Jump to content

The Metal/Punk/Rock Thread


Egg Shen

Recommended Posts

  • Paid Members

Last metal night I was at, there was one of the crowd who had been there when I was DJing, a few years older than me. 

Friend of mine was DJing - one of the most knowledgeable people about metal I've met, and not a snob with it. Has DJ'd and written about the genre for over ten years, toured supporting Cathedral, did US and European tours with his old band, session musician for a few others, was involved with a small label for a while. Knows his shit. 

He's the bar manager of the venue, and it's their first time trying a metal night, so he's agreed to play the whole night to keep costs down while they gauge the interest level. So he's playing a nearly 6 hour set. 

Guy in the crowd starts (loudly) complaining to his mates about how, "this is shit, it's not a real rock night, he hasn't even played any Slipknot". Sounds like I'm inventing a strawman, but that's word for word what he said. He went on to say, "we can hear this shit anywhere else in town". Reader, we could not. It was a mixture of just completely failing to appreciate that the rock/metal music being played was valid as rock/metal in spite of not being one of the four bands that made up his frame of reference, the assumption that because it wasn't part of his frame of reference, that he must therefore know better than the DJ, the kind of petulant entitlement that all of his forms part of, and that all of this was coming from someone who would, 100%, self-identify as a "metalhead" above all else. And I'm wary of anyone making the media they consume a central part of their identity anyway.

It was during the same night that we watched a complete lack of reaction to a Soundgarden song being played, from several people who we had both maybe a week earlier seen posting statuses about how super sad they were that Chris Cornell had died, and the same night that another rock night regular walked straight through the door, and immediately up to the DJ booth with a list of requests. Didn't go to the bar to get a drink first, didn't go and speak to her friends, didn't stop and get a feel for what was being played, just immediately walked in and demanded that a list of songs be played, that the whole thing be catered to her. I told the DJ that he should have just said, "sorry, I've already played all of them". All kind of reminded me why I sacked it all off in the first place.

It's hard to complain about this without sounding gatekeep-y, or like a snob, but again, it wouldn't bother me so much if they weren't the same people wearing metal t-shirts 24/7, throwing "devil horns" gestures in every photo, and self-describing as metalheads. It feels like you're opening yourself up for criticism when you wear "I Am A Heavy Metal Fan" as a badge of honour and then have barely a surface level knowledge of the genre. I have far more time and patience for people who like one or two songs but don't make a fuss about it.

 

And it is fairly unique to metal, in my experience. It's only in metal where people have (by their own admission) requested obscure songs/artists when I started DJing in order to "test" me. It's only in metal where I've had self-avowed fans of the genre complain about what I'm playing in holier-than-thou tones, then request something like "'Halo' by Disturbed" (an actual request I got once, in a snotty voice from someone annoyed that was I was playing wasn't "proper metal"), only in metal where I've had people come to me with an actual written list of requests, and only in metal where people will get on the dancefloor for the song they know, then immediately turn and walk away when I put on a song they don't know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, BomberPat said:

immediately turn and walk away when I put on a song they don't know.

Oh god, a million times this. I don't think I've been at a metal night where the DJ has thought "We're on a winner here, lets drop something unusual in" and the place hasn't cleared.

I remember around 2005 when deathcore started to appear and coupled with Myspace it was easier to access obscure bands more than ever. There was so much snobbery with people constantly asking "Nice Nile shirt but have you heard of Job For A Cowboy/ The Faceless/ Through The Eyes Of The Dead" etc. I used to make up band names and then laugh to myself when they'd say "Yeah, I've heard of Radioactive Poopshoot but I've not actually listened to them" or "Oh yeah, course I know who Scabby Bumfister are, not listened to them since their first EP though when they were unsigned though".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
3 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

Oh god, a million times this. I don't think I've been at a metal night where the DJ has thought "We're on a winner here, lets drop something unusual in" and the place hasn't cleared.

It's the most annoying thing as a DJ, particularly when I was used to playing elsewhere before metal nights became my regular gig. Generally the rule of thumb is that once you've got them on the dancefloor, you can keep them there - so you might have to start out with playing stuff everyone knows, but once they're up, they're up, and so long as you don't massively fuck up, you've got them for the rest of the night. The best feedback I've ever had was after a set, dancefloor full all night, someone coming over to me and saying, "I loved your set, and didn't recognise a single song".

Metal's the only genre I've found yet where you can mix perfectly from one song into another, it can be perfectly in keeping with everything else you've played, but people will fuck off because they don't know it. It's really disheartening, because I would be spending a lot of money on new music every week, and a lot of time listening to stuff, and putting together playlists of tracks I think would work together. I'd hear an amazing new song, know exactly when best to play it, and think, "yeah, people deserve to hear this", or even just that I'd want to get a little self-indulgent and play a personal favourite, but the floor would empty, and someone would come up and request Chop Suey instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, wordsfromlee said:

Enjoying the new Chelsea Wolfe record. Different from her last one but still great. 

I've only given it one listen so far but I was underwhelmed. Sounds more like the acoustic/b-sides album she did the other year, I was hoping for something along the lines of the last couple.

 

4 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Pfft! Scabby Bumfister are just a poor man’s Satanic Arsefucker.

Such a shame they got outed as paedo racists. Now I can only wear their shirt to black metal gigs.

Edited by King Mal the Glorious
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members
On 9/19/2019 at 12:59 PM, BomberPat said:

I'm not completely ragging on nostalgia - it's perfectly valid, and the music you get into as teenager tends to be the stuff you respond to most emotionally. I just don't understand people who seem to have heard four bands when they were fifteen and then decided, "that's it. That's all the music I will ever need".

I think what bothers me most about is that they also tend to be the same people who make being a "metalhead" a significant part of their identity.

That about generalises it perfectly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

33 minutes ago, Professor Paul's Bin said:

Download Festival announcement at 2pm today for first few bands.

Really hope they don’t announce SOAD

? SOAD at Download was one of the best things I’ve ever seen.

Forget the year as they all blur into one but Daron saw an aeroplane overhead and said “aeroplanes in the sky...like aerials” and then they went into Aerials and it was fucking life affirming.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...