BrokeNCYDE, Drop Dead Gorgeous
The Max
February 5, 2009
Better Than: Traveling seamlessly along I-35 without any traffic or onlooker congestion, allowing for an early arrival and a front row spot for all four bands.
Well, the scene is still the place for local teens to be seen: A social outing for some and an athletic event for others, last night's show at The Max was not lacking in multi-colored hair or skinny jeans.
Or windmill kicks...
In the Max's large open room (made classier by white Christmas lights on the ceiling), teens were chugging Monster energy drinks and stretching out their calf muscles in preparation for the hardcore dance moves they pulled during each set. The curious dance looks almost tribal in form, and resembles
a flailing version of the cultural practice exhibited by the Trinity
Trojan football team before its games. But since these suburban
teens aren't, well, actually doing an ancestral ritual, and since most of them are
pencil-thin, it doesn't look quite as intimidating.
Meanwhile, the show's line-up exhibited the same amount of diversity as the kids
that came out to watch it--which is to say, um, that it didn't exhibit much diversity at all. Each band
produced some variation of hardcore, fast-paced music filled in by
screaming almost completely unintelligible vocals.
The crowd, the stage presence, and the thousand dollar light rig
belonged to BrokeNCYDE, the overly--and overtly--crude main support
act: "We're gonna get sweaty, naked and crunk," one of the band's members said when
taking the stage. Covered in fog and outlined by red, green and blue
lights, the band's faces and features were hidden.
But the members were far from
bashful. Musically, think Hollywood Undead meets Kanye West meets your
Speak & Spell from back in the day--then throw in the chorus "You make my
pee-pee hard, you make my pee-pee hard" and, there you have it, BrokeNCYDE in a nutshell. (Although, you shouldn't use the word
nutshell in front of them; they might end up writing a filthy song
about it.) Consisting of one auto-tuned vocalist, a screamer and a guy
running computer tracks, BrokeNCYDE is all style and little substance.
And yet without drums, guitars and with very few melodies, BrokenCyde has somehow garnered a fifteen year-old fanbase.
In front of an older audience, BrokeNCYDE would be a funny novelty act
that, if flask was in hand, you might shake your booty to. Coming from
an older perspective, though, in front of the Max's all-ages crowd, they kind
of looked like assholes. The band's song "Too Drunk To Drive"--which, out
of all of its songs, had the best beat and structure, and, for once, didn't appear to have been written while drunk--was prefaced with a
question that related to whether or not audience members ever had
over-used alcohol.
The less than 21-year-old crowd roared. They
followed that up with a song about getting a sugar mama, but preferring
to fuck her friend.
Nice.
Meanwhile, for many, headlining act Drop Dead, Gorgeous (pictured above) gave the least memorable
performance of the night. Although its music was more hard-hitting
and its songs were more structurally developed than the other bands
of the evening, there was no visual element set in place to engage the
audience. That is, unless you count the singer's resemblance to The
Used's Burt McCracken as a visual element.
It's unfortunate that
talent becomes second-place to showmanship and flashiness when a bill
consists of several bands whose music sounds so similar. But if
today's teens aren't constantly amused, they become bored and start
hitting each other.
Lastly, Eyes Set To Kill from Phoenix deserves a mention. Its
audience engaging tactic? Two hot female band members that could rock
without question (one on bass and one on guitar and singing back-up
vocals). Young bands are becoming more of an equal opportunity
situation, with acts like Texas' Eisley, Christian band Ilia and
mega-force Paramore holding down the fort for the ladies. Even though Eyes Set To
Kill played a powerful set, the soft, low back-up vocals didn't
mesh well with their loud, growling screams.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: Don't get me wrong, I enjoy music with the occasional
shout, scream, holler or growl, but I usually don't take much from
music I can't relate to, understand or absorb lyrically. So, in
general, I'm not a huge fan of bands whose lead vocals consist almost
exclusively of screaming.
Random Note: Drop Dead, Gorgeous has had an ever-changing set of members since its
formation in 2004. Former keyboardist Aaron Rothe now plays in Sonny
Moore's new band. Sonny Moore is the former frontman of rock band From
First To Last. Oh, the interconnected musical web we weave!
By The Way: The Max is a great, underutilized venue. Its location isn't ideal, and
it's hard to spot from I-35, but the stage is huge, the sound is always
great and the staff is amazingly nice.
