Beach Blonde Baby

Saturday I experienced a good yet bad concert at The Velvet Underground. The good: lots of high-energy pop songs and an enthusiastic crowd. The bad: well, there were several lows. But first, some background. There is an singer called Poppy who is internet-famous. Her early songs such as Lowlife may position her as just one more popstar wannabe. But there was enough self-aware irony in a tune like Money to qualify as a guilty pleasure.

Then she was dropped by her label (or not), and started posting a series of "weird" videos and songs which may be a meta-commentary on current pop culture, social media, etc. Her fans pretended that there are hidden messages within these videos, perhaps even cult-like instructions. This is her first tour, and along with the catchy tunes, there were also video projections, zany dancers, chants (and drinking mystery kool-aid), and a question of whether or not Poppy is a robot or a brain-washed puppet inducting her fans into a cult.

All of which was on full-display tonight for people in the front. For the people in the back, tiny glimpses were all we saw. I arrived 30 minutes after doors (I thought to avoid the early rush of teens) under a pouring rain. But I ended up waiting in a long line that took 40 minutes to clear. It turned out there was, for some reason, more security at this show than any other I've been to. There were 3 different checkpoints! No wonder we crawled along.

This was strange because this venue is a tiny dump, and just barely above a dive bar. In any case, this also meant that the small stage is maybe 2 feet higher than the floor. So with the crush of people, you couldn't see much unless you were within the first 5 feet. Should Poppy have played in a better venue? Or as one concert-goer declared: it was all a ruse by the booker to hype the show. Apparently, this sold-out concert had tickets on Stubhub for $5.

Her songs are fun enough to make the concert enjoyable. But as for the rest: shitty promoter, dumpy club venue, and humorless security; they've always been around but there's no way to enjoy them, even ironically.