Anyone familiar with The Airing of Grievances (no, we are not talking about Festivus) knows that Titus Andronicus’ Patrick Stickles is not kidding around. At times, he’s a bit tormented, and possibly crazy, but honestly, a very logical, good-hearted and extremely bright young chap. So when the cool kids at VICE decided to throw an irony-fueled, 1994-themed Halloween party at a warehouse in Williamsburg and asked Titus to perform Weezer covers after Bad Brains and Jesus Lizard played, it’s safe to say it was going to be a pretty good night.
Wrong. At least according to Stickles, who wrote a very lengthy rant on the event, which, through his account, was an absolute disaster and a glimpse of a troubled generation. Exactly what you’d expect from a VICE party in a warehouse in Williamsburg on Halloween with free tequila. To be honest, no real “good,” can come from this, save another Doc Marten to the dome courtesy of Jesus Lizard’s David Yow, who always seems to be in tip-top shape. According to Stickles description of the night, Jesus Lizard was hard to enjoy due to swarming Arab Parrot wannabe’s constantly photographing every inch of cocaine/tequila debauchery—the hedonistic, depraved aesthetic that VICE has long championed in its publications, and to some extent, lived themselves for years.
While coke, annoying people, lame security, irresponsible management, phoned-in performances (courtesy of Bad Brains) and complaining from Patrick Stickles is what some people actually go to VICE parties for, the real question is why? Why do we play into this shit? We, the current youth, are a generation constantly advocating change, yet we consistently short change ourselves by playing into these moronic stereotypes, ideas that we are merely over-educated, over-privileged, irony-obsessed idiots desperately hoping to land a picture of us doing blow off one another on a party site. Sure, that sounds fun, but why limit ourselves to this when we could be doing anything, literally ANYTHING, that may, someday, to someone, make a difference. If there is one thing we should learn from the misguidance of our parent’s generation—those who set to change the world, but fell prey to dirty bank loans and scheming investments, preferring quiet comfort to making the world a better place—it’s to not do what we’re doing. If we don’t stop acting like children, we’re always just going to be children.
Stickles closes his note with a few strong words for the youngsters. “Kids, we are blowing it. Everything they say about us is true.”
Take this as a call to arms: Don’t fall into the trappings that so many have fallen into before. It wouldn’t be ironic. It would suck.
