7 Seconds Show Part 2: There is such a thing as trying too hard...

My second post about the 7 Seconds show is (big surprise) about the second band, Champion. They're a straightedge band out of Seattle and they're pretty tight, when they're playing. The biggest problem with their set wasn't their music at all, it was that they spent way too much time between songs. I don't mind a little banter from a singer, but this guy spent a lot of time either asking if the audience is having fun (couldn't he tell?) or spouting some canned "we're all punks, isn't it great that we can get along" jibber-jabber. Don't get me wrong, I love going to these shows with several generations of punk rockers, some who are strightedge like me and some who aren't, and everyone just has a good time and no one fights and no one gets hurt. That's cool. But I don't need all the commentary on it. Anyone who's spent even five minutes at a good punk show can recognize how cool that is. No one needs to tell them. We're all punks, right? Why do we need to talk about it? Just play some songs! I bet they could have gotten two or three additional songs into a 30 minute set if they had just cut the chatter a bit and, to be honest, I'd like to have heard a few more.

The other problem with Champion was a similar kind of posturing. The Ottobar has a pretty small stage and Champion is a five-piece, so it was pretty cramped up there. Now Champion, being a hardcore band, wants to do a lot of jumping around and that's cool, but they had the appearence that they knew the space was small and they came across as being very restrained. They were going for reckless abandon, but that's really something you can't fake. I wouldn't say that ruined their performance, but there was a little bit of an undercurrent that said they were trying too hard. Of course, that's a lot better than not trying hard enough. Champion did put on a tight hardcore show with just the right dose of melody, but I think they wanted to be a little more unrestrained than they really were.