YES, BUT I HATE EVERYONE

Over at Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee has increasingly been writing about metal life in addition to his usual reviews. The topic du jour is what happens when you love a band, but hate other fans of said band. Mr. Lee writes:

Recently I was walking and passed by fans exiting a Lamb of God show: dozens of young men with Affliction t-shirts and no necks. I shuddered and thought, “Man, I’m glad I wasn’t there.” Which is unfortunate, as I actually like Lamb of God. Then I shuddered at another thought. As a fellow fan, am I really like them? Am I somehow at heart a neck-less, Affliction-wearing young man?

As my headline states, I don’t really feel qualified to weigh-in on this particular issue. Yes, I hate most of my fellow metal fans (at least on a superficial level), but I also hate 99.9% of everyone I encounter or even just walk past on the street, and most of the time I hate myself a little bit (sometimes a lotta bit), so I obviously have deeper issues than just “Fuck dudes in Affliction shirts.”

I am curious to hear what all of you think, though. If you go to see your favorite band and find yourself surrounded by a whole lotta douche chills, does that turn you off from the band? Fill you with doubt and self-loathing? Or is it just a sign of metal’s increasing popularity outside of the fringes of popular music?

Read the rest of Cosmo’s piece here, then come back and share your thoughts.

-AR