Sunday, September 26th: Club 9One9.
It was the last day of the Rifflandia festival, and only three venues were open. I chose to go to 9One9 purely because I wanted to see the band Bucan Bucan. I was supposed to meet up with the Shlesbian, Moon Rock, and Kittens. It wasn't to be - Shlesbian and Moon Rock decided to stay home, and Kittens arrived after I had left.
It was kind of a "blah" show - at least, the part I saw. And I had to work the next morning, so I knew staying up until 1:30 or so was probably a bad idea.
The Ballgag N' Chain Gang: I arrived a little late, and these guys were already halfway through their show. The music was very country-style, with a definite indie sense of self-referential humour. I kid you not, they had a song called "Hookers and Blow" which was entirely about wanting to be a rock star so you could spend your entire income on prostitutes and cocaine.
I enjoyed them a lot more than I thought I would. I mean, they had a banjo. And banjos are awesome 92% of the time. Imagine if Lynyrd Skynyrd hadn't mostly all died in that plane crash and then decided to make funny songs, and you'd have the Gallgag N' Chain gang. Apparently, they're also a band that occasionally cross-dresses and goes on stage in that incarnation... which is all shades of awesome.
Big Muff: Sigh. Big Muff. Allow me to tell you a story.
Years and years ago, I had a livejournal account. And one of the livejournal groups I belonged to was a group focused on playing the guitar, and getting gigs. I was using it to try and start up my own band, which (thankfully) never took off. Anyways, one of the people on this group was from Victoria, and the lead guitarist for a band named "Big Muff".
I talked to this girl a lot, following her blog from day to day as she chronicled her band's forming, gigging, and all that. I knew nothing about the band, but assumed she was the only female, and that they had a harder, "not quite metal, not quite punk" sound. Then, I stopped blogging on livejournal around 2001, and forgot all about her.
So when this band was playing Rifflandia, the name tickled my memory, but I couldn't remember where I had heard it until I saw her setting up her guitar. Turns out, the band had broken up in 2007 and had reformed just for the chance to play Rifflandia.
After two songs, I had enough and high-tailed it. It wasn't because it was a girl band singing about in your face, pro-feminist stuff. I have absolutely no problem with that (and love bands with female members). No, it was because the message they were singing was topical when No Doubt first came on the scene fifteen-odd years ago - and I really don't care. I don't care how promiscuous you are, and how that makes you tough. I don't care how in-your-face you are. It sounds silly when men sing about it, and, truth be told, it sounds even sillier when women do it, because they're supposed to know better.
Okay. Now the nice things - first, they can all play their instruments. If they applied themselves and tried updating their sound a bit, they might even be good. If they reworked their vocals and sang about real things (and not be so "tough" - it's just silly regardless of gender), it could be alright. And if they broke out of that verse/chorus/verse/chorus/interlude/bridge/verse/chorus/chorus structure they like to follow, who knows? In short, either they need to keep up with the times and update, or rework that music they used to love and find some unique spin on it.
Anyway, two songs in, I shook my head and said "fuck it" and walked home. There was no way I was going to endure 45 minutes of that for bands that I knew nothing about. I went home, picked up some Noodle Box on the way, and had a relaxing evening.
(Please note - the video I've linked to had only 3 views at the time of linking, so I think I'm not alone in disliking this band. )
Posts
And you missed the best band! Bucan Bucan were fantastic!!!
ReplyDelete