Refused-New Noise and the shape of a loser to come
Its finals week and that means loads of papers, assignments and exams to prep for.
I don’t take it too seriously, it’s just school, after-all. Allison, on the other hand is driving herself and in turn, me crazy with finals prep. It took some convincing to get her off the chair and away from the books and out for the night (which is funny since I’m usually dragged kicking and screaming). We headed down to a local music club where apparently the trendy people go. Some local act, a girl whom is blowing up was playing a set and the place was packed tight since this would probably the last time to see this show for free.
I don’t drink and this essentially made me the lone sober person in the building. She doesn’t drink often but when she does? She makes up for it. She met a girlfriend of hers and they proceeded to dance with the other dancers. I hung back and chatted up with the security guy that I knew from a class last year and things were going fine. The main act showed up around 10 just at the peak of the crowd flow whom ignored the shitty DJ playing the typical stuff. Interestingly enough, the male to female population ratio was dead even. Guys either liked seeing the hot singer in a sauna of a building or got dragged to the show by their girl who was there to support the girl-powered rocker act. Basically, it was P!nk but with actual talent, good vocals and good looks. (Actually, I don’t know how I even made that comparison to begin with)
The show was going well, crowd was hot, she was (to steal a wrestling term thus dragging me back to dork status) “feeling it” and Allison was handling herself pretty well. Then came a moment that enraged me…
This chick was your basic pop-rock act, which is cool and all. That’s her thing. It worked. After her brief intermission, she came back and said she was doing a couple covers since it was her last night there…she played some wispy piano song that I didn’t recognize but the crowd did and went along with it. It was after that performance leading into her next song that pissed me off…
I’m gonna fucking change this shit up, get ready guys, this is “New Noise”!
(I’ll assume that a lot of people reading this don’t know what this song is but it’s from a defunct Swedish punk act from the 90’s that went largely un-noticed, The Refused and this was one of their best songs.)
She went into the song and I would say 20% of the crowd got it which was surprising considering it was mostly a poppy crowd. The band hit it perfectly but she wasn’t even close to matching Dennis Lyxzén' but really, who could? I was completely blown away by her effort though, I commend her for taking a stab at a song like this with a crowd that isn’t remotely connected with that style. This had me totally excited but what made it better was when Allison came up during the song and said “I can’t believe she’s doing Refused”. I never knew she heard of music outside the local pop station. I overheard, just as the song was ending some jack ass standing in the back alone looking as I would imagine a certain TSM poster to look like and started to razz on the girl for doing a “idiotic” punk song “trying to be something she isn’t”. Sort of like how he stood there and pretended to be an music aficionado but really just spewed out Pitchfork columns and went home alone, crying in his beat up van blasting The Smiths. Anyways, the fucking poser finished his little worthless diatribe and as the song finished with a huge reaction from the crowd as she went into her final song (her current radio hit), he started to protest again about her playing. I looked at this tool and shook my head.
He obviously came here, alone of course, just to heckle some very talented and probably soon to be successful singer without showing a shred of actual ingenuity. What prompts these types of people to be idiots? He was alone, so it’s not like he got dragged there and was protesting. He made the effort to show up at a very publicized event knowing full well who was playing and almost seemed rehearsed. Completely killing the mood, me and Allison walked away and he was left to his devices again. I went over to my security guard friend and pointed the idiot out (I wasn’t complaining , just making note of the douche bag) and he looks at me straight ahead and tells me “He’s here almost every night. He comes in alone, gets a vodka and red bull and stands there all night. Never moves but doesn’t do anything stupid except open his mouth from time to time, so we don’t care”.
I felt even sadder for this guy, why make the effort to go to this place, and stand alone quietly and when you do speak up, it’s just to disparage someone that obviously did something right to get a big crowd to see her. Oh well, these people do exist and there’s nothing left for them to do but sleep.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this entry, it’s finals week and I’m not stressed at all. My scores and grades are locked in for the most part and it’ll be another typical semester. Allison won’t be going to this school anymore (she’s staying at the main campus now but I’m taking classes in Middletown next semester). Which is good, actually. Seeing her everyday, having class together and all that made it feel like high school at times.
I’m still working part time at the body shop but got out of the office. Just doing routine oil changes and brake jobs, fairly pedestrian shit but it’s pocket change, so whatever.
I managed to have 90% of the holiday shopping finished already. I got the basics done (girl and intermediate family) and I’ll grab a few gift cards for the extended family and co-workers. I’m getting quasi anxious about the holidays. I just love them and I think this year has great potential to be memorable. Usually people fake their holiday spirit to mask their resentment and I can get that, I used to be that person but I figure you’re just better off not being a impostor and just letting it be honest. This will be the first time, I actually have something serious going on in my life on all levels at this juncture. I’m excelling in school, I’ll have a good job soon (not that I don’t already, but something more permanent down the line), a fantastic relationship that actually inspires hope. I’d try to be downhearted just to keep up with the façade for others but I’m not going to. Why is it that when you’re sad and lonely, you just wish you weren’t. Then, when you’re on cloud nine, you wish you weren’t feeling guilty for feeling good.
The BCS hoopla comes down to the final day and USC choked. Earlier this season, I predicted that Ohio State would play Florida in the NATIONAL TITLE GAME and if the BCS machine does the job right and denies the idiotic rematch concept, I’ll be right. I can’t get the NFL picks right and I blew the Bored contest but at least I got this fucker.
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