Silly rock bands

OK, right off I am going to deny this has anything to do with age; I think I would have thought this was silly when I was 18. I can't really remember back that far, I admit, but........ whatever.

Over the last six months I have worked on a lot of shows with newer bands, like Maroon 5 and All American Rejects, as well as some of the older bands, like Clapton and Dave Matthews. Recently I worked on two bands I like but had not yet seen; Evanessence and Fall Out Boy. The second guitar player for Evanessence was the first one that made me think "ummm, that looks dumb...".

For starters, I don't think dreads are really a good option on anything except scary Sci-fi monsters; they are definitely a poor choice for heavyset, short, cherub-faced white guys. The heavy goth eyeliner really was not enough of an offset, IMO. (gr) What made him look extra dippy was that on every single song he would reach a bridge or a solo, and he would stop moving aimlessly about in small arcs, then flip all his hair forward so it was hanging over the guitar, and play bent over like a limp marionette, while flailing at the guitar. Once he finished his little bit, back would go the hair, and he would once again move slowly back and forth like a manatee on reds. Ever so often he would wander back to the speaker stack and lean his head against it. What, like, you can't hear the music?

The next night it was the lead guitar for Fall Out Boy. Again, I think perhaps not the best look for white guys is the white guy Afro; then again I thought they looked pretty silly on black people too, sooooo.......

(oh, and I get special dispensation on criticizing other peoples hair choices folks; those of us who have traitor-bastard-wimp follicles spend a LOT of time looking at those more hirsute, and thinking "well, at least its HAIR.... we are trained observers)

Now this guy was tall, skinny, and actually fairly muscular. While he probably weighed 60 lbs less than Mr. goshifiwasapredatorandsevenfeettallwouldIlookcoolorwhat, I think he could have taken him easily. Whatever. So here is Mr. Puffball, hopping about frenetically and racing about on the stage. Think of what would happen if a dark brown Q-Tip went nuts. Made Pete Townsend look sedentary. That part was fine. However at various points in songs he would reach a crescendo of energy, and begin snapping his head up and down at about twice the tempo of the music. It was so fast I was surprised I didn't hear sounds, like a sheet snapping in the wind. "whapwhapwhapwhap....". Visually, all I could think of was what one of those little drinking ducks would look like if its water had been laced with speed or crystal meth at the very moment it became possesed by a demon who discovered it had no ability to walk..... "THE CUP IS MINE!!!!!! WAIT! I HAVE NO LEGS!!!!!! GRRRRRRRR"

So after this long dissertration, here is the question: Did our guitar heroes look this dippy when they were younger? I just don't remember any of the bands, even during the big-hair band era, looking that silly. Except for maybe Twisted Sister and Poison who would all head-bob together. But did they do it every song? Guess I'll have to pull out a bunch of old concert footage and see......