so, yesterday i went to bamboozle. it's a music fest in new jersey that leans towards the heavy/emo side. no doubt headlined, supported by the used, rise against and my bro's, the reason i went, taking back sunday, who were amazing. also, as an awesome surprise to me, VOD played. sick!
on the other smaller stages were a melange of musical outfits all doing their best to get attention from the 30,000 very young people who sat in the rain all day. as i walked around i noticed something, it was impossible to avoid, all the bands look and sound the same. you know it, they play the fast verse with the screamy singer and then bust into chorus with the emo singer, then end with the mosh bit (which, whether they know or not, is just s rewrite of the end of sepultura's "roots bloody roots', which can't be outdone, so don't bother trying). it got so pathetic, i thought the same singer just kept running from stage to stage. how are that many people born with the same timbre in their voices? it's astounding.
of course, my song "your punk sucks" played on repeat in my head. maybe it's always been like this since that song was written 5 years ago. it's a shame. i tried to be objective and not bitter old jealous guy. it was hard. none of these bands were better or more talented than mine or many other bands, they just have the right booking agent or as i later found out, paid to play. so many of these bands are young and are getting signed before they developed beyond just playing the music of their idols (which doesn't go beyond a 5 year scope), like so many start off doing. this was more than obvious when the later bands went on and gave the other end of the spectrum. original and well developed. what's my point? i'm not sure. just observation really.
