I am not going to lie, I don’t know a lot about politics. I save my political rambles for those I know will correct me or for those I know aren’t listening. In my opinion, political banter is best saved for people who know what they are talking about, like NPR junkies and campaign trails. Not for rock shows. Repeat- politics have little place at a rock show.
I take it back. Politics do have a place at rock shows, but under certain circumstances. There have been plenty of successful bands who have based their careers on damning “the man” and his policies, or for that matter, upholding the powers that be. Great bands, no less, have had plenty to say in songs and on stage that has real application to political and world issues, and have influenced their audience in turn to see things from a different perspective. There’s a difference, however, between knowing what you stand behind, and knowing why you stand behind it, and telling your audience what you know and why you know it, and between standing on stage making very vague references to politics in a way that can only be described as bull shit.
I know politics are full of bull shit, but I’m not talking about the sort that’s usually saved for campaigns. I’m talking about the negative kind that has no real relevance, states no real issues, makes sweeping generalizations about all things related, and is contemptuous for no real reason. Oh, and by the way, I’m talking about what I witnessed at a recent performance from the Used.
You see, it was my sister’s 15th birthday, and what better way to celebrate growing up than to go see a show on a school night? I think I was more excited to take her to her first concert than to see the show itself. I had high hopes for the show too- Straylight Run performed (a favorite of mine) and Street Drums Corps opened the show (and I’d heard many good things about them). I ended up feeling quite ashamed that I took her to see this spectacle.
The opening performances were fine. Lights Revolution and Army of Me provided nothing real to talk about. Lights Revolution could clean up their sound a bit, but I’m not sure if that’s just how they sound or if they just weren’t used to being on stage. Either way, they weren’t that great. Army of Me was very mediocre. They didn’t play badly and their sound came out clean, but their songs didn’t really provide anything that stood out. The guitarist provided a few hawt lix and riffs, but other than that, they were meh.
Street Drums Corps was amazing. They came out singing a song that sounded very reminiscent of Marylin Manson, and then broke into one of the raddest drum-offs I have ever seen. On stage they have various percussion instruments, ranging from garbage cans and buckets, to metal pipes and what I think was a power sander that provided rhythm and sparks when brushed against a huge metal pipe. They were choreographed really well, doing sort of percussion dances to their on stage jam sessions. Each member of the band was amazing. They each did a rotation on the different drum sets, so it wasn’t like one guy was the drummer and the others provided back up rhythm. They ALL rocked the set. Even the roadie (who during most of the set was dancing wildly to the side of the stage and wearing a gas mask) can out and taped out a tune on a barrel. I’m telling you, go see these guys. You won’t be disappointed.
I was sad to see that besides SDC receiving appreciation from the crowd (how could they not?), no one really cared or paid attention to the other bands. Especially Straylight Run, which was strange to me. I thought they had some sort of following, but I suppose at a Used show, no one is there to care about anything but the Used. That will be the one good thing I’ll say about them- their fans are certainly obsessed with them.
Perhaps it was the fact that they almost got booed off the stage, but Straylight didn’t play as well as usual. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear them over the thousand Used fans trying to talk over the songs rather than listen to the show they paid to see. They didn’t play badly, they just seemed… off. Nothing really to note about them other than the fact that I think they made my sister into a fan. And John has longer hair than the last time I saw him. The passion with which he screams always impresses me.
On to the worst show I’ve ever seen- the Used. I don’t know if they ended up doing something impressive to close the show- I walked out 30 minutes in to their set. For one thing, the singer, Bert McCracken kept calling everyone lesbians and faggots. It doesn’t matter what your religious or political standpoint is on homosexuality, that’s just rude. Rude rude rude. I cannot respect someone that does that. It’s one thing to joke with your friends and say something like that, it’s entirely another to be on stage in front of a bunch of 13 year olds (note- most of the audience was younger than me- I’m 21!) and say that and make them think that it’s ok. For another thing, McCracken is just arrogant, and not in the way that’s entertaining. It’s disgusting. And people WORSHIP him. Even when he begs fans to get up on stage to dance, and then he disgustedly pushes them away from him and calls them sluts, they still love every second of his presence.
And then there’s the political bull shit that I previously mentioned. On stage they had placed cardboard cutouts of policemen, soldiers in uniform, the President, and the political candidates. Once you see those, you can almost anticipate what direction the band is going to take that in. I don’t know if he magically spewed something relevant to the crowd after I had left, but all he had to say about the cutouts and the obvious political references he was trying to make was “Fuck you!” Not to mention while I was leaving he was referring to Hilary Clinton as the woman whose “husband got his dick sucked by the fattest whore around!” Because that has total relevance to any issue.
The thing that makes me the angriest about this is the fact that there were so many younger people there- most of whom are too young to vote. For many of them, this is their ONLY exposure to politics. And for this band to sit up there and flip off people in uniform and throw out political BS that has nothing to do with anything does just one thing- it breeds contempt. It makes these kids look at the nation’s leaders and military and even the police and teaches contempt towards these people for no reason.
What use is that? I mean, even if you disagree with president (most of us do anyway), even if you disagree with the war in Iraq, even if you get pulled over for speeding and you’re disgruntled about it, what use is it to stand on a stage and say “Fuck them” without saying why? If you’re going to be negative about something and send messages of contempt to your audience, would it not make sense to at least say why? Will your lack of a message not in turn, teach the younger generation to hate without reason? I fail to see the point.
-By Caitlin Elgin