COLUMNS

After attending the Starlight Mints/ Deathray Davies/ Steve Burns show last night, I came to an abrupt and unexpected conclusion.  It seems the Oklahoma music scene is doing relatively well nowadays.  Every few months a new record store or venue has opened within the confines of the Norman/OKC/Edmond area.  There are actually places to perform and purchase music; it’s a little startling.  And to top it all off, the previously mentioned bands were playing to a sold out crowd at the new Green Door.  This is big news folks because I cannot recall many local shows that are as high profile, and as well attended.

As the Deathray Davies took the stage and began to rock, I casually assessed the crowd attending the show.  Nobody moved.  It seemed that the entire crowd was paralyzed.  I am quick to point out the Davies are a bit captivating, but I know better than to attribute this phenomenon to the band.  I guess the fact of the matter is nobody knew what he or she was doing there.  Hundreds of people attended the concert without really knowing what to do or expect.  I’m not going in to detail describing some pre-scripted etiquette for attending shows (check out buddyhead.com “Rules of Rock” for audiences, funny and accurate), but this is ridiculous.  Supposedly everyone is there because music is what excites and moves us, but this was clearly not the case.  Many people just stood there like the performance was pre-record and projected onto a television screen.

This upsetting fact made me analyze my surroundings a bit more carefully.  First and foremost is the vibe that accosted me as I entered the Green Door.  It seemed like some kind of hipster fashion show, and I did not pack my favorite vintage thrift store attire.  But I will not drag this out or be reduced to name-calling because it is superficial and useless.  However I think that many negative aspects of the scene are attributable to the people who place the fashion and hipness of a show above the actual music.  This can be very troublesome at such a critical time in the development of our music scene.

According to my calculations fans of independent music, and supporters of the local and regional scenes are growing by the day.  However many of these people are getting into said activities for the wrong reasons.  Therefore they place all the emphasis of their identities on the negative aspects of the subculture.  This “trendiness” and elitism has no place in Oklahoma.  There is simply no room for it in this blossoming music community.  And by blossoming I mean exploding.  It seems that everything is growing exponentially in the area because of a lack of things to do.  I think this ties back to the fact that many people did not know exactly how to react during the show.  We are unable to develop and evolve, because we are growing and expanding entirely too fast.  Hence we, as a scene, are encountering growing pains so to speak.

You might say that I’m finding things to complain about, or perhaps I’m a cynic.  Fair enough, you are entitled to your opinion.  However I must call upon the conversation I had with the singer for the Deathray Davies, John Dufilho, before the Starlight Mints began playing.  He was discussing how excited he was before the show and how disappointed he was with his own performance.  I attributed his disappointment with the lack of audience participation instead of the band chemistry.  As obvious as it sounds, if the audience does not respond it is very difficult to perform to the best of one’s abilities.  It was at this time that I connected the dots concerning the whole growing pains issue and the lack of audience reaction.  I would not complain about the people too cool to enjoy themselves, but they are preventing EVERYONE from enjoying themselves, including the band.  I guess the moral of the article is this: Like everything in life, what you put into something directly correlates with what you get out of it.  So please do you best to enjoy yourself and interact with your surroundings at shows… and do not forget to bring merch money.

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