Sweeeeeeeeet Emo Sons Sweeeeeeeeet Emo Sons Talking bout things like “Nobody cares.” Playing out in stuff like your neighbor wears. Selling c.d.s but nobodies buying. ‘Cause their all sick of your bitching and crying. Suuuuuuuuuuuuck sssssssuck succccccccck.

Sorry. Got a little carried away there. Emo. Thought that was a large flightless bird akin to the ostrich. Nope just another variety of music. Just another label.. Soft rock, hard rock, Old school, New school, emo, indie, Americana, rockabilly, punk, industrial, new wave, grunge, goth, classic rock, hair band, arena rock, math rock ska, nu-metal, old metal, black metal, speed metal, suck metal, death metal, Good God stop it already! All this labeling does is help divide and weaken live music audiences.

There just aren’t that many live music fans that are willing to go see a band not in their genre. I know because I’ll go to see just about anyone as long as they are good at what they are doing. Hell, I can laugh anywhere. How many of you are willing to do the same? I go to metal shows and see pretty much the same people over and over. Never see those people at a Supervillains or Joint Chief’s show. Then again I’ve yet to see Skart and company at Pain Principle’s.

Labeling puts a preconception in your mind. Hey, I’ve been guilty of the same thing, but different. I was a gender labeler. Yes, it’s true. It’s like this: I generally don’t care for female singers. Especially the high voiced, every move choreographed ones. Then one night Puce from Dirty Barby asked me to come hang out and see Double First Cousins. I had no idea who was who when we got there, The singer looked as if she had just left a ship christening, Jackie Kennedy dress, log scarf around her neck. Totally incongruous with what she was about to do. Bass player was dressed like a bum I swear I thought he was going to ask me for a quarter. Then they took the stage. Holy Shit. Sexpot bluesy trailer trash rock. Any chick that sings a song like “I Got a Bottle in My Car” is okay with me. Killer voice, killer music, a killer show that was totally different. Cant ask for much more. But…if he had told me we were going to see a girl singing some rockabilly I probably wouldn’t have made the door.

Hey, it doesn’t always work out. After hearing people talk about Dirty Barby I went to see them live. I swear, when he started “singing” I thought my pit bull was buttfucking the cat. Couldn’t stand them. But the cool thing was I was honest but they didn’t hold it against me. A good time was had by all, so it was worth it anyway. The point is I went. A lot of musicians have been getting a bit worried lately. A couple of the live venues have recently closed, leaving even fewer places to play. But those same musicians will only go to bands that are pretty much like their own. Stuck up, pretentious label snobs. Fans too. Metal heads at metal shows, punks see punk., emo’ers whine with each other. It also makes for too many “award” shows.

The Orlando Weekly Awards, The Punk Ska Awards, The Metal Awards. The Suckass Awards, now that’s one I’d like to see. Anyway, all these sub-sub categories takes an already select group, (live music fans) and causes them to divide into sub fans, and it makes audiences even smaller. For instance, if there were 100 live music fans and 3 live shows, all different categories of rock, 33 would be at each show. “Death metal, oh hell no, that’s not real metal, if you’re a real metal fan listen to Black Metal, now the real shit”. If those same people would put out the effort to see something different, a band with a good reputation of a different ilk maybe there would be 100 at each show. That “My rock is the only rock and your shit sucks" attitude is cutting your own throat.