As you may or may not know from clinking the links to the right, I am the singer of a “metal” band. Metal, being a more “extreme” sub-genre of rock, has many many sub- sub-genres: power metal, death metal, black metal, numetal, alternative metal, etc. Prokaryon has always been in the alternative metal realm, more because we are “heavy” but not interested in “death” and also because we don’t “change tempo” or “time signature” “too much.”
Prokaryon was born in the Fall of 2003. You can surf our website if you want more details, but before Prokaryon, I was in a few other bands, the only other one that really attempted anything was a band I “fronted” call All the King’s Horses. All I have left of that band is a live recording at Jay’s Upstairs that wasn’t properly converted to digital audio from ADAT so it sounds “really really slow” or even “stoned.” We only played four shows before our drummer decided we weren’t drawing enough of a crowd and our bass player decided that he was too schizo to live.
Prokaryon played a lot of shows–not as many shows as other bands in the area. Hell, the Reptile Dysfunction could play circles around us, playing four shows in one weekend. But as far as metal bands, we did all right. We’d average one or two shows a month in the times that my throat wasn’t “effing up on me.”
We did a “little bit” of touring, going to Ronan, Kalispell, Helena, Butte, Bozeman, Great Falls, Laurel, and Billings. Our best shows were in Kalispell. Those kids knew what a show should be like. However, about half of the rest of the time, the shows were sub-par. I joke with my wife about my favorite metal dance: it involves standing in one place with your arms crossed and glaring at the band. Extra points if you tap your feet or bob your head. Though moshing can be fun to watch, as well, I finally understand why most people don’t do it. Moshing takes too much energy, and after a certain age, you don’t want to spill your beer.
But can I really blame the audience for refusing to interact, much less show up, when they hear the same sh!t they’ve always heard? At what point did rock (and metal with all the cascading subgenres) become more about keeping the faith than pushing the envelope? In my years of playing shows I heard much too often bands getting blasted for trying something different. H?ll, I even heard people get bashed for liking something other than metal. Years ago, I hung out with some punks, and it was a big coming out of the closet for most of them to admit that they liked country!! Though: (cough) only Johnny Cash. He was the original baddass. Then it almost became a contest to see who could have the weirdest closet musical fetish. We went through hip-hop, 80s pop, celtic music, 90s pop, country, 50 cent, big band, 00s pop, Sean Paul, Christina Agulara, etc. One of my favorite moments was cruising town with my friend in his SAAB. He has a tri-hawk. I have black eyeliner with matching fishnets. He’s more than likely a little bit drunk. I’m still a st00pid straight edge kid. And we’re both singing at the top of our lungs to Lords of Acid “Marijuana in your Brain“.
That was all before I joined Prokaryon and truly entered the metal scene. For the past few years now, I have worked my a$$ down into pencil nubs just to “try” to get people to come to the shows, much less get them to have fun at the shows. While the two main reasons will always remain the same as to which shows get the most people. In no particular order:
1) the more hot girls you can guaruntee, the more people will show up.
2)the more cheap booze you can pump, the more people will like the music.
Unfortuanatly, metal in Montana is slightly lacking in both of those commodities. We may have had an abundance in years past, but alas, no more. However, a third, important consideration is the music itself. I have noticed that hip-hop draws the greatest crowds in this country. I believe this is due in part to the inventiveness of the genre. Like disco before it, hip-hop encourages inventiveness over all else. Like punk, anyone can do hip-hop. Unlike most genres, talent is supremely rewarded.
Now, I’m sure the hip-hop scene works a lot like the metal scene, where it’s gotten corporatized and everything, but I have been to some “huge” shows of underground hip-hop. I’ve seen no name nobodies achieve overnight success because they can break a new beat.
I am supremely jealous of that. I would love to do that, to join that, to be that. However, I still want the high intensity of metal.
I will have my cake “and” eat it too.
Just keep tuned to Prokaryon in the future. We’ve already started working on some sh!t.
