Madness of crowds

Correction: I should not have made too much fun of Kansas’ loss to Oral Roberts as Oral Roberts features the 900 foot Jesus. He’s really tough to defend in the low post. Either that or MC 900 Ft. Jesus is on the squad and even that guy has some shifty moves.

(Yeah, I’m an Illini who wouldn’t mind seeing that traitor Bill Self fail miserably. I’m just a little bitter about a coach quitting his job at a point where it was nearly impossible to find a successor. Thankfully, Weber can coach and wears cool fluorescent orange sportsjackets while doing it.)

I decided upon something tonight. I always talk about how I like seeing bands in small clubs and how I hate it when bands get big. I finally figured out why, when I first see a band typically the only people who like the band are there and they are all cool. As the band gets more popular suddenly all of these people who aren’t nearly as cool you are surround you and instead of enjoying the set all you can do is think, “Who the hell let these morons in?” It’s a dangerous tipping point.

This is on my mind since I just got back from seeing Old Crow Medicine Show and they have moved from their bluegrass following to more of a jamband following. This means that yet again I was forced to deal with hippies, white people with dreadlocks, Deadheads and a bunch of guys who think that beards make a really good fashion statement. I swear, these people will be sixth against the wall when the revolution comes. (I’d have them higher but I figure it’s going to take some time to get them to the wall. We’ll probably have to announce a Phish reunion concert in Vermont and account for van breakdowns, money crisis, and really interesting cloud formations.) While I appreciate that they support these guys (who are some of the best musicians around), it somehow takes some of the fun out of the show for me.

(And can someone please explain the beard thing to me? There were dozens of guys there with really scraggly beards. I know Kansas is behind the fashion curve but I was confused as to what decade I was supposed to be in. Now if you want to know what’s hip, check out Starzan Tees: where not doing the required reading is a prerequisite for cool.)

It was a good show but not a blowaway one. Liberty Hall never seems to mike them correctly, which has to be tough given that they only use pick up mikes and they have four vocalists. They’ve always sounded tinny in that place. It’s still amazing to see these guys go at it at full throttle. They are a bluegrass band made up of a bunch of young guys and they play like they’re in a punk band. Plus, one guy plays a guitjo and he does it extremely seriously, possibly because playing a guitjo (which is part guitar, part banjo) is nearly impossible without growing a third arm. Check them out, put them in your Pandora playlist, the usual drill.

That’s about it. I’ll have my thoughts on the new Damien Rice disc next week. My first thought is you have to listen to the song “9 Crimes”. Wow, that’s worth buying the album right there. Until then, I’ll be off on my usual adventures. Have a fun weekend, Go Irish, and may we find a way that both Ohio State and Michigan lose on Saturday.