ALKALINE TRIO + Rufio @ Club Soda

By Dallas Richter - Don't Mess With Dallas - 06/21/2005

Upon entering the venue, some girl comes up to me and says, “hey, ya know what you should do with your hair!?”. I really feel like the appropriate thing to do would have been to say something awesome like, “I have to go over here now” and then just turn in the opposite direction, but I was alone at the show, so I played along, “nah, what should I do with it?”. That was to be the precursor for 75% of the show. I could picture hundreds of people in front of the mirror before the show thinking, “maybe I should go with the skinny red tie and the black shirt”. Or was it the other way around? You never could quite tell if people were satisfied with their clothing and styling selections.

Lordy, Lordy, Lord, what the hell happened? At what point was it exactly that I started to feel so out of touch? The music is OK, for the most part, and every now and then a good band comes along and restores some faith, but it’s not entirely about the music anymore. I dunno if I have the willpower to continue to be so unhip in what was once my scene, so maybe I should play along – “what should I do with my hair?”. As far as I can see it, the punk rock scene is slowly getting away from me. I won’t be one of those people that says it sucks now. It’s different and it’s not for me, but if you wanna do it, by all means…

Rufio was alright and Alkaline Trio was as well, but I just felt jaded the whole time and unable to muster up any of the feelings I used to get from punk shows. Maybe I’m being too critical, but I can’t get past the fact that image is everything. I’m glad that bands like NOFX and the Vandals are still around and doing some stuff in the scene, because there are but a few bands acting as my punk rock respirators. And when I’m dead, it’s all country and hip-hop. Yee-ha yo!

Shtick = suck

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