While at Oberlin, I was supposed to play a show, but it never materialized. But I did end up attending two parties where we were to have played, and...oh man.

Look, I normally maintain that hipster-bashing is pretty pointless, and it's not a thing I like to see in myself. But these parties actually made me physically ill.

First you have to understand that Oberlin is in the middle of rural Ohio. And for that, it's remarkably connected with the surrounding communities--students are very involved with initiatives to alleviate poverty and housing shortages, which are rampant in one of the poorest counties (Lorain) in the nation, and the co-op system is a strong supporter of local farmers--but it's still in the middle of Ohio and not in Brooklyn or LA or anywhere else.

So I walk into this party at the new cool kid house. The old cool kid house (I mean "indie kid," but Rachel and most of the Oberlin students use "cool kid" instead, so I will defer to them) was alright, and I saw a few shows there, and most of the kids living there were decent kids. But this party...I'm sure the fact that I don't know any of them had something to do with my revulsion, as did the fact that we hadn't been able to work out a show. But still: I walk in, and trucker hat, trucker hat, trucker hat, ripped t-shirt, dirty hair, hair metal shirt, sleeveless shirt, striped top...it was like walking into a party in Brooklyn that was a parody of parties in Brooklyn. It was just sad. I have no problem with the fashion, but at least it came from Brooklyn and then gets taken other places and they put an LA twist on it or a London twist on it or whatever. But this was so straight it was like a costume party supposed to be 17th-century France, but it was Williamsburg 6 months ago. And these kids are not cool--I know enough about them to know that. (That's a compliment, by the way.)

It was very strange, and I'm not saying I'm proud of the reaction, but it did help me to understand the point at which that fashion annoys me.
posted by Mike B. at 4:40 PM 0 comments