[Boston, MA] The
sound was painful before I’d even entered, waiting in line to get my wrist
stamped. I’d seen the reviews on the venue questioning the quality of the sound….
I didn’t have my earplugs in yet …. But this was metal! Buck up Dara! So I
remained optimistic and walked into the hellhole. Abrasive chaos. In addition
to a complete lack of order/coherence/melody to the music—I don’t know whether
it was the sound or the band—the vocals were …. Dream Theater. They were
described as ‘dream thrash’ on youtube gag. Soaring. Anthemic. Totally
disconnected from the music. Consistent with the rest of my life goals, I need
to reign in and revise my music goals –Do I misunderstand the glory of Iron
Maiden as prog metal? Did I misread prog metal as psych metal? Where’d I go
wrong? I can’t even stand listening to this band on youtube long enough to find
samples. On the flipside, the venue was interesting. I ended up behind the
sound people, positioned flat in the middle of the room— I’m unschooled but it
all looked very impressive. To be accurate, the sound stuff was flat between
the drinking people part of the room and the all-age people part of the room, a
really annoying Oregon regulation—rooms literally bow under the weight of the
drinking people side. Packed on a Monday evening. The crowd was diverse… well …
only in terms of age. 80% men. 1% with new-to-me modulated full-curly-hair (I’d
say white-afro if I were not currently under surveillance). This poor girl in
front of me was trying to dance along with her date, a kid in a faux mohawk who
was one of three people in the audience pretending the music was dance-worthy. In
some toothsome (not really) social drama, this woman in front of me asked the
lone woman next to her if she’d save her space on the ledge while she went
somewhere. Lone woman sort of paused—lord the whole room paused—and brave woman
used being from Seattle (???) as her excuse for bizarre behavior. Lone woman
caved and then it became this whole thing of Seattle gallivanting around while
lone woman guarded her drink and space. I developed a tremendous urge to just
go stand in this illegitimate saved space And Then all of sudden. A furry man
did it for me – I was so excited. Lone woman actually stood up for her new
friend. In side news, relevant for practically any event, I read a really
depressing article about the most recent generation, who have never encountered
life without smart phones—they get into less trouble because they spend so much
time at home on their phones—they sleep next to them, look at them first thing
before sleep, and first thing after waking up (this part got a little personal).
I don’t know what it all means but I purposely, even before this article, try
not to be on my phone even when alone in public. Hell in a handbag, we go.
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