Why?

Caught an excellent set by Why? at the MFA on Friday. Well, excellent apart from one certain thing…

I’ve written numerous posts about hipsters, so finally allow me to riff a little on this one. The MFA’s concerts are in a little seated auditorium, which makes for a great atmosphere during acoustic sets, but a bit of an awkward turn during the eclectic, electric stylings of Why?. Some people are there to sit and some are there to dance. And some are there, in the case of hipsters, to make things a little miserable for everyone.

A few songs into the set and this very nice, earnest, teenaged Why? fan a few seats over was compelled to stand up and dance so hard that there wasn’t a second the kid stopped. Perfectly reasonable response to the excellent set. Unfortunately, behind him, a few nascent hipsters weren’t too happy. But, instead of kindly asking the kid to sit down, they proceeded to flip him off and curse at him simply for enjoying the music (some hipsters just can’t enjoy things). At the end of the song, one of the hipsters (granted, a quiet one who genuinely wanted to sit and watch the show) asked the kid to sit down or move to the side. So the kid, clearly into the music, moved over to the aisle/staircase, where he was joined by a number of his friends. And then a number of other people. And the numbers grew until Why? frontman Yoni Wolf proclaimed, “I like what’s going on here on the left side.”

Enter the hipsters. The same hipsters who couldn’t deal with someone slightly blocking their view in a normal and civilized manner, decided to follow the crowd now that Wolf had proclaimed it the “cool thing” to not only join the crowd on the side, but manuver their way to the front of the crowd and the stage, thereby blocking other people from viewing the show. Now that’s hipocritical.

I’m not too big on making quick, snap judgments about things (that’s part of the point of this blog and my take on emo). That includes people. But it’s a bit of a part of simply living – you end up making snap judgments even if you try not to (after all, you only get one first impression… sorry for the cliche). Even in the common event of me making a snap decision, I try and reconcile that by always getting to know a person or thing. But, it certainly is hard to do when all you see of a person is the negative side of things. I can certainly see why people aren’t too big a fan of hipsters, scenesters, trendsters, or whatever else you want to call them.

So it goes.

Why? – Song of the Sad Assassin (video):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3uviZFcakw]

MC Lars – Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock (fan video) (goes along a bit with the theme of this post…):

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26NaGLx6Tdg]