I don't know why I still manage to get shocked. After all, it's not like I can look back at some glorious time when things where different. Things might have been better before I was born, but ever since I have been on this earth, I have held a disdain for the mainstream. I haven't figured out whether I'm a helpless optimist who holds on to hope that the intellectual level of our culture will improve, or someone who is in deep denial.
Last night I watched a movie that really spoke to me as an artist. It was Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. The film was about a Hollywood writer who gets to travel back in time to fraternize with the greatest authors, painters, and play writes from the 1920's. Coming back, my friend and I stopped to drink a decaff coffee in the car and talk about the movie. Our car was parked across the street from a dance club. As we were sitting with the windows down, the repetitive dance music coming across the street was just unbearable. However, what I couldn't comprehend was that there where people in that club "enjoying themselves" by having that terrible noise blaring in their ear, and dancing like morons. There is so much beauty in this world yet people want to spend their life in sweaty club dancing to electronic music with flashing lights?
"So what do you like to do?" is the question I most often get as a response to my rants. "I like Metal" I answer with pride. At which point I get a few smirks and rolled eyes. So, in this post, I would like to describe the typical experience that I had at a dance club, and compare it to the night of June 17 when I saw Cryptopsy, supported by Toronto's finest indie bands, at the Rock Pile.
The last time I had to go to a dance club, I had to dress nicely. My girl ironed my pants and my shirt that she picked out for me along with the socks and shoes. We meet a couple of her friends. We all shared a car, drove for about 30 min, and arrived at some dance club. We stood in the lineup for about 15 minutes watching all the pretty people with their souped up cars. We chatted briefly but that came to an end when we got inside. Any chance of conversation was squashed by the loud beats. I forced myself to dance for about an hour, spend $20 on a bottle of beer and two rum and cokes, then sat at a table for another hour wanting to go home. One of those drinks went to my girl and there was also a $10 cover.
When I went to the Cryptopsy show I wore my jeans and Iron Maiden shirt. My band mate stopped by before the show and we played some guitars and drank some beer. Then the trusty TTC took us to Kipling station where I meet another one of my friends, who was generous enough to share his mickey of whiskey while we walked for about 15 minutes to the Rock Pile on a warm summer night. We went inside the Rock Pile at about 11 pm, without a lineup, paying $15 at the door. Inside we treated ourselves to $9 mini pitchers of beer. We saw two local bands, one of them was Unbreakable Hatred. We used the time in between bands to chat and go on the patio to mingle with like minded people. When it was time for Cryptopsy, we sat at a corner table with an unobstructed view of the band. We watched in amazement while Cryptopsy dazzled us with their brutal riffs and fast tempos. They played a lot of numbers from their latest album since this was a small, last minute show. Occasionally we would jump in the mosh pit clowning around like we were teenagers. After the show we walked back to Kipling station where we all went on different Blue Line buses since the subway stopped running a long time ago.
There are enough metal bands in Toronto that one should be able to see a metal show any day of the week. Each night Front street fills up with hordes of dolled up people who are willing to stand in line, pay expensive covers, and get drunk on expensive drinks. Who are those people? Sometimes I think that no one actually has fun at a dance club but is only there because they believe that this is what it means to be normal. Other times I think that I'm the freak. One thing is for certain, I never had a good time at a dance club while on the other hand I can't remember a metal concert that I did not like. This leads me back to my original point: mainstream blows!
