Not that I imagine that many people (or any) were bound to go to this show because I posted it, or expect to see me there, but I just can't go myself after all.

Not that I'm destitute-poor, exactly, but even after being part-time employed for about 9 weeks, I haven't made much of a dent in my outstanding credit-card balance (which Allen has been whittling away at more than I have for the last 9 years since I was last full-time employed). Unforeseen car expenses didn't help. and I'm currently having a minor nightmare regarding my car insurance (worth mentioning, to vent, but not worth going into detail about). At least it appears I still have it....

Anyway, I took a close look at my balance this week and, after splurging recklessly on a $45 Ani DiFranco / Hamell On Trial show (It was a good show; I'm not complaining about the price, just my lack of self-discipline), I realized I just can't put out another $25 plus about twice that in expenses, even for a band from my college radio youth, even for one of the first wave of Sire Records punk/new wave signings, even for a band I didn't see the first time around, even to get them to sign my copy of their first album.

But money isn't what kills my impulse to go; the other bands playing and the reason they're playing together does that.

Just this morning was the first time I got to The Stone Pony website www.thestonepony.com to order tickets. So I just now learned that the show is "The 10th Anniversary Party" for the "Electric Ballroom" program on The WRAT - a local hard rock radio station.

errr, ahh, uhhh...

I guess I'm making an unfair aspersion about a program I've never heard, but the station, last I looked, is just a testosterone depository. I'm as attracted to testosterone as the next Gay Man, but not without some mitigating brain synapses, something to give it any creative flair at all. I mean, unlike the headline I gave this blog entry, the Dolls are the headliners, Tuff Darts are fourth (and opening act) on the bill, and to me that's just backwards. The Dolls have always lost merits with me for stealing some of the facade of early 70s New York decadence, but missing the reality, blurring over the pain, extricating the soul -- and the soul-deadening pressures that better bands rose above.

And I dunno where it was that I diverged from the majority about what to value and how one evaluates rock and roll. Maybe it's the lyrics. Maybe it's the lack of social connection I feel with rock and roll culture generally. Maybe it's my sense, whether I'm projecting it (at the least) or, hopefully, whether I'm able to sense what I value most in a musician no matter what genre or style they're working in: when musicians present in their music what makes them unique, what makes them real, what's true to them when they look in the mirror and take an honest assessment of who they are.

The Dolls don't attain those qualities. They're an oldies band playing songs that never meant more than putting new drag on an old costume party. (And I've seen bands both well-known and semi-obscure, now reduced in large part to being oldies bands, who are just fine. Because they're blessed with strong songs not hobbled by material now so out of context to what they are now that they're ridiculous.

And what is it about the expectation that if you like one band's guitar riffing style, then you'll of course like lots more of the same (often by lesser creators)? Why is this a nearly universal expectation? I love Tuff Darts' stripped-down rock and roll style. But, geez, that doesn't mean I like AC/DC or Kiss. (I don't.)(Gasp.) (Yes, it's true. And for similar reasons as why I don't like NY Dolls: They strip the real from their gender-bending, leaving something "safe" and fake and without substance. Which equates to Dull, for me, no matter how loud, psuedo-outrageous, or bombastic they get. Kiss-does-Kabuki critical credit holds no sway with me: I hate Kabuki music.)

I think I recall that Tuff Darts were compared to Kiss (and not favorably; the tyranny of the majority preferred(s) trash, and so sought it out and hailed it rocked; anything not as popular sucks). But Tuff Darts share more with The Brains and The Tubes: They were tight-rocking and aimed to please, but not at the expense of losing themselves in the crowd. They're great at a clever turn of phrase, witty in ways that resonate with me. (The line/title "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" doesn't rise to the level of wit, for me, and neither does anything in the Dolls' "Personality Crisis", and those are just about the high-water level lyrics of those two bands.) Tuff Darts and The Brains never had a hit. (Though the leader/songwriter for The Brains wrote "Money Changes Everything", which was Cindy Lauper's third hit.) The Tubes had several but are relegated to minor leagues. But all three shared a combined good time rock and roll energy supporting many non-redundant songs about (clearly) deeply felt and deeply observed whatever, and were sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, and sometimes surprisingly subversive, by getting a real message virally stored in a deceptively catchy song.

So this just isn't the show I wanted to attend.

I guess my copy of Tuff Darts first album is gonna stay buried in its box a little longer.

(But if you aren't so disinclined / can afford to go and just see Tuff Darts, no doubt it's worth it. NOTHING about this rant should be misconstrued to undermine my support for live music; there are too many hard-working, talented musicians who need you to show up. I'm just not at this show tomorrow.)