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The official Space City Rock Blog, featuring news on local Houston musical happenings and occurances, random venting about various things, and fervent ravings on the wonders of music, art, film, and anything else.
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Metal Ain't Cheap, Y'all [8/01/2008 02:36:00 PM]:
No, I'm not talking about those cheesy "we'll buy your scrap metal and strip your wires for free!" ads on late-night TV, but about the upcoming Rock the Bayou metalliganza that's coming this Labor Day, August 29th-September 1st, over at what used to be Astro World (S. side of 610 at the Astrodome/Reliant Stadium/etc.) but has been re-christened (at least temporarily) the Rock the Bayou Grounds.

The four-day festival features nearly every cheese-metal band you've ever heard of, with only a few exceptions (what, no White Lion? no Sleeze Beez or Winger?), and includes some of the more obscure metal bands of the '80s, revived voodoo-style from that shadowy Realm Where Dead Metal Bands Go. Hell, I'd actually forgotten KIX even existed, and I at one point thought "Don't Close Your Eyes" was The Best Song Evar (I may still have the cassette single somewhere). Yes, I was long-haired wannabe metal guy in my youth, and no, I'm not ashamed in the slightest that I can still recite the lyrics to every song off Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime and immediately break into a stupid grin at the thought of Dangerous Toys' underrated "Scared".

This is my childhood & my musical roots, as it were, and I make no apologies. So I'll freely admit that seeing a bill with folks like Slaughter, Faster Pussycat, Enuff Z'Enuff, Great White, & Lita Ford(!) gives me a weird tingly feeling. I loved 'em then, and there's a part of me, definitely, that still loves 'em now. And hey, they've even dragged some decent local folks along for the ride, like The Blue Threads, Whorehound, & Downfall 2012, so that's hard to beat.

That said, I wasn't planning on going, mostly because I'm a Lazy Old Dude w/Kid now and just can't do the all-day festival thing anymore. I chuckled a bit when I saw the lineup, threw my mind back to the heady days of the late-'80s/early-'90s when these bands held sway, and smiled, and that was about it.

Until David over at Houston Calling pointed out this little tidbit: the tickets for the festival cost $125 for a four-day pass. Yes, that's 125 fucking dollars (apparently the passes were $99, but they went up in price today). Granted, it's only (hah!) $55 per day if you go that route, but still, that seems awful high for a bunch of bands whose heyday was nearly 20 years ago and who haven't really made the transition (that I've heard, anyway) to "classic" radio.

I dunno -- maybe this is just how much these things cost nowadays, or maybe the reality is that The Metal Band Lifestyle just requires more $$$, even when you get older. More power to you Rock the Bayou folks (and all of my favorite bands of yore), but I'm afraid I can't afford to shell out $100+ to relive my teenage years. (Now, if White Lion were playing...)

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