Dear John Letter - Agression

I believe that the theory has been proven; indisputable proof of how pathetically easy it is to play the 'highly coveted' Punk Rock Posing festival nowadays. The secret to it is simple.

Just flat out suck, OR, play less than 1 show in your entire history... hahaha

Yeah, I know, I know, after we all stopped laughing at the Local 'Punk' bands that were already chosen to play the thing, now word comes along that the band Illicitor, who have played a whopping total of ONE gig as a band, are opening up one of the coveted club gig spots, as well as the band New Cold War, who have never played a gig as a band in their entire musical life. Ahhhhh... Favoritism and Cronyism... and what better place to rear their ugly heads than in Sin City, a place that flourishes on BS like that. Such a shame that it's so blindly accepted nowadays by the Punk Rock sheeple perpetrating the myth that this so-called festival is nothing more than a money making scam that's no better than any other exploitative force that's ever disassembled and sucked dry any musical or youth culture that's come before it. I guess it's just easier to tolerate it, accept it, and turn a blind eye to it when it comes from someone who was in a band that you used to really like when you were younger. And before you get all a flutter and start thinking I'm hating on those 2 bands, or that I'm jelly, I'm not. I don't know anything about them, and neither do a lot of other people. I only cast the spotlight upon those bands to illustrate the point that it used to be about earning things, about putting in the work to deserve a place on a good bill, Hell, even just writing a good set of songs that a lot of people like, and then, after proving yourself in front of a crowd a few times over, THEN you get the lofty position of being the opener on the bill, given the honor of playing to the punters as they're queuing up while waiting for the headliners to play, and playing for the glorious memento of having your bands name on a flyer with the logo of your Heroes band bright and big above yours. Big whoop dee fuck. Do bands even make flyers anymore? Not that I know of, not unless they're in that annoying group of slick, glossy paper that gets tucked under your windshield wipers after a gig. Ugh! Don't get me going on that...

Where was I? Reading that back gives me no clue. I was going somewhere with it... oh yeah - humor. Funny. Jokes. Punk Rock Posing is a joke. I find it sad that soooooo many people are like, 'Well, yeah, the bands playing this year are lame, and the lineups suck, but I'm going anyway, because my clueless friends are going, and I'm too much of a sheep to be an individual and not go." There must be something cool about seeing a tiny band on a big stage from yards and yards away in an outdoor venue where the sound is shit that I'm not getting, nor do I want to. Whatever. And I don't even see why bands wanna open for the damn thing. Short of using it as a way to get out of paying the pricey entrance fee, it really serves no purpose except for ego stroking, which is fine if that's what you're into. It's not like anyone got signed to a real record label because of their massively impressive performance opening up @ Punk Rock Posing. I can't recall anyone getting picked up as an opening act because they impressed some band with their amazing performance @ PRP. And all the while, the Stern Bros. take another surfing vacation to Fiji with the money they make off of Punk Rock Posing, resting on their musical laurels and beaming with pride that they were finally able to live up to rich Mommy and Daddy's dreamed potential for their little boys. Phooey. Old guy rant over. Moving on. :-)

Fri. night was fun. Nothing better than playing a rockin' set and then heading outside to see a taco truck set up there, like it was waiting for me... hahaha Thanx to everyone for coming out. Jenn O. Cide was there, which was cool. I bought some stickers that Anne promptly stole from me. Thanx to Taken By Chance photography for the pictures of us playing, which you can see by clicking here. If we would of had some beards in our band she probably would of taken more pictures of us... ;-) Fun night. Frank & Deans were interesting with their 3 part vocal harmonies and unusually structured covers of songwriters standards like Love & Marriage, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, and, of course, My Way. People really dug the shit out of them, and they had a big crowd of people there to see them play, so I dunno, maybe a band doing 40's covers from the Rat Pack days is ironic/cool, and I'm not seeing it... hahaha Frank & Deans were alright. I've definitely seen worse. At least they can play, especially that guy with the beard. I didn't stick around to see Water Landing, but they were playing some sort of a mini-acoustic set before we played, so that was... weird? LOL I didn't do shit all weekend except practice with bands with initials - S.F.T. and G.B.A., LOL. I missed out on CH3 Sat. night, and I couldn't find a single person that wanted to go to that gig, which again, was, weird. I just stayed home and enjoyed my new Netflix account, watching weird movies and entire TV series in one sitting.

Everything's updated. There's stuff I'm forgetting but I'll remember it later. I always do. I think I'm gonna try to see Death Angel tonight @ Vinyl after Civilians practice... that could be interesting.

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