Performance Ethnography Essay

Emo - Accessible but Limiting

Standing in a crowd of late teen/early twenties fans, I feel less out of place than I usually do at an emo concert. There is less high pitched screeching and eye liner than I am used to, but it helps me, in my jeans and T-shirt, to feel a little less conspicuous. The man commanding all the attention is wearing a red plaid shirt and tight jeans, a highly fashionable look recently, because it disregards fashion norms. He does not speak much but when he sings, he looks afflicted, like the words still sting to think about. We hear the familiar chords being strummed quickly and quietly. He softly begins “Was losing all my friends / Was losing them to drinking and to driving / Was losing all my friends but I got them back.”[1] The crowd accidentally yells the first set of “yeahs” and after a few more lines is rewarded for their patience with the louder guitar rifts and the crying out of “YEAH.” A small area of the crowd breaks into a mosh pit, and the girls nearby scatter. The boys came here to rock out, but soon realize this is more of a head banging, beat your heart song. They slow to rhythmic bursts of excitement, crying out “YEAH!”

The Band

While watching the band play, I decided the sound and content of Brand New’s work should be classified as emo. Not sure if I was casting the emo net too wide, I asked a fan who said “oh no, Brand New is definitely emo.” Brand New is a four person band from the suburbs of New York who grew up as part of the “Long Island Independent/Hardcore scene.”[2] Their first album, Your Favorite Weapon, consisted of power chords, a mix of yelling and singing, and self-affliction, fitting in with the type of power-pop-punk emo that was popular during the late 1990s/early 2000s. With Deja Entendu, Brand New developed a style of quiet beginnings picked or strummed on the guitar with strong bass lines, swelling to an emotional and musical peak. The lyrical content became more encompassing, moving on to newer topics than fights with friends and girls who hurt them (when another character is referred to it is most often a female or a male friend who has caused some type of emotional issue for the singer). By the time The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me was released, the picking, dark heavy sound, and thoughtful emotional lyrics were a signature.

The Performance

The show I saw was at the Ryan Center. A stage was set up in the basketball arena at the University of Rhode Island in Kingston. I had seen Jason Mraz at this venue a few weeks before with chairs set up on the floor. For this show, it was understood that chairs would not be necessary. A crowd had already begun to gather in front of the stage by the time the opener, a local Rhode Island band called The Deer Hunter, had taken the stage. I was surprised to find that the floor was not general admission, so about 2500 people sat in the lower bowl of the arena.

All eyes were on frontman Jesse Lacey. He thanked the crowd for their support and occasionally announced the next song. Often it was easily recognizable within the first few notes or once the bass kicked in. The crowd would react immediately, understanding exactly what was coming, and the band seemed to use this as a tactic to excite the crowd.

The fans were as involved with the music as the band, singing and shouting with emotion, often pointing at the band and grabbing at their chests as if they felt the pain and understood the meaning of the song. The experience was a sharing of passion, offering everyone the opportunity to pour out their emotions to the same soundtrack. Brand New was singing the words that all these people were thinking and feeling, and everyone wanted to sing along.

The Scene

The people at the show appeared to be in their later teens or early twenties, which was out of the norm from a more popular, mainstream, emo show which usually contains ages 13 to 20. It is possible the age was skewed since the show was at a venue on a college campus that was not particularly accessible without a car. The group looked like an average collection of college and high school students.

The dress seemed to categorize the girls at the show. One girl caught my attention for being what I would have expected to see at a Fall Out Boy or Paramore show. She wore neon pink tights under a cut up 80s style black top. Her hair had a bright pink splash is the back and she flaunted dark eye liner. I find at many emo shows, these girls are barely discernible from the boys, other than a more cautioned approach to mosh pits. They dress the same, wear the same hair and make up, and bring the same level of passion and fandom to the show.

What made the crowd less stereotypically emo were the girls who dressed in more mainstream, fashionable clothing – tight jeans and Ugg boots, attractive blouses, and hair in an up-do with the slight poof in the front. They stood out because they were always paired, either with a female friend or a boyfriend. Two girl friends stood directly in front of me for part of the performance. They nodded their heads and often turned to comment to each other. They were more concerned with the crowd than the music. As a mosh pit opened up near them, they squealed and spastically tried to fight their way in the opposite direction. Once the crowd calmed, they desperately search for each other, giggled, and seemed to congratulate each other for withstanding the craze of this scene. They were preoccupied with the crowd, never facing the stage for long, enjoying the excitement of trying to cope with the scene.

The other paired girls were those with boyfriends. The interaction between the boy and girl was clearly one of protection. The “couple stance,” could be seen in various pockets around the floor – the boy would stand behind the girl, both watching the performance. When it was calm, this stance was a type of backwards hug, but when the crowd grew more aggressive, the boy would strengthen his hold and push outward, ensuring that the girl had space so she would not be bumped. This practice seemed to be an expectation, since the girl rarely appeared to turn around to acknowledge her mate or his protective actions.

Observing this variety of girls has solidified some assumptions I have had about women in the emo scene. Women may be at the show out of a casual interest in the music, perhaps having liked the albums enough to buy tickets, or they had friends or boyfriends attending and decided to join. The scene itself is a novelty to them. The other women classify themselves as part of the scene. They dress appropriately for the aggressive action of the crowd or to be identified as emo, hoping to fit the expectation. What is troublesome about these classifications is that very little of it is based on women’s actual love of the music and scene. They are either the female companion or conforming to a standard; both stemming from historical male dominance of music scenes. This case can be made about females in many music scenes.

The difference I find at the Brand New show, and in the emo scene, is that women can more easily maneuver between the two categories. The women identifying as emo cannot easily be identified from the men, allowing them to experience the show as the emo men do. The blurring of gender lines allows them to take part in the aggressive crowd, and identify with the passionate singing of Jesse Lacey (whether or not the lyrical content is not female-friendly). And for those women who play the role of companion, at least they are there. Their presence at emo shows make the scene less male dominated, making emo much more accessible to both genders.

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[1] http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Sowing-Season-Yeah-lyrics-Brand-New/B59B1FA7819305374825720B000E95FD

[2] www.fightoffyourdemons.com

Word Count: 1,366

Set List (absolutepunk.net via a friend):

Welcome to Bangkok
Tautou
Sic Transit Gloria... Glory Fades
Milestone
Degausser
The Shower Scene
No Seatbelt Song
The Star (New Song)
Luca
Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't
Sowing Season
Jesus Christ
You Won't Know
-Encore-
Mix Tape
Play Crack the Sky