The Music Post October 7, 2005 – Posted in: Aberrant Normalcy

We went to see Stellastarr* last night at Irving Plaza. (You may remember me babbling about tickets a few weeks back.) The Twenty-Twos and Giant Drag opened for them. My friend liked the 22s and their mostly female band members. In his words, “A chick with a guitar just kills me.” They rocked out for us and put on a better show than the second opening band, Giant Drag, who was really only just a little drag. Stellastarr* came out to mediocre applause and blasted us with about ten songs and one encore. I thought their music was spot on to the CD, a sure sign that this isn’t a studio band, that they can really play, but for some reason the crowd never really broke loose. I can think of several reasons: Most of the crowd was in their late 20s, early 30s and older. No teenie-boppers here. The crowd didn’t seem to know the words to any of the songs except “My Coco” which I believe is their radio/MTV song. It’s been a long time since I was one of the few people who knew all the songs in a show crowd. Overall, we had a great time.

Speaking of music, last Saturday a group of us went out in Hoboken to a little bar called Louise & Jerry’s (worth a go if you are visiting this town just for its eclectic jukebox). After some baseball game was over both TVs began to show (though thankfully the volume was off) a series of hair metal bands from the 80s. The VH1 broadcast fascinated most of my friends who began to rave about all these bands as if they were the second coming (how odd, too, since many of them had satanic imagery). So I began to get angry and told them (with expletives deleted) that I was going to blow their … off with a rock and roll mix that would make them forget all about their pretty boys and their hairsprayed hair.

While walking home I called some of my friends to rant about this, but I got their voice mail. I went home, rocked myself out with a few songs, then passed out on the bed only to wake up at 3 am to get sick. (Word to the wise, no matter how tough you think you are, alcohol always wins on an empty stomach). So last night, after the show my friend tells me he got the [drunken] message and pulls out of his pocket a list that he made of the bands! (Nevermind the “support the troops” motto on the side — his father has interesting tastes in note paper, and when I commented on this, my friend crumpled the paper and we started dissing Bush together. I rescued the paper, however, for your benefit). Here are the lists. AIC=Alice in Chains. QOTSA=Queens of the Stone Age.

Alas, all music is subjective after all, but I can say with unrestrained glee that I’m glad hair metal has left the building.