It seems a wise idea to keep digging deeper into the underground for bands nowadays. Aside from the fact that the underground generates gems faster than you can listen to them, it also holds a much higher promise of an enjoyable live show.

Too many times now I’ve been to see a reputable band that guarantees a large crowd. And too many times I’ve stood in the crowd, leering towards the stage, veering my head from left to right trying to find an unblocked path of sight so I can see the guitarist’s leg or the drummer’s arm or at least some ambiguous chunk of musician that would give some truth to the statement “I ‘saw’ the band”.

If you listen to a song, you don’t expect to have to adjust your speaker constantly as the sound cuts in and out. Yet at gigs, people pay increasingly ridiculous amounts to stand at the other side of a huge room and watch a band play. And the band is so far away that they could get a band of doubles, and most crowd-pleasing bands stick so religiously to their original songs that they might as well play along to a CD.

A certain nu-metal band recently charged a lucky number of adoring fans £100 to watch them play the sound check prior to their gig, then kicked them back out into the line outside the building to wait until the actual show. And as if this wasn’t bad enough, during the main show, the band proceeded to spout between-song clichés like “This is all for you guys!” and “We fucking love you, we love you all!” I won’t mention any specific band names, but theirs has certain ‘fatherly insect’ implications…

Digital downloads have placed a lot of emphasis on live music as a method for a big band to continue making money. But when a band’s priority list features money above music, the entire show is effectively tainted, if not ruined. And it seems the bigger the band gets and the more members the crowd has, the higher money features on the list.

So as you and those around you wave their heads from left to right like there’s a mass snake-charming going on, trying to catch a glimpse of a blurry silhouette 60 odd metres away that’s telling you how much it loves you, just remember there are smaller bands who are playing better music to rooms you could swing a cat in.

- Adam Stone

 

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