The Original Note:

A Brief Comment on Buzzfest 18...
3:16pm Monday, Oct 9

If you've never heard Avenged Sevenfold, imagine Hoobastank imitating Metallica, then throw it into a 2D sidescroller on the Sega Genesis. Yes, their music belongs in video games, in no small part because the guitar sounds like a fucking synthesizer. During the concert, I felt like I should be flying over a desert destroying planes and tanks... or maybe pulling off a hairpin turn and frantically pressing the "NITRO" button.

They may play like they're hardxcore, but their lyrics are cheesy and the sound is whiny and inoffensive. I quote from the song "Sidewinder":

Can't you feel the poison rising straight to the heart of the venomous bite
Can't you feel the poison rising out of the morning and clear through the night
You can feel my strength destroy you straight to the heart from the venomous bite

That's right, "You can feel my strength DESTROY YOU STRAIGHT TO THE HEART!" Holy shit, you guys are truly the servants of Satan. Fuck off.



Regardless, Buzzfest was pretty great, except that I was really excited to see Everclear and their singer was off-pitch and off-beat, and the show sucked all around.


And the last performance, Alice in Chains, was pretty anticlimactic. Though they put on what I imagine their fans would call a pretty good show, they seemed really out of place, especially as the "headliner." Nothing says "Buzzfest" like metal from fifteen years ago.


~~~~~~~


My reply:

BuzzFest XVIII. Just yesterday. I went and had a wonderful time. I didn’t get to catch as many sets as I had wanted to, but I enjoyed the ones I did. Some more than others, yes, but I’m not about to throw a negative critique on any band. Each has their own fans, and who am I to value them less than they should be?

I attended entirely to see Avenged Sevenfold. Yes, there were others that I wanted to see, but none of them so badly that I would have driven three hours late Saturday night and three again at the crack of dawn on Monday, skipping class, losing sleep, and making the trip entirely by way of caffeine, which I rarely ever drink. I’ve been recently exposed to and upset by some rather inflaming statements, and I took my ranting to a dear friend of mine. She was likewise affected, but she suggested that, instead of trying to express just how upset I was, to tell her what I saw.

I saw. . .a band that was having sound problems, that admitted they were having sound problems, and played anyway. I saw band that apologized for their failure to perform the day before because of similar problems and refused to let that happen again. I saw a band that managed to get a circle pit started in the tamest of venues. I saw a band that played their hearts out, even when strings were broken, even though Zacky didn't have his "signature" guitar. I saw a band that extolled other bands onstage and off, showing up backstage to support their friends. I saw a band that, while they didn't sign for every one of their fans, signed flyers until there were no more left to sign, even running over their “allotted” signing time. I saw a band with a sense of humor, full of life. I saw a band that, when interviewed, talked about how much they owe to their fans, how they have the best fans in the world, and then got up to shake hands with whoever they could reach. I saw a band that, even when the interview was over, turned to the sides of the stage and reached through the bars to touch more people. I saw a band that posed patiently for pictures. I saw a band that was finally ushered through the gates, tired from fifteen months of touring, but still waved and smiled at the crowd as they left. I saw a band that cares. I saw a band that is still a close group even after years of working together. I saw a band that is eager to return to the garage and invent something completely new and thrilling. I saw a band that will return in a few years. . .even better than before.


~~~~~~~


His reply:

i guess your note is a response to mine, and I should let you know that I admit to exaggerating. I wasn't writing a realistic review of the concert, just trying to write something funny. Invective is a way to add a little humor, and come on, it's just a band....

i know you love A7X, but don't take it personally.


~~~~~~~


My reply:

Whatever your reason, I did happen to take it hard, whether or not it was the "right" thing to do. They are not "just a band" to me, and I'm sure that's why I reacted as I did.

But do note that I never bashed you and never actually mentioned you. And while "throw[ing] a negative critique" on something isn't a bad thing, I do think that dissing/trashing it is. Especially a band that didn't really do anything to deserve it, although I'm sure that I'm biased on the point of exactly what they may or may not have done. As I said, I know that each band has its own fans, and such invective tends to be taken more seriously, or so I've observed. (I'm not the only person to respond somewhat negatively to your critique, though I do believe my response was quite a bit more. . .controlled than theirs would have been.) You knew how much I loved them, I thought, and so should probably have expected something like this. At the least, it shouldn't seem completely absurd. I'm not thinking that everyone will see what I wrote and "side with me" or something equally ridiculous. I'm not asking you to change or remove anything you've said. You're entitled to your opinion as much as I am. But I really was so affected by what you said that I couldn't just do nothing.

And so. . .I did that. I figured there was a good chance I'd probably get some kind of shit for it, but I did it anyway. And so I stand.


~~~~~~~


His reply:

okay. :(

well, i think for some irrational reason i have not given avenged sevenfold a "fair" shot since i first heard them, maybe because i had predetermined what i thought they *should* be.

so, what you say is definitely valid, but honestly what i said WAS a joke.

just wondering (really), what do you think about the statement "Either it's okay to make fun of everything or to make fun of nothing"?


~~~~~~~


My reply:

Long awaited? Perhaps not. But I’m going to tie up any loose ends here.

I am not quite sure how to address this first part, honestly. What’s done is done. If you had already formed an opinion through some other source, then there’s nothing I or you can do about that. But regardless of your opinion, I fail to see exactly why it had to be put out there in such a way.

Even is it was intended as a joke, how on earth was one supposed to decipher that? What in your entire note gave any impression of being a joke? On the internet, it is honestly difficult to determine any kind of vocal inflection, sarcasm, and the like. And so the best thing to do is usually to make yourself absolutely clear. What I saw looked like a lot of shredding and far, far less like any sort of critique, let alone a professional one. Of course, chances are that most of the people who would have seen that are far less offended than I, though I am not exclusive in my opinion.

And as far as that statement goes, I heartily disagree. While I do think that sometimes, it is all right, you are well aware of my sense of humor. Or did you never notice how quiet I got when the conversation turned to making fun of someone? How I usually didn’t participate? It is not my particular brand of humor to bring others down for the purpose of entertainment. It is one thing to laugh with someone, but laughing at them seems a different matter entirely. Perhaps that makes me a stick in the mud, but I find that people tend to be less upset by things I say and, as far as I can tell, I make no enemies.

But now, what if everyone in the group shares the same sense of humor? In that case, if everyone knows what is a joke and what is not, then by all means, joke away. If you had shared this with someone else who knew exactly what you were talking about, then that’s all well and good. But you were sharing this, in effect, with a much larger group of people. And as I said before, how is someone else to know that you aren’t just tearing apart a band you happened to dislike? And it’s not like you wrote a critique of every band you saw that day. Where are Breaking Benjamin and Lostprophets? Perhaps you found everything about their shows to be splendid. That’s wonderful. Perhaps it was because you only criticised bands you didn’t want to see. But that can’t be it, because you also had some less than favorable things to say about Everclear and Alice in Chains, and I know that you came wanting to see them. Perhaps it’s because Avenged Sevenfold was a band that I had wanted to see. What about Eighteen Visions? I saw no comments about them. And even considering your remarks on Everclear and Alice in Chains, Avenged Sevenfold got had vastly larger section of that critique dedicated to them. It seemed to me like the last few paragraphs were thrown in just for variety’s sake, and that your note was less of a panoramic photograph of BuzzFest and more of a focused lens pointed directly at one band. You’re not making fun of everything here, nor are you making fun of nothing. You had, for the most part, one narrow subject. To use an example, Family Guy works and is funny because it pokes fun at everything. If it were attacking only one race, only one religion, only one group of people, it would be banned. You did not do this. You did not “make fun of everything.”

Just to make myself completely clear, I disagree with your statement. There are some things in this world that you just cannot make fun of and remain respected. There are some things that will not be tolerated. Perhaps it is one thing for something as impersonal as a television show to take such action, but for an individual, there seem to be certain rules that govern social interactions. And for the most part, they usually include not attacking things that another holds dear, especially if you actually care about said person’s opinion.

My point still stands, and that is this: You chose to direct nearly all of your less-than-professional critique toward the very reason I drove so far, the reason I spent so much money, the reason I missed other bands to wait in line for hours. My very strongest reason for going to BuzzFest at all. My much-emphasized favorite. And to post such scathing remarks, especially where I would so clearly see it, was less than gracious, and even more so when the target did nothing to deserve it other than to reject your notions of what they should be - notions formed before they had ever been given a chance in the first place.