Whatever Happened to $40 Shows? Yes Four Zero!

Will today's kids one day ask themselves, "Whatever happened to $40 shows?"

It's a question that is sad but true. Shows have gone from under $5 to the too common cost of $30 or more. Top that off with security pat downs, no re-entry, ever larger venues, and no more all ages shows, it's a wonder anyone participates in what used to be known as Hardcore.

I think Hardcore truly died for me when I read Eric Weiss' words in Rumpshaker stating he knew no one from the Hardcore scene that volunteered time as much as his not in to Hardcore room mate, in fact he couldn't think of anyone who actually did more than work and go to shows from the scene.

I for one and many others took the words of Hardcore to heart and put them in to meaning. I try my best to help others on a daily basis and have attempted to live a life of less harm and less burden to all around me. It's not easy to practice what you preach and from that I have learned to stop preaching. 

Yet the preaching continues and it continues from the mouths of those who no longer believe and have long left the path of their own words from lyrics of many Hardcore bands. So why would so many reunite to sing the lyrics that once meant so much but are now looked on as feelings of our youth that have gone to the wayside of adulthood? Wasn't adulthood the one thing we swore we would never take part in? Wasn't this "normal" society what we wished to leave behind and change this world forever?

Is there really enough money to pay someone to get back on stage and sing the words that no longer hold meaning to them? I guess it's a fairly cheap sum to bring to the stage so many that left their own beliefs behind.

There was a time I wouldn't think twice about driving 600 miles to see a band that I felt such a connection with, now that I live in New York I don't even walk down the street to see those same bands. The members may be the same, but their lives are no longer recognizable to me. We sang of unity and change through changing ourselves, not of gossip and using people for our personal gain. We had a vision in sight and felt together we could get there. Today we just fear our retirement may never come unless we make more money.

So the question is, do you still care, and if not, why are you still here?