This was taken from a review of the 'Disturbed' concert in Wellington last Friday. It was printed in The Dominion Post on Monday :
Auckland's 8 Foot Sativa is loud and tasteless. The music offered seems devoid of any purpose or merit.
However, it is possible that I was the only person in attendance that thought this. Machine gun double bass drumming propelled monotonous guitar riffs, doubled by the bass guitar; neither of which showed any originality whatsoever.
The singer does a decent turn at being faux-angry and manages to convince the majority of the crowd to growl along with him in chanting the band's name - which also happens to be the chorus of their last song.
I am stumped as to what I can say, other than noting it as a perfect introduction to a night of blunt music. 8 Foot Sativa, I am told, have a faithful - and growing - fan base. The fact that I will not be next in line is, I am sure, the least of their concerns.
HA HA HA HA! I bet the metalheads are gonna love that. I think that reviewer will have just made a few more enemies.
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See 8-Foot Sativa on Squeeze this ...
See 8-Foot Sativa on Squeeze this Sunday...we join them as they prepare for that very gig, just before the international leg of their World Tour.
Squeeze - 3pm Sunday, and again 11.30pm Wednesday on TV2
[ http://www.squeezetv.co.nz ]
one thing to say to that ...
one thing to say to that reviewer....
SUCK A FAT ONE
8 FOOT SATIVA KICK ASS
Start EGOrant... The 'reviewer', ...
Start EGOrant...
The 'reviewer', who henceforth shall be reffered to as 'The Moron', obviously has the musical and literary capabilities of frogspawn.
Just because you don't like a certain genre of music doesn't mean that the practitioners are not extremely competent at their craft.
Obviously, from the comment, 'The Moron' didn't appreciate Disturbed either and should not have been sent to report on the gig.
I attended both the Wellington and Auckland gigs on the 14th and 15th. My opinion is that 8 Foot Sativa was awesome, they performed brilliantly and are a very talented bunch of 'musicians'.
Maybe 'The Moron'is a frustrated wannabie, who couldn't cut it.
Loud? YEAH! Tasteless? NEVER!
End EGOrant ...
I was gonna launch into a full scale ...
I was gonna launch into a full scale rant myself but thought better of it.
Let me state here and now that I do not really enjoy the kind of music that 8 foot sativa play; it is not really my cup of tea. Having said that I saw them perform on space late last year; frankly, I was disappointed. Maybe they had a bad night but I felt let down having heard what a great live act they were.
Having said that I kinda like the chorus of their latest number. It is quite catchy.
What gets my goat though is the way in which some fans (and not just those of 8 foot sativa) will attack anyone who dares to suggest that "their" band is not actually the best thing since canned beer. I have read the review that began this thread. At no time does the writer of the review make any personal comments about members of the band, nor does the reviewer make any negative comment on the technical ability of any of the members. The reviewer simply states his opinion and backs this up with reasoned comments. They may be subjective, but to my mind they do describe this type of music quite well.
The fans however leap to the defence of their idols with nothing other than vitriol. The reviewer didn't like "my" band and is therefore a moron. The point that seems to be missed by many fans is that the reviewer is doing just what he is supposed to do ... giving his or her opinion on a particular performance.
I just get a little tired of the number of personal attacks that seem to happen on these forums. If you don't happen to agree with someone that is fine. But attempt to rebut the argument with a well reasoned and supported case and it is more likely that you will be treated seriously. Call someone names and all you reveal is a lack of support for your position.
And I assume that by putting the word reviewer in inverted commas you are attempting to suggest that the reviewer is not really a reviewer at all but a bit of a wannabe. And this is also the reason that you refer to the members of 8 foot sativa as //a very talented bunch of 'musicians'.//
Simon Sweetman (if it was him, being ...
Simon Sweetman (if it was him, being the Dom Post I imagine it was) has been doing reviews for years on all sorts of genres, and is probably one of the better live reviewers in the country. He generally just tells it like he sees it. He doesn't like metal, and from the snippet you gave up there, he definitely gave that impression -- did he similarly diss Disturbed?
Anyway, even with his musical taste bias running riot, he still managed to say the fans who were there did enjoy it, so, for people who do like that genre reading the review, the impression was that if metal was indeed your cup of tea, they might be worth checking out.
Calling a reviewer a 'moron' because they don't like your favourite band. Christ.
[ external link ]
heh, I own that shirt. I wear it all ...
heh, I own that shirt. I wear it all the time. You wouldn't believe the stupid responses I get to it.
...
[ http://mckarl.port5.com/yfbs.jpg ]
one word big stu WORD u summed up ...
one word big stu
WORD
u summed up all my arguments i had ragin in my head after i saw egotists post, not much more to say hahaha
I think it would be appropriate to copy ...
I think it would be appropriate to copy and paste that in the blindspott forum among other places...
//The music offered seems devoid of any ...
//The music offered seems devoid of any purpose or merit.
OK, for starters I think that's a bit of a non-statement, and an unfair call. I don't like 8 foot sativa either, but I'm not going to write them off just because *I* don't get anything out of their music.
The thing that bugs me about the piece is that the reviewer crosses the line from saying "horses for courses" and ends up employing a twisted and pompous form of Socratic irony - feigning confusion to assert his superiority of perspective. "The young ones seem to like all this noisy posturing. Can't think why."
The pink-tutued good fairy so dislikes pompous people.
//Socratic irony ..although the ...
//Socratic irony
..although the pink-tutued good fairy still loves using unintelligible pop-philosophy terminology just for the hell of it. Shames!
//Socratic irony also known as ...
//Socratic irony
also known as eironeia. i recognise that from classics last year!
//unintelligible pop-philosophy
that philosophy is centuries old, and it was quite effective when Socrates put it to the test.
I was more referring to the pink-tutued ...
I was more referring to the pink-tutued good fairy's underlying hypocrisy in complaining about pompous people. I don't actually know shit about philosophy, psychology, aesthetics, epistemology, linguistics, anthropology, classics, art history or media studies. I just pretend, and hope noone notices.
But thanks for the kind-of-affirmation...
Big_Stu and Noizyboy ..... I was ...
Big_Stu and Noizyboy .....
I was not running down the article and reviewer because of my like or dislike for Sativa, rather the nasty way it was presented and the obvious disdain the reviewer had for that genre of music…. And, as for personal attacks, that review managed to insult the guitarist, the bass player (monotonous guitar riffs, doubled by the bass guitar; neither of which showed any originality whatsoever) and belittled the vocalist.
I’m sorry you misread my meaning but I will happily stand up for any band that have worked hard to get where they want to be, no matter what style of music they play.
I have no problem whatsoever with you ...
I have no problem whatsoever with you defending a band that you like. I would be disappointed if you didn't.
I cannot agree however that the reviewer has made any sort of personal attacks on the members of the band. Yes, he does provide a description of the music, as he hears it. But nowhere do I see the reviewer describing the guitarist as incompetent or a moron or frogspawn. Or that the bass player has a nasty personal hygiene problem.
In the case of the vocalist you might have a case that the reviewer has damned with faint praise (//The singer does a decent turn at being faux-angry //) but once again this does not descend to the level of a personal attack.
Again, I have no problem with anyone leaping to defend a favourite band. But I don't believe that making personal attacks just because you don't agree with someone is the way to do it.
Anyhoo, good luck to 8 foot sativa; I understand that they are off to take on the world.
i know people think its lame, but i ...
i know people think its lame, but i have to agree with onslaught "suck a fat one" to whom ever did that review, ollie is right, we metalheads love that so much, we will give him the love back *pulls out ak47*
8 foot sativa are to good to be true, they were by far in the top 5 for best acts at the bdo. they are just good, end.
This is where you've done just what ...
This is where you've done just what the reviewer did.
It's all a matter of perspective - realise that. People don't know how to take a step back from their emotions and judge something on what it actually is.
Actually Dr that's not fair opf YOU - ...
Actually Dr that's not fair opf YOU - becuase Y is a metal fan and more apt as a commentator on a metal band or gig. The reviewer was not fond of Disturbed or 8 Foot Sativa and probably shouldn't have gone to the gig - he did not have an open-mind to genre i.e He/she seemed to be judging the genre more than the bands. To accuse someone's anger of being "false" is like accusing someone's sadness or happiness or love of being false - that would make me very, very angry. I would n't go to a Celine Dion concert to review it, but I'd send a fan - why? - b/c being sent to something you didn't want to go to in the first place is an affront and obviously riled the reviewer into making the comments he did. I don't believe Y did what the reviewer did at all. But.....it's just a matter of perspective.
//People don't know how to take a step back from their emotions and judge something on what it actually is
Being emotionally detached - mmmmmmmmmm, how enticing <
Chunnsta - I was not critising Y for ...
Chunnsta - I was not critising Y for being angry - I was only trying to say that, the way I read his comment, it seemed to me he was being hypocritical. I absolutly agree that it isn't right to 'accuse someone's anger of being false' - at no stage did I say "Y is wrong because he was angry".
In fact, what you've said about sending a die-hard fan to review a gig is, in a way, almost as bad as sending someone who doesn't like the band, to do a review. The reviewer, whether or not they like the band, will always be influenced by their own existing opinion of the band.
I enjoy reading reviews which have been written by enthusiastic reviewers, as long as the reviewer is knowledgeable about the genre or scene - not just because they're a fan.
And for the record, Chunnsta, I am a fan of metal - I like 8 foot sativa, have seen them live and enjoyed the show a lot. Ask Y, he was there at the time.
Since you guys seem interested, I will ...
Since you guys seem interested, I will post the rest of the review.
Disturbed is a heavy metal band from Chicago. This punchy four-piece unit offers a tight set, mixing their heavier, earlier death metal from their debut album 'The Sickness' with the more melodic, slightly softer offerings from their recent follow-up 'Believe'. Musically, these guys offer nothing new or exciting.
The role of a reviewer though, is to comment less on what they think than on what they witness; and as a non-fan it is obvious that this gig means very little to me. The crowd seems mostly thrilled - many hands pumping the air, heads nodding; this sea of black T-shirts knows what they like.
Disturbed kept the energy up for the entire set, switching from crunching screamers to unauthorised Faith No More and Iron Maiden derivations. For fans, these are screams come true.
P.S. The reviewer was indeed Simon Sweetman