I recently attended the Q101 show on Sunday night at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. This is the first legitimate pop rock concert I have ever been to. I have really only been to underground punk rock type shows before so I have never really faced the trendy public in such a large concentration before. At first I didn’t mind them but by the time the show was ending I was just sick of them.
There were a few different kinds of them as I will list below
The western/cowboy shirt hipster. They were ugly in the seventies and they are still ugly now.
The thick black framed glasses hipster. You’ve probably seen the type before. It seems that you can’t throw a brick without hitting one of these guys now.
The t-shirt and suit jacket hipster. Just plain stupid looking.
The rocker-mom’s. Let’s drive Timmy to the concert tonite and then stick around a pretend to be cool and stand around In everyone’s way.
Oh yeah and to everyone at this show-If you are going to stand in a large group in front of the stage at least move around a bit. Everybody at this show was like a fucking statue. no jumping, no movement except for the occasional fist pumping and that was a rarity at this show.
I don’t really have anything against these people, I’m just sick of this cool rock&roller pose I see everywhere now. If you are going to dress up and pretend to be a rock star at least act like a rock star and do something else besides standing there trying to look cool.
There it’s done. Lame like I said but hey, I need the practice.
BTW, I’ve been lurking around here for on this board for a while and I would just like to say that I like your style.
These shirts are actually quite awesome. It’s one of the few “hipster” fashions I endorse, since it’s a return to spiffier men’s wear (a shirt that buttons or snaps down, as opposed to T-shirts and jeans all the time). Floral western shirts are the best.
Black square-framed emo glasses NEED TO DIE. Round thick black frames, however, like the type worn by Le Corbusier, are awesome. It’s too bad I haven’t been able to find them anywhere because people who make glasses frames are obsessed with manufacturing a million minute variations on the same stupid styles.
Yeah, especially when done with jeans. However, a T-shirt with an entire suit is somewhat cool, especially when done with those opera shoes with little bows on them a la Cecil Beaton.
Yeah, I really wish people at concerts would give me more room to do my awesome spastic dancing.
It was Snow Patrol(who was one of the worst bands I have ever seen), The Hives(who stole the show) and Franz Ferdinand(who rocked despite having to follow The Hives.)
Wait, you went to a show featuring those three bands, sponsored by a radio station called “Q101,” and you were annoyed that there were hipsters there? Snow Patrol are on their way up to super-hip status (they’ve been “marked” for about six months now) and the Hives are right in front of them in the line. Franz Ferdinand has already had two (?) top-twenty singles, and their music is imaginative and innovative and is damn-near the only thing that rocks on the radio anymore, so they’re probably on their way out until they release a follow-up album. That ticket, that concert, was doomed to be swamped with the hipsters.
I feel your pain, and maybe it’s just because you hadn’t been to a trendy show before, but this is just baggage that goes with the ClearChannelization of concert venues, and you have to expect it. In short: I agree that they’re asshats and they need to spend a little bit less of daddy’s money on looking cool and a little bit more brainpower on being cool. But I can’t gin up any sympathy for your rude awakening.
…which doesn’t mean I won’t kneel behind one of them if you promise to give him a good firm shove into the mosh pit.
What mosh pit? these people are too cool to mosh. I did expect there to be hipsters at this show(and you are right this is my first trendy concert) but thats all there was at this show. 1998 hipsters and then my friend and I. It was funny when I started making faces at people though.
Any good rant I’ve ever read has at least some of the following characteristics:[list=a]
[li]Any sentiments that piss on other people’s religious faith, philosophical tenets or political viewpoints.[/li][li]Lots of cursing (With extra credit for introducing new filthy sexual phrases to the board).[/li][li]A balanced mix of pop culture icons, puns and obscure references.[/li][li]Links, links and more links (Think chain).[/li][li]Puns, double entendre and other transparent literary tools. [/li][li]Self-Deprecating Humor.[/li][li]Blanket generalizations and insults spewed at entire groups of people.[/li][li]Exaggerations, leaps & insinuations (Acceptable forms of poetic license in the Pit).[/li][li]Verbalized sadistic fantasies (Performed on any living thing).[/li] [/list]If we examine and parse your rant - we could probably tweak it a little and get a whole firestorm going…
To: Resolved: It’s Time For Chicago To Revert Back To Its Polka Roots – Holy Blessed Mother Fuck! [sup]a/b[/sup] Could ‘alternative rock’ sink any lower into the cesspool of diahhrea and spunk [sup]b[/sup] it currently finds itself in? I now have living proof that the homogenized douche bags in their satin baseball jackets [sup]c1[/sup] at radio station Q101 and the people that listen to them in Chicago have about as much intelligence and tastes as your garden variety Arion ateragg [sup]c3[/sup]. I’ve learned my lesson; anyone who goes to a show promoted by the same people who have the likes of Mancow, Turd, Sluge and Fook on their payroll [sup]d[/sup] should probably have their head examined [sup]e[/sup] anyway.
My short lived days as a Papa Roach poseur are through. I declare today, 12/7/2004, as Pearl Jam Goner Day - A day that will live in infamy s[sup]e[/sup] and a day in which I officially shed the hipster label and return to the underground. I tried leaving my punk roots behind and following the masses down the oft traveled pop-rock route – but after my first (and final) experience at Q101FM’s Twisted 11 concert, I’d rather stick safety pins in my eyes. Being an Iggy Pop fan, I’m quite used to assaults on my auditory senses [sup]f[/sup], but after what I witnessed this weekend, my eyes are still stinging…[ol]The Hives? Talk about your non-talent ‘Johnny Come Lately’ bands. I’m convinced Courtney Love has more talent in her clitoris than these Swedish fags [sup]g[/sup] have in their entire discography. Who let these assholes with their Escape from Nashville wardrobe out of the garage anyway? Couldn’t they have waited until the carbon monoxide got to them – or they hung themselves on those idiotic looking string neckties?[/ol]Etc., etc., etc…
I don’t get it. They were “hipsters” because they were wearing “bad” fashion? Or because they didn’t move much at a rock concert? That seems a little incongruous to me. But then, I’m older than dirt, so perhaps I don’t know what “hip” really is.
Is it considered cool these days to go to a rock concert in western shirts, geek glasses, with your kids and not dance or something?
Man, am I out of it, I dress up and actually dance…What a square I must be
[QUOTE=JohnBckWLD]
Any good rant I’ve ever read has at least some of the following characteristics:[list=a]
[li]Any sentiments that piss on other people’s religious faith, philosophical tenets or political viewpoints.[/li][li]Lots of cursing (With extra credit for introducing new filthy sexual phrases to the board).[/li][li]A balanced mix of pop culture icons, puns and obscure references.[/li][li]Links, links and more links (Think chain).[/li][li]Puns, double entendre and other transparent literary tools. [/li][li]Self-Deprecating Humor.[/li][li]Blanket generalizations and insults spewed at entire groups of people.[/li][li]Exaggerations, leaps & insinuations (Acceptable forms of poetic license in the Pit).[/li][li]Verbalized sadistic fantasies (Performed on any living thing).[/li] [/list]If we examine and parse your rant - we could probably tweak it a little and get a whole firestorm going…
To: Resolved: It’s Time For Chicago To Revert Back To Its Polka Roots – Holy Blessed Mother Fuck! [sup]a/b[/sup] Could ‘alternative rock’ sink any lower into the cesspool of diahhrea and spunk [sup]b[/sup] it currently finds itself in? I now have living proof that the homogenized douche bags in their satin baseball jackets [sup]c1[/sup] at radio station Q101 and the people that listen to them in Chicago have about as much intelligence and tastes as your garden variety Arion ateragg [sup]c3[/sup]. I’ve learned my lesson; anyone who goes to a show promoted by the same people who have the likes of Mancow, Turd, Sluge and Fook on their payroll [sup]d[/sup] should probably have their head examined [sup]e[/sup] anyway.
My short lived days as a Papa Roach poseur are through. I declare today, 12/7/2004, as Pearl Jam Goner Day - A day that will live in infamy s[sup]e[/sup] and a day in which I officially shed the hipster label and return to the underground. I tried leaving my punk roots behind and following the masses down the oft traveled pop-rock route – but after my first (and final) experience at Q101FM’s Twisted 11 concert, I’d rather stick safety pins in my eyes. Being an Iggy Pop fan, I’m quite used to assaults on my auditory senses [sup]f[/sup], but after what I witnessed this weekend, my eyes are still stinging…[ol][li]The Hives? Talk about your non-talent ‘Johnny Come Lately’ bands. I’m convinced Courtney Love has more talent in her clitoris than these Swedish fags [sup]g[/sup] have in their entire discography. Who let these assholes with their Escape from Nashville wardrobe out of the garage anyway? Couldn’t they have waited until the carbon monoxide got to them – or they hung themselves on those idiotic looking string neckties?[/ol]Etc., etc., etc…[/li][/QUOTE]
You see the problem with your interpretation is that I really like The Hives and Fran. The problem wasn’t with the bands that were playing, but the way the people were acting. Or I should say not acting.
I could be one of those “rocker moms” - I don’t have a teenage kid, but I’m old enough to. I don’t pretend to be cool; I just act like me. I listen mostly to 94.7, which is one of Q101’s main competitors and plays a harder rock lineup. If I like the goddamned music enough to buy concert tickets, I’ll go there and not care if someone thinks I’m too old to be there or that I’m just trying to act cool. I won’t apologize if my age ruins someone else’s concert experience.
I used to be so into alternative-type rock. These days, though, it seems to be a morass of pseudo-angsty emo crap, ironic brat-pop hipster crap, or late-to-the-party wannabe punk crap.
Crap.
I’ll just be over here with my Tom Waits and cigarettes.
I resent the folks who look at me and get their panties in a wad because I’m not moving to the music in an appropriate manner. I like to generally just stand up (or sit down) and listen. Sorry if I’m acting too ‘hipster’ and spoiling your fun.
Sorry, iggy, but your OP makes you sound like a pretentious whiny little teenager who has nothing better to do than worry about what other people wear. Get a life.
I don’t know if any of those fashions the OP mentioned are lame in and of themselves, but they’re so unoriginal now.
And unoriginal isn’t even necessarily bad, but unoriginality presented as individuality or as the “rebel look” is getting into lame-ville. Someone who’s truly hip isn’t wearing a look that every other dude at the show is wearing, as well as half the bands.
Are hipsters still sporting the shaved head and goatee look accompanied with the wallet on a chain? At first that was a tough guy thing. It was always someone you wouldn’t mess with. Then, it made its way down to really doughy soft guys. Nothing against doughy, soft guys, but if you’re going to try to throw a tough guy vibe, try being a tough guy first.
That’s about as worked up as I can get over what other people wear.
For whatever reason, it’s nigh impossible to get a Chicago crowd dancing. The only shows I’ve ever seen in Chicago where people actually moved to the music was a Poi Dog Pondering show and a Strokes show. It’s a fairly common complaint of the local music audience.
Maybe I just went to the wrong venue. The people at the Metro always seem to be having a good time. I’m going there for the Blue Meanies show in a few weeks with backstage passes.
