Sunday, December 5, 1999

Yesterday afternoon I worked a hardcore music show at Hurley's. As far as hardcore goes as a form of music, my gut reaction lately has been to say that it's not. Then I hear chords and rhythms, and I have to change my stance on the matter.

Five bands played at Hurley's, three of which I did most of the sound for. It's not easy to run a soundboard when you're dealing with hardcore bands. It's even more difficult when most of these bands are comprised of high school kids, who don't quite grasp that to determine who is coming through which channel, only one person should be playing at a time. There is also the added mentality (on the part of the bands) that more noise is good noise. Our soundboard at Hurley's contests that presumption with one of it's own: more noise is a red light on the board indicating immanent overload.

Overall, the show went well. Even though it's not easy doing sound for such a show (some of these kids had more equipment than my friend's band), everything sounded adequate. Also, the club was fairly neat after the show finished. Half the time the place ends up a mess. This time clean up was really easy.

I ended up at Hurley's again last night. WAIH had decided to put on a rave in the club. Myself, the Tall Guy and several other friends went and basked in the glow of dance lights while awash in bass beats.

A good time was had by all. Also, I got to see a friend that I hadn't seen since the semester began (he was going to come to S.U.N.Y. Potsdam, but decided not to at the last minute).

Once again, I find out that I'm offensive. This time, right in front of the entire staff at the WAIH meeting today, Tippler-girl (SEE: September 25, 1999) told me that a statement I made about a band during the Millennium Countdown offended her and several of her friends. The remark I made was that The Grateful Dead's prime audience is (was) white 18-25 year olds.

This girl had the audacity to say that a true, accurate statement was offensive. This girl had the audacity to accuse me of being racist in front of the entire WAIH staff. This girl dared to attack my methods of DJing. I was angry - very angry.

The thing that really upset me was that my friend took her side. I didn't even have a chance to defend myself at that meeting, and my friend agreed with her that the statement was offensive. That got him and I into an argument (now resolved).

The general manager of WAIH, however, agreed with me. The statement was that of demographics - not intended as, or even remotely racist. I don't even know which orifice Tippler-girl pulled that whole "it was racist" bullshit out of. Her and her friends must be on crack or something.