, we were getting ready to go on when we realized that all of the opening bands had used their own gear and had since packed it up. We knew basically no one there. None of the organizers seemed willing or able to help. We ended up borrowing shit from the other touring band, which they were clearly lukewarm about. They had good reason. No touring band should have to lend gear to other bands. We figured the local kids would all help each other out, and us by extention. This turned out not to be the case. It made me really cynical about the music scene in that area.
I soon realized that in most scenes, sharing gear is unheard of. But as time passed I also came to understand that gear-sharing is determined a lot by class stratifications within the punk scene. A crust band or a very traditional punk band was much more likely to share gear than a hardcore band, an emo band or an indie rock band. Of course there are exceptions, but this is the general pattern I've seen over the years. Class stratification in punk is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, but I don't have time today. I eventually accepted what happened to us as simply the result of disparate musical cultures colliding.
To finish up the story, we went up with borrowed amps and drums and started to play. The building emptied... and I mean emptied. By the time we were done, the touring band and three or four punk kids were the only people in the building. Without doing anything but playing music, we had just chased nearly 200 kids out of a room. And we did not play badly at all. We just weren't playing the right kind of show. While Old Band certainly had some fans in the hardcore community, the same could not be said of the emo community. Punks liked us. Shit, a whole lot of different people liked us back home. But outside our hometown, trad punk or crust shows should have been what we stuck with. Ironically, only one person in the band was ever involved in that sort of scene.
My next post will tie this stuff in with BB.
posted by the baron ash von foolishness at 11:52 AM
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