N.E.R.F.

Live and Lousy

So I was pretty excited about Live ‘n’ Loaded. Anything to further local music, even if I know it’s going to be a lame show trying too hard to be young and punk rock, and why the fuck are you trying to be punk rock if you’re mostly indie? Stop trying to look like early to mid ’90s MTV. Other things that pissed me off:

The director of photography. Stop making your cam ops do that stupid seizure-inducing zoom every 4 seconds. It does not make things more “exciting” or the people on screen seem more “energetic” to home viewers; it makes me want to throw up when you zoom in and out repeatedly like that.

Utt was totally awkward. Isn’t he supposed to be good at handling crappy music and a juvenile crowd?

They cut off the closing band (GSE). Do that on talk shows all you want. Don’t do that on a show dedicated to music. Gosh, jerks.

If you don’t have enough time then cut out the ridiculous “dress like a rock star” segment. Fuck Topshop (as much as I like my sweater).

If you still don’t have enough time, don’t have an already successful band do two songs. Even though Electrico played pretty well there. And they should have live brass more often. And Amanda Ling is really cute.

Crowd-surfing. Every. Song. And do you think it’s cool making little hand puppet shapes on national TV? I understand you crave attention, so quit monkeying around, do something good and get on the fucking stage.

The copy on the website is obviously written by a 30-something trying to sound excited about a youth programme.

I guess I was really hoping for something more in-depth, more in touch with the people out there already rocking tiny crowds, putting shows together on shoestring budgets and working their asses off to get a record out. Instead what I got was something that panders to fans of well-known bands, and makes use of complete unknowns - the school bands, jamming in bedroom bands, played one show and don’t really have any good material bands - for some cheap street cred. Nothing for the people in the middle, the people who’ve given everything and need everything we can give them.