A couple of years ago while discussing the notorious grindcore pizza party debacle, a fellow impresario, Denyss, said something that still rings true to me today. “Convictions only last until they’re inconvenient”.
I love the truth. I love throwing my hands in the air when I encounter hypocrisy.
I had a candid conversation with a dude from a band that I heard recently refused to play my venue. When I announced a big show for the same day that his band is playing a venue down the street, he asked if his band could join my show. The band I booked are one of his favorites. I’m a pretty direct person and I don’t mince words. I asked him if there was truth to the fact that his band had refused to play a show at my venue with an outside promoter, thus canceling on me.
He admitted that it was true so I asked why. Once again, the infamous pizza party reared its ugly head. He told me that an internet keyboard warrior, supposedly a Crackwhore fan, had threatened one of his band mates on a random Facebook thread, a couple of years ago. It wasn’t me, or a member of Crackwhore that threatened the guy, yet we are the ones who get the hatred and the black marks? This is what I don’t understand. I don’t hear of any shit talk towards other places that have let ill named bands grace their stage.
Now I didn’t put his band on the bill because that would mean that I would be screwing with a colleague’s show that I work with frequently. I am forcing him to stick with his previously held, ill-placed convictions, even though he was willing to waive them to play with a band he liked.
Another fellow, who I granted his bucket list gig pleas twice, took to the internet slagging me and my workplace because I didn’t put his band on a third big name show. Oddly enough, it was a show last year with this same, most popular band. I seem to be the supreme collector of irrational internet snipes. It’s truly bizarre that just because your band didn’t get a slot on a show, you’d resort to sullying someones name. A lot of people who seem to enjoy this childish past time are people I’ve never met.
People tell me to ignore it but fuck that. It’s not their name being dragged through the mud. Even a couple of Fauxbalt types, were erroneously making claims that when I ran the Cobes it was ‘pay to play’ for the bands. With the help of some testimonials from bands that actually played for me they were set straight and actually apologized.
To be called a rape apologist, or misogynist is out of line. I was standing up for women when this new breed of ‘stone caster’ scenesters were infants. When they were in high school, I was raising money for rape relief, battered women and the homeless. I cooked meals that I brought to work in a crockpot, for the old pensioners on my Friday night bartending shift at the Asbalt. This was long before everyone became a suddenly compassionate activist after scoring a job in the poverty pimp system.
One thing to be said about the PC age we’re entering is that the truth always comes out. Something I’m personally working on is to cut the word ‘bitch’ and any other sort of slur out of my vocabulary. I just caught myself saying it the other day. It’s just stupid. I await the demise of the slagging keyboard warrior, it”s maddening and has hopefully run its course. But alas, soon we welcome the Facebook dislike button. Expect the obtuse, shit flinging ride to continue.
SUBCULTURE 