For those people who feel that I go to too many concerts I’d just like everyone to rest assured that I occasionally skip shows that I might otherwise see. For example, contrary to popular opinion I did not go and see Kevin Costner in concert last night. I am not making any part of that sentence up. Kevin Costner, for the lack of a better term let’s call actor, performed with his band at Harrah’s Casino last night. I can guarantee you there was a bigger crowd for him than there was for Soul Asylum or Rufus Wainwright in the same venue. I don’t even want to imagine why that would be the case.
I did think up some ideas of what I would have done if I was at the show. I would probably try to get as close to the stage as possible and heckle like mad. Here are my best ideas “For the Love of The Game was meandering and pointless”, “Seriously, a post apocalyptic drama featuring a guy trying to deliver the mail? You thought that was a good idea for a movie?” and “Dances With Wolves as Best Picture over Goodfellas? How do you sleep at night?” Well, they can’t all be gems. I’d probably just settle for “You suck, Costner” until they threw me out.
On to the topic of American Band. From what I have read this will not simply be a cover song competition in the manner of American Idol. Bands will have the option of performing either original material or cover songs. Now a tribute band competition would actually be a decent idea for a reality show. They had a bad celebrity impersonation show this summer but tribute bands are an interesting sub-genre of music that deserves a spotlight every once in a while. Any musical genre that feature Lez Zeppelin and a version of Kiss made up entirely of little people is worth an hour on Fox. But I digress…
On the whole I don’t really have a problem with the idea behind this show. It’s that feeling that a band is intrinsically better than just a person singing. Probably because my entire problem with American Idol is that the focus is entirely on the singer and not the song. In fact, you can barely remember what anyone sang after the performance, you just remember all of those vocal tricks like never holding a freaking note. You know, that Christina Aguilera “let’s vary a single note by three octaves in an attempt to give it meaning” which would make sense if the note wasn’t for the last syllable of “baby”. What I love about music is songwriting and words and emotion and those things are completely lacking on American Idol, where the goal is to provide the world with enjoyment in individually sealed packets.
Still, I doubt that we are going to find the next great band in one of these shows. There might be some with talent and maybe the next Hootie and the Blowfish is hidden in the mix. But I just can’t see a Nirvana or Sonic Youth deciding to base their future on a Fox reality show. People who are going to change the face of music aren’t going to do it through a talent show. They’re going to do it by staying true to themselves and performing what they believe in, not what Simon Cowell’s label wants them to in order to satisfy the tween demographic. Those bands are out there, you just have to search to find them.
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