October 10, 2000: What the Hell Happened?

Punktoberfest, 1997: Ah, the memories...

I doubt most of the people I know online will know what the hell I'm talking about, and I'm not planning on sending this page to anyone I know in real life. I'm just typing this up for some sort of release, I guess. Anyway, it all started in October, 1997. As usual, in computer class, we had nothing at all to do, so we were sitting around bullshitting and making obscene PowerPoint slide shows. Then, Joe asks us if we want to come to the show his band Fake was playing at Saturday, and handed us a bunch of flyers. So that Saturday, I bummed a ride from someone and made my way up to Adventure Theatre, and I was blown away. This was my first real exposure to punk rock in any form, (I knew who the Sex Pistols were and I knew about Glen Danzig's old band, and that was about it) and I was impressed. People were dancing, people were moshing, and in general, everyone had a good time. (Except for maybe Not Dead Only Frozen's bassplayer who left after the band made us chant "Snowballs, snowballs" at him...) I bought a couple tapes and a No Idea zine / CD comp, and went home happy. Through the years, I kept going to these shows, and generally rocking out and having a good time. Over the next year or so, the Cleveland, Mississippi punk/ska/hardcore/etc. scene became famous for being crazy, and generally kicking ass, even nationwide. But now, anyone can see, something's just not the same...

Fast forward to the show Saturday... After an... interesting... set by the Crispy Monkey Project, The Vericose Kids got onstage, and I must say, they were good. Energetic, raw punk that I swear, at times seemed to almost have an thrash influence. The kind of music where you can't help but jump around and dance and have a good time... But then, you looked across the floor while they were onstage... No one moved a fucking muscle. Aside from a few head nods and tapping feet here and there, it was dead. A lot of people had their backs turned, talking to other people, and not even paying attention. What the hell? Aside from a few freak incidents here and there, and maybe four people dancing during One Reason's set, (if you can call that "270 pound guy stumbling around, trying to be like the 150 pounders" crap I was doing dancing...) the people were dead. It was like they didn't care. This is not the Cleveland I remember. This is not the Cleveland that inspired Skot Diablo to proclaim, "I never thought I'd be saying this, but the town of Cleveland, Mississippi kicks ass." Something is wrong...

I never really was part of "the scene." I don't keep in touch with most of the people, and aside from some between-class and during-work small talk with Ginger, Lexie, Kay, and a few others, and making PowerPoint obscenities with Joe, I barely even know most of them. I never had a band, I never followed a band on tour, and to be honest, aside from an affinity for bands like Minor Threat and Turbonegro, I barely even like punk. So as a semi-outsider, it gives me kind of an objective view of the situation. (or, it means that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about) The people in the scene the way everyone wants to remember it were younger, and a lot less mature. People were into pop punk and hardcore (real hardcore, not the "heavy metal with short hair" kind) mostly, and were all about goofing off and jumping around and actually enjoying themselves. But people got older and "matured" (blah), and things changed. And you know what I really think started the destruction of the scene? I blame emo. That's right, emo. All the people starting to listen to this stuff and the Misfits shirts becoming replaced by Promise Ring shirts happened at about the same time things started going downhill. I've found that most of the time, the way people act seems to result from whatever music, books, etc. they're into at the time. People were no longer into being goofy and having a general "you suck, let's smash bottles in the street and burn stuff" immature attitude that, let's face it, is what punk rock is all about. Everything started being about feelings and emotions, and in particular, dwelling on emotions, rather than actually doing something about them, or actually releasing them. Emo isn't a form of music where you can go crazy and have fun. There's no energy. Everyone just stands around and tries to be intellectual, or clever, or whatever. Emo is just too restrained, and seemingly more about keeping emotion inside than letting it out in a 2 minute burst, like normal punk/hardcore. People are holding themselves back, and it's resulted in a non-scene where people seemingly just go to shows because of some obligation to the scene, rather than actually wanting to go. The goofing off and laughing and having fun has been replaced by an endless, meaningless soap opera of shit-talking and pissy attitudes. The scene is dying, and I blame the proliferation of emo.

I know some may be saying "stop living in the past" and that "things change over time," but just because something changes, it doesn't mean that it changes for the better, or that you have to accept the change. (I'll spare you another "Metallica is a bunch of glam rock buttholes now" reference, heh) And you can't look at Saturday's show and a show from early 98 and say Saturday was better in any way. I just can't accept this, dammit. The Cleveland scene was, and is, worth saving. I know I'm not really part of the scene, so I doubt I can really change things all that much, but if any of you Cleveland people ever happen to stumble across this page, I have a solution to the problems, and this solution is summed up in four words...

Wouldn't you like to have this back?

LIGHTEN THE FUCK UP.

Just because someone does one little thing you disagree with, it doesn't mean you have to hate them forever, and you have an issue someone, try to work it out with them, rather than talking shit to other people. Set an example. If you want things to change, start acting like how you would want things to be. Maybe after a while, things will change, and if they don't, you can at least rest comfortably, knowing that the scene dying wasn't your fault. If there's a band onstage that you are enjoying, let them know you enjoy them. If you know the words, sing along. Loudly. And just because everyone around you is standing still, it doesn't mean that it's illegal to dance. Start moving and maybe after a while, those fuckers will move, too. When I finally manage to get out of this shithole state and look back on my years in Cleveland, I don't want to remember the scene where The Vericose Kids played to deaf ears or where the kids had their backs turned to the bands. I want to remember having my first stagedive to Durge, or having 30 sweaty kids screaming things like "Sex!! Murder!!" or "Fuck Elvis!!" in unison. And I'm pretty damn sure that's what everyone else wants to remember. Things can be the way they used to be. Just lighten up, and see what it's like to have fun again. It's your scene, and it doesn't have to die.

UPDATE: (May 2002) From what I can tell, people have stopped starting, talking, spreading, or stirring shit, and the last few shows I've been to (after a year of not being able to go to any because of work) have been pretty damn enjoyable. Hell, one of my favorite bands now is considered emo by some folks. (Hot Water Music) Shoot me.

2006 Reflections: Looking back on this one, I probably screwed a lot of stuff up in my criticisms of the form of music known as emo, basically because I didn't know shit about it. (Or the roughly five-thousand forms of music incorrectly known as emo these days, but that's another rant entirely...) Upon further review, I suppose I was probably wrong about emo lacking any real sot of release of emotion. I figure if you're the skinny little dude on stage screaming and crying and shit, you're getting a lot of that stuff out. But my criticism of the average emo kid is something I still stand by. Rather than using the music as a release, it became some sort of weird "I'm more emotional than you" pissing contest where emotions weren't so much worn on people's sleeves as they were artifically made up to seem more deep, thoughtful, and angst-ridden than the next guy, creating shitloads of unnecessary drama. Instead of helping kids deal with shit, it created more shit to deal with, and the times and places where you were once able to cut loose and have fun became places where people argued and pulled all kinds of passive-aggressive shit on each other. Anyway, I just think it's funny that my Gammacide-listening ass actually thought I could come up with a credible "scene report" back in those days. I love the way the internet makes us all think we're more knowledgeable and important than we really are.

But anyway, yeah, emo is still whiny crap, and I still hate it, though.