God I'm old

There's nothing like an all-ages show to bring father time rudly crashing down upon your distorted sense of personal youth.

Last night I went to see a punk rock show at the Black Cat. The Loved Ones, The Unseen, and some other band were playing, but I just went on a lark, so I didn't know any of the bands beforehand. Turns out they were "old skool" punk rock bands, complete with mohawks, pinned Agnostic Front tee-shirts, and the like. The kids in the audience, who seemed to be about, oh, I don't know....TWELVE OR SO, all had on tee-shirts and patches from bands who were broken up before they were even born. I haven't seen the Ramones seal so many times since 1988. Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, and the Misfits were other favorites of the kiddie set (I guess Jason's and my suspicions were correct, and new bands DO suck). Seeing all the retro outfits and little girls sporting mohawks made me crack up...literally. It was like a halloween party where everyone dressed up as what punk rockers are supposed to look like. Weird.

Anyway, the Unseen were the band most of the kids were there to see, and I've got to admit that while the music was bland, derivitive, and basically a bad Minor Threat ripoff, the energy of the kids all shouting along made it an enjoyable experience.

I really went to the show to see what amplifiers the guitar players were using. The verdict: Marshalls. In fact, of the five amp heads on stage, four were Marshalls (two JCM 800s, and two I couldn't make out the model numbers on), and one was a Mesa Dual Recto. The Mesa, by the way, blew all of the Marshalls out of the water for the distorted punk stuff the bands were playing.

Still, it was a wake-up call that if I really want to try to sell some amps, I had better quit monkeying around with this low-wattage stuff and focus on 50 and 100 watters to take advantage of all the bullshit market-driven brainwashing that the major manufacturers put out.