This is something I wrote a while ago in the form of a facebook note. As I haven’t really had time lately to make a real post, I thought the 2.5 of you who actually follow this blog might like something from me. Forgive the cynicism in both the aforementioned statement and in the coming post, I’m a 53 year old in a 17 year old’s body. Thinking back on it, seeing MGMT with A Place To Bury Strangers was awesome!
So KG wrote this review of the MGMT concert she, Anna, and I had gone to last week and it got me thinking…
I love MGMT and have done for a pretty long time. In fact I remember when I used to mention their songs and all I would get from people were confused stares and silently mouthed whaaatt?s. Anyway, this isn’t about my excellent music taste, and I’m not going to start one of those oh-so-commonplace anti-establishment indie kid tirades about how ‘I saw them first before they were sell outs and all of the rest of you are posers for liking them now that they are so cool it’s uncool’ I’m not quite that pretentious yet. But I am confused about a few things.
1. Why does everyone who goes to an MGMT concert feel the need to wear a dorky headband?
Admittedly headbands are pretty darn cool on some people (especially Andrew Vanwyngarden who looks good in pretty much anything; including, but not limited to: pink dresses, lobster hats, and war-paint), but at the concert I felt as if there was some secret MGMT fan dress code announcement and I missed the memo. Every other person was wearing one; it was like a sea of circular neon sea snakes swimming through an ocean of shiny German hair. I do not jest, it was friggin scary.
It was also a bit off-putting. I’m not one to knock people’s taste in clothing as I’m pretty fashion challenged myself, but as far as I know people wore headbands in the 60s to display their individuality, not as some emblem signifying their membership to some strange wannabe cool kid cult.
2. Why do people go to concerts and do nothing?
For a majority of the concert, our little group, like the three musketeers of fun, were the only people singing or dancing or showing any signs of life whatsoever. In fact, two headbanned girls standing next to me along the barricade simply stood there the entire concert, their expressions imperceptible, only moving to snap a picture when the lead singer came close or to grope violently at a thrown trinket.
Watching these girls I said to myself, “Why are they here? The aren’t having fun, they don’t look happy, I don’t even know if they like this music let alone know it!”
It was a sold out show full of people who didn’t seem to give a damn about the band. This is equal parts tragic and hilarious.
Maybe the concert was just the beauty pageant it seemed to be, or maybe there’s just this unspoken German etiquette of concert going that I’ve missed out on, or maybe I’m just being too critical. I don’t know. What I do know is that in spite of the soullessness of the audience, MGMT still put on a great show; complete with strange plants, scarf dancing and crystal cacti.
I guess in the end that’s all I can ask for.
Absolutely Horrorshow 