My walk to "Le Salon Vert” was an interesting one.
Walking on upper St. Laurent, being distracted by all the really cheap Indian restaurants, my senses were cut off by a mass group of interesting people gathered outside a gallery exploding with indie music and laser lights. For a brief moment I thought to myself that this concert might actually be pretty exciting, with all the glimmer and interesting-looking people.
Unfortunately, this awesome venue was not the Green Room. I continued walking down the street and then I recognized a tiny group of smokers, clad with punk attire that always reminds me of Middle Ages garb. The Green Room is a grungy bar with a tiny platform for performers. The place wasn’t even filled and it reeked of body odor, I badly wanted to unleashed an Axe-spray bomb into the crowd.
The two opening bands, Unfun and another whose name I couldn’t wrap my ears around, because the music, if you can call it that, blockaded my eardrums and prevented any sound from entering. A slight exaggeration yes, but these two opening bands were unbearable. I have no clue how anyone around me could even make out the lyrics, if they even had any, or could relate to the angry smashing and ghoulish screams they were making.
What was nice about the Green Room was that they close doors at midnight, the opening bands started at 9:30, I couldn’t wait for Pierced Arrows to finally get on that stage, so I could get the hell out of there.
Finally Pierced Arrows on the stage. Pierced Arrows was originally a band in the '80s that combined garage rock, punk and country and originally called themselves Dead Moon. The original Dead Mooners, singers/guitarists/songwriters Fred Cole and Toody Cole, which have reached a prime age of retirement, still kick it in Pierced Arrows with Kelly Halliburton on drums. These veteran artists know how to excite the crowd. I found it interesting that there would be a rock/punk band, in which the lead singer is married to one of the members. It totally goes against the image of the life of a rock-star who sleeps with all his groupies.
As happy as the crowd was to hear this veteran band, I couldn’t decide what was worse, their terrible combination of genres that came out sounding like garbage or their saggy skin flowing back and forth on stage. I do give them credit for fighting the years to stay young, but their uncouth appearances just gave me the feeling that I was watching a group of junkies ranting on and making a racket.
After a few songs, I could not take this genre of music anymore. I decided that I would sacrifice the chance of seeing them eating a vampire bat or resurrecting the dead, I quickly ran to the door and went to Reggie’s bar, anticipating the cheap beer and slightly quieter music.
-David A.
Comments
Ahh . . . CJLO
"I couldn’t decide what was worse, their terrible combination of genres that came out sounding like garbage or their saggy skin flowing back and forth on stage. I do give them credit for fighting the years to stay young, but their uncouth appearances just gave me the feeling that I was watching a group of junkies ranting on and making a racket."
"I quickly ran to the door and went to Reggie’s bar, anticipating the cheap beer and slightly quieter music."
Why do you guys continue to let clowns like this give your station a bad name? This writer is completely uninformed and moronic. Saggy skin flowing back and forth? Bailing to go to Reggie`s?
I've watched this thread with
I've watched this thread with interest over the past two weeks and thought maybe now was the time to say something. While, I can't speak for our magazine editor, I do believe that at the end of the day, we can't win 'em all. I implore all readers to take a look around the rest of the magazine to discover some really excellent stuff.
One of CJLO's mandates now is to provide Concordia students with an outlet to build experience and to learn. Sometimes they miss the mark. I am of the school of thought that a review like this could use some re-thinking and a more objective view on things before it goes to print. Perhaps it shouldn't have been posted at all, but now that it has we are certainly not going to censor and take it down. This is one of the many reason's we enabled the comment option on the new site, so that dialogues can be started such as this one. On the plus side this attracted a lot of traffic to the site and started a conversation, which is never a bad thing.
As I said, we have a lot of great stuff kicking around on this thing. It's unfortunate that such an amazing band was at the mercy of a writer who simply was not informed and who really just does not like this style of music (that's ok, we all have our opinions), but at the same time this is a teaching point for said writer so hopefully something positive can come out of such a thing.
If anyone ever has any further comments or concerns or positive or negative feedback we can always be contacted at feedback at cjlo dot com and are happy to hear all points of views as well as suggestions!
This is the new gonzo. Good
This is the new gonzo.
Good work.
this is hilarious. cjlo
this is hilarious. cjlo should mandate a policy to employ only culturally stunted/sheltered people to write their reviews. as offensive and and flawed as it is (in every way), this is actually one of the most enjoyable reviews i've read in months.
should the author start a blog, i'm sure it would receive a strong following from the ironic community at large. if you need help naming it, i'd be game to help out. you could model it on this facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ShitMyDadSays/223123485280?ref=sgm. i'm not having you on either. i actually really appreciate the unabashed sincerity of the author, though i'll admit to being pretty offended at first.
-SH
Well...
It seems to me that a concert review should be more than a retelling of the authors experiences and more of a face-value assesment of the concert. It's fine that you didn't like the music, the venue, the crowd, the smell, the beer, the walk, the age of the band, the fact that your idea of "a rock-star who sleeps with all his groupie" was shattered etc... etc...It's fine but it doesn't matter. This shouldn't be about you.
This is be about being a reporter. You should at least make an effort to understand WHY someone else might be there. Why were other people at the show? Were THEY having fun? Did THEY like the first two bands?
A concert review isn't about YOU the concert go-er, it's about the concert. At the very least don't brag about how you don't like new things that scare you.
you are a dork.
you are a dork.
What's the point of reviewing
What's the point of reviewing a show if the contributor is not even interested in the music?
Too bad to see these good bands get trashed by a guy who's obviously not into it.
you suck
what the hell kind of article is this?
what the hell?
I'll admit that I don't know any of the bands mentioned here but what the fuck kind of garbage review is this?
"a gallery exploding with indie music and laser lights. For a brief moment I thought to myself that this concert might actually be pretty exciting, with all the glimmer and interesting-looking people. "
YOU CALLED THEM LASER LIGHTS.
None of this is informative or even well written. You sound like my dad complaining about my ace of base tape in our station wagon when I was 9.