Thursday 11 February 2010

BYLarm Survival Guide (The Ben Commandments)

My friend just emailed me (hes off to ByLarm next week as well rather excitingly)and was saying he probably couldn’t make it to the showcase id mailed him about as he already had 5 bands to see that night.

To put that into context last year I saw just under 80 bands in the space of the 4 days… and lovely it was too. To help him through then I have put together this handy cut out and keep tipsheet for how to optimize the number of bands you see. Thought I might share it here – if your going to be in Oslo for Bylarm as well then get in touch and say hello! (twitter @lazyacrerecords perhaps or lazyacrerecords@gmail.com might be the easiest way!)


Bens tips for seeing lots of bands in a short space of time: (AKA the Ben commandments)

* Drink Vodka. lots of vodka. on the move. in the snow. out of a plastic bottle diluted with coke. dirty but does the job and saves u having to waste time queuing at the bar / drinking up

* dont be a slave to your schedule - so many venues crammed in you can easily see 4 bands in an hour without breaking a sweat

* the best bands are always the surprises who you dont know about - see little hands of asphalt for a perfect example

* Dont waste time watching bands whos first two songs are crap. make a point here of really flouncing out in case their manager is at the door with a clipboard - this way they will register your disgust and not try to stop you to thrust their fliers / cds / groins at you.

* most bands play multiple shows (sjurs playing 9 next week) - if u miss em first time dont worry! hakuna matata my friend. just dig the vodka and coke out of your man bag and lets go to subscene for a mosh

* when it comes to listening to tips for shows about shows - dont listen to anyone who a) looks very trendy and B) is on the press trip. Trendy journalists are arseholes.

* remember that mono is a pain in the arse to get into as they make you queue and there is no concession to delegates. its a very cool place though. allow an extra 20 minutes or see if the band is playing elsewhere at all...

* Dont be afraid of Metal. metal is good. metal is your friend. embrace metal. love it. smell it. grasp the leather clad tattood mentalists and pull them close to your heart. you will be rewarded (or at the very least get covered in beer)

I should add that this last point is becuase hes a bit scared of some of the metal i send him – my favourite game is sending him myspace links at work to check and timing how long the “im scared / this is bullshit” email takes to get back to me (see Blakfish/haust/blodspor/kambodsja etc etc)

Anyways – for now my pretties that is all

OH SWEET JESUS ASIDE TO SAY THAT

* UNO MOLLER AND MY LITTLE PONY ARE FEATURED IN THE NEW EPISODE OF THE WOLVES IN SHEEPS CLOTHING PODCAST. CHECK IT OUT BY CLICKETY CLICKING RIGHT HERE. PLUS...

* MY LITTLE PONY GOT A GREAT WRITE UP ON SUBBA CULTCHA. CLICK HERE TO SEE (you have to scroll down quite a lot)


That really is all for now

B

"happy birthday to me..."

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