| On a wonderful, sunny, Southern
California afternoon months ago, my friends and I set foot in the Los Angeles
Coliseum parking lot to attend the Van's Warped Tour. We were
ready for a full day of great music and good times. But throughout the
whole experience, I couldn't help but to get a sick feeling. Listening
to 8 hours worth of punk rock tends to open one's eyes, or in this case
ears. The music began to mush together into an indistinguishable ball of
crap. One band after the next step foot on stage, only to sound like a
carbon copy of the previous. But that wasn't my main problem with the whole
situation, it was the sense of Punk Rock idealism getting way out of hand.
Most of the people in attendance were what I would consider a "poser,"
for lack of a better term. Whether it be the teeny-booper "New Found Glory"
crowd or the Hardcore "Rancid" crowd. All of them seemed as unrealistic
as your typical Saturday morning cartoon.
The fact that Punk Rock is trendy
will continually be denied by the Punk Rock purist, but the truth just
can't be hidden. With stores like Hot Topic selling Punk paraphernalia,
even little Suzy Straight-Edge can get her mitts on a spiked belt with
matching bracelets. Of course, this was exactly the type of people you
saw at the Warped Tour. Freshly-baked punk rocker, seemingly just weaned
out of TRL bullshit. But the truth is, Punk Rock is just as corporate as
Britney Spears and Pepsi.
Now, let us not forget the title
of this article. Hypocrisy plays a major part in all that is Punk. Take
Rancid for example. Rancid supposedly embodies all that is punk. With their
idiot leader Lars Frederickson, they preach anti-establishment ideals and
are against anything that could possibly considered "mainstream." They
spoke up against Greenday and Offspring signing to major labels and finally
making a living from their hard work. Of course, punk rock can never be
about money, and all artist must live in their self-made ruts forever.
So, if Rancid is so against "the man" why are they on a tour sponsored
by corporate powerhouses Vans and Target? Target for god's sake, fuckin'
TARGET!
So basically, with all this information
I've came up with this simple conclusion. The only way to be truly Punk,
is to be either dead or be a vegetable. |
