Evanescence and Wal*Mart: a follow-up
Okay, commentia on the whole Evanescence thing thing ranged from snarky to outright bitchiness, with folks like stevenhart and fikshun leading the charge. Remember: I know where you people live.
Now, I get where you’re all coming from, but since I actually liked Fallen a lot, I figured I should expand a bit on the topic.
First, no, Evanescence won’t go down as the most innovative band in history. However, the charge that they’re somehow incredibly formulaic and cookie-cutter makes me want to ask who exactly are these legions of bands they must therefore sound just like? From what I can tell, Evanescence will go down as being only the second band ever to port something of a Goth aesthetic over into the mainstream (the first, unfortunately, being Marilyn Manson). They’re hardly a full-on Goth band, to be sure, but it sounds in places like they’ve sure listened to some of the more etherial/pretty goth/darkwave bands out there. Does Goth want the association – probably not, but that ain’t the issue.
Now, as non-avant gardiste pop goes, Evanescence isn’t half bad. Nice melodies, nice production, a real aural depth and resonance to the sound – musically it manages to be pretty appealing without lowering itself to the level of “product.” Further, there is some lyrical substance here – these are the songs of a soul trying to make some peace with divinity in the face of loss and perceived betrayal. It’s not a new theme, but it’s also not a question that has been answered for a lot of people out in the audience.
Finally, let’s be very clear about one thing. When you can get Wal*Mart sued over a Christian rock record by the sorts of people who call the lawyer every time they hear the word “fuck,” you have accomplished something marvelous, and we all owe you a debt of gratitude.
lullaby pit 
Heh, you put too much into my comments. Sure, they pretty much have one song over and over again, but I do sorta like the song. It’s like Gravity Kills. Same thing. They have pretty much one song over and over again, but I like that song too. I have the Evanescence CD too, and I play it fairly often. As far as the comments about them sucking at the Billboard music awards show…dude, you should have seen it, or maybe you shouldn’t have.
yeah, Steven nails it. the formula is theirs, but they run it into the ground. my first thought on hearing their disc was that it was a single with a bunch of remixes. it took me a cursory glance at the sleeve to realize they were actually trying to pass this off as an album, proper. all at once, i didn’t feel so bad about my own attempt at formulism with “forgive me”.
to me, their sound/image is the sort of thing you come up with when you get a few fairly knowledgeable music folks in a room and decide on how to create a band that will sell.
“the first thing we need is a cute, waifish chick. yeah, yeah. then we need her to sing the ‘oh, woe is me’ angle so teenage boys will have rescue fantasies. then we need to layer thick rammstein guitars over it so said teenage boys won’t feel like fags for listening to it (because only goths are okay with homosexuals). then we have pretty little interludes so the kids can have that moment where their parents can’t say their music sucks, but not so long that the kids start to think the music sucks – back to the thick rammstein guitars.”
in a nutshell, i guess it’s the very christian element on top of everything that makes it downright disgraceful. the christians are trying to do the same thing with rock music that they’ve done with holidays, co-opting the custom, while changing the message in the name of conversion. if i photoshopped a picture of jesus on the cross wearing a burger king crown and holding french fries in each hand, the Kristians would be up in arms, but it’s supposedly okay when they do the same to the sorts of things that i hold sacred. keep music evil. damn it.
Re: Michael
Great – I just went blind. And ten seconds too late.
live
OK, well, the only live performance of theirs I have seen was on that Pepsi summer show they have (can’t remember the name). And they sucked there, too. Problem was, EVERYBODY sucks there because the sound is set up for, I guess, some default average of the bands playing? That night you had Evanescence and the Ataris, plus a couple more, all of whom needed their own sound guy in order to have a prayer. SO I chalked that up to bad sound (kinda like how Stabbing Westward sounded abysmal when I saw them at Red Rocks – of course, they were opening for the Sex Pistols, so that was a guaranteed trainwreck sound-wise)….
However, it sounds like it may not be a sound problem – they may really suck live. They have an even bigger problem long-term, though, and that’s the fact that Ben left the band, and he’s the guy who wrote all the songs (lyrics, too, I think).
Michael
You are a sad, cynical man. Where’s the love, baby? Where’s the MAGIC in your heart?
Word to your Jesus.
Re: Michael
i don’t know why you think i’m cynical. i would describe myself as downright giddy most of the time.
though, maybe i would be a better person if i had one of these.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4092345.stm
Re: Michael
Great – I just went blind. And ten seconds too late.
That paragraph in quotes just about had me in tears! Hahaha! Nice.
Okay, now I hadn’t closely listened to the lyrics, and I hadn’t noticed that they were a band with Christian undertones. That’s all well and good I guess, and if they want to throw that in their music, that’s just fine, but I want an advisory sticker for that crap on albums now too. I mean, I could care less if every third word is “fuck,” but if you are talking about whatever deity you are worshipping on your album, I want a fucking warning label so I know not to buy it. Damnit, I didn’t know that was in there. I don’t need preaching in my music thankyouverymuch. I guess I’ll be putting the Evanescence CD right next to all my Nitzer Ebb CDs. Like you said…keep music evil you bastards!
Re: live
This wasn’t a sound problem. The best soundman in the world could not have fixed that. Well…maybe…it could have been that they couldn’t hear each other very well, and that caused the problems. Okay, maybe it was a soundman issue. But still, it was truly awful. I expected a lot more than that from a band that is supposed to be professional.
Good point, now that Moody is gone I imagine that the next CD will be quite a mess. Why’d he leave anyway? Have you heard?
I was at that Stabbing Westward show. I thought Gravity Kills totally stole that show from everyone else. That was the show that annoyed me so much with SW. I still remember that pompous little prick saying something to the effect of “It’s such a privilege to be up here tonight…” and then after everyone was cheerinng he said “Oh, I don’t mean in front of you, I mean opening for the Sex Pistols.” I don’t know why that bugged me so much…I guess just because it was so unappreciative of the audience. Trent Reznor (who I think Stabbing Westward really wishes they were) was so much the polar opposite of that when I saw him, he actually came out at the end of his set all by himself and quietly and humbly thanked the audience. It was really cool to see that. I’m sorry, but SW will never be half of the artist Reznor is.
Re: live
Re Evanescence: I’m not sure we have the full story on Moody leaving, but I heard some speculation on one of their message boards that there was some tension between him and Amy on the whole Christian question – one evidently wanting to push it more and the other not – although I don’t even know which was which. And that could be complete horsewax, for all I know.
Re SW: You must have had a LOT better seats than I did, because you could make out something he said.