Review: Shame Concert

On Saturady, 18 March 2023, my wife and I attended a shame concert (a somewhat hyped english ““““““““post punk””””””””"" band). These are my impressions.

To be fair, we almost didn’t go. Earlier in the day we went eat pastéis (salty, the brazilian flavor ones), then later we got a pizza. お腹が痛い。

The doors opened a 8pm. The opening band was scheduled to start at 9pm. We were there at 8h50pm.

I was kinda surprised once we got there. No lines, place was kinda empty. The place was cool. The merch stand. The bar. Lots of visible emergency exits, huge difference from Brazil.

Since there was nobody there, we went as close as possible to the stage. Plus, my wife is short and I am on the medium to short side by Brazilian and Portuguese standards, so it’s a good idea to get as close as possible. A bit of foreshadowing, but ended up being too close.

The opening act was performed by a hip hop duo called “They Hate Change”. I am not very much into hip hop, specially modern. The songs lacked diversity. The audio wasn’t too good, for example the high hats were pissing me off. Felt a little bit out of place there.

Then finally it was time for shame. I’ve been told by a friend (thanks Lais) that mosh pits are common for shame concerts, which triggered us to move even closer to the stage.

When the band entered the stage my first reaction was: “those are a bunch of white nerds”! I don’t watch videoclips, interviews or anything around the music. I only listen to albums and nothing else. So sometimes I miss the obvious things.

The band’s sound is very powerful. Even though I think the album version is heavier. They started with Alibis.The crowd was singing along. I looked at my side and a ~18~20 years old guy was singing so loud and jumping as if he’s meeting an Idol. Maybe I didn’t belong there.

So here’s me really close to the stage (aka “na grade”), with everyone around me singing out loud. And I don’t fucking know a single lyric because I only listened to the album while I was working.

And to be fair, what the hell do they have to say that is relevant to me? Life has been hitting me hard, and that’s one of the prime examples. I am not a teenager anymore, and I value a completely different set of experiences than what the band’s lyrics (and most <35 old’s) can offer.

(Also I don’t natively speak English and have not been trained to understand English poetry.)

But that’s fine. Let the young people be happy singing “Six-Pack” or “Adderall”.

The problem though, was when I noticed people definitely over their 30s singing from the bottom of their lungs. I frozen. Who’s in the wrong? Should I be enjoying as much as them? I never had an idol and probably never will. On the good side I never got disappointed, on the bad side I never got this genuine passion for anything. Is it I that am a heartless old fart, or them for being too gullible?

Maybe it’s just my fault for being too close to the stage, where the weirdos are.

Back to the music.

The songs are really well written. It has a good variety. Food for Worms (2023) may be my favourite album. There’s a bit of spoken word with a lead singer with a deep voice singing with masculine violence, which is a lil bit tiresome to me.

Speaking of masculine violence. The singer at some point remove his shirt for the delight of the young girls (I guess). I don’t wanna sound too prude, but I just want to hear a good band play some music. You know how Star Trek TNG got better when Riker (Jonathan Frakes) got bearded and fatter? How Troi got better once she started wearing an uniform?

The opening duo also had a bit of this sexual energy, which I guess is also present in a lot of hip hop. Again, I don’t want to sound too prude. “Elvis is shaking his hips!”. It’s not that. It’s just that it feels like the target audience are impressionable young girls.

And his physique isn’t even good. How about you learn a little from Iggy Pop?

Then the mosh pits started.

I got really impressed by this part. It was well organized. They seemed to respect the females.

At some point someone dropped a smartphone. Someone raised it and everybody stopped until the owner was found. Which then promped a round of applaused from everyone around. The singer was watching all this, which he reacted with a “Muito bom”. That was pretty awesome.

Another cool moment was when the bass strap got loose and he had to play with an uncomfortable position while still keeping the energy!

Another random points: one of the guitars were kinda hard to hear, it even feel unnecessary. The bass has too much distortion or whatever that is, which I think it clashes with other instruments. As we say in portugueses MENAS É MAIS.

My final review: a cool show, enjoyed and would definitely watch again, but this time at distance.